The Center for Ecoliteracy has identified and supported a number of schools and projects that embody processes and practices for effective education for sustainability.
In-depth articles about these exemplary schools and projects are available in our Publications section.
Exemplars include:
The Edible Schoolyard (ESY) at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley has been recognized around the world for its organic garden, landscape, and kitchen, which are wholly integrated into the school's curriculum. Its goals are grounded in ecological concepts developed by the Center for Ecoliteracy, a supporter since ESY's beginnings. read more...
Laytonville High School and other participants in the North Coast Rural Challenge Network in northern California use project-based learning to help improve environmental quality and community vitality in their small rural towns. While benefiting the community, the projects teach students about living systems and ecological concepts such as lifecycles, feedback mechanisms, and sustainability. read more...
At Park School in Mill Valley, California parents, teachers, students, administrators, and neighbors share responsibilities for creating and maintaining a lively learning community. Park's curriculum integrates academics with gardening, restoration of a nearby creek, and community service. Participation in Center for Ecoliteracy workshops helped the staff network with like-minded educators and provided intellectual underpinnings for the school's developing educational philosophy. read more...
Rethinking School Lunch (RSL) is a comprehensive resource created by the Center for Ecoliteracy, based on five years of applying systems thinking to study school food systems. It explores the relationship of nutrition to students' well-being and their ability to learn; envisions lunch as part of an integrated curriculum using school gardens, kitchen classrooms, and local food systems as contexts for learning; examines the implications of solving for pattern; and addresses strategies for bringing its visions to reality. read more...
River of Words (ROW). ROW, a Center for Ecoliteracy grantee, engages students with their local watersheds through practicing close observation and expressing their connections to the environment in art and poetry. In affiliation with the Library of Congress, ROW annually conducts the world's largest youth poetry and art contest. Through its Watershed Curriculum ROW trains thousands of classroom teachers, park rangers, and youth workers to incorporate nature exploration and the arts in their programs. read more...
Mary E. Silveira School (MES) in San Rafael, California developed the EcoStars program to help students create a sense of community and to become "conscious designers of their habitat and stewards of their place." Elementary school children at MES have participated in designing, planning, building, and maintaining such projects as a pond habitat, school gardens, a composting system for the school cafeteria, and a guide for restoring a near-by canyon. Through these projects, they have learned, and practiced, ecological concepts, critical thinking, and problem solving. read more...
Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed (STRAW) practices hands-on, placed-based education through watershed restoration projects connected to students' classroom lessons. STRAW's growth from a project in one classroom to a consortium of schools, farms, and private and public agencies illustrates solving for pattern and such ecological concepts as networks, cycles, nested systems, and development. read more...