Go Green!

"Green" classes catch on in CPS

BY BEN FISCHER BFISCHER@ENQUIRER.COM

In a school district with low science test scores and high poverty rates, environmentalism isn’t a political position, said Virginia Rhodes, principal of Aiken University High School in College Hill.

It’s a chance at a better life for students, and a work-force development strategy, she said.With that in mind, Aiken University is now halfway into its first year with a specialized “environmental sciences” course of study, which links students to similar courses at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College and job possibilities at government agencies and environmental businesses.

Accolades are pouring in for Aiken’s experiment from students and state experts, and now, the rest of Cincinnati Public Schools is embarking on an ambitious effort to make classes at all schools more “green.”

Of course, environmentalism isn’t new – Advanced Placement classes in environmental sciences have been around since 1997, and environmental clubs are a staple after-school activity.

But in CPS, officials say, the goal is to eventually have the lessons of sustainable design, environmental preservation and resource management implanted as part of the official curriculum, and in the process, build a new generation of workers with credentials in math and science-heavy careers.“We’re trying to align the movement, which is a big story,” said Diana Porter, a career development coach at CPS and a co-chair of the Sustainable Design Committee, charged with developing the early stages of a new curriculum.

Now is a prime opportunity, officials said, because the CPS school board last year ordered the district’s remaining new buildings in its facilities plan to be designed to meet national sustainability standards.

Proponents say those “green” schools will become ready-made science classrooms. At first, CPS will work with nonprofits to create a course of study around 10 sustainable design initiatives, starting with water management, then moving onto indoor air quality, said Robert Knight, a GBBN architect involved with the CPS building program.For example, the new College Hill elementary school and the new College Hill fire station will share a large underground tank for runoff rain water, which will then be used to fight fires, Porter said.

That’s a ready-made visual aide for the usual lecture on the water cycle, she said. At Aiken, those lessons are already in place. Science classes occasionally head outside into the abutting Mount Airy Forest – they take soil samples to learn about pH balances, among other demonstrations and experiments.

A handful of other teachers in the district have created their own earth-science themed innovations, such as Penny Greenler’s fourth- through sixth-grade classes at Winton Montessori, but those remain isolated in individual classrooms.

Students have responded positively at Aiken, said veteran science teacher Dominic Lovaglio.Last fall, students discovered a decomposing deer carcass, spurring a lengthy class discussion about the drought, dehydration, overpopulation and the city of Cincinnati’s efforts to control the deer herd.

Another time, a student – unprompted – proposed during a classroom discussion that southerly winds might be causing more acidic rain than usual, because it was drawing pollutants from coal mining country.“It’s about intellectual curiosity,” Lovaglio said. “(The lessons) are reaching them on the right level.”Aiken University juniors Jarvis Dooley and Mykelle Scott said their revamped environmental science program has caught their attention, particularly a more free-flowing lesson plan that is less book-heavy.“It’s not as stressful,” Dooley said. “We can go outside, get some air, let out some stress.”

Scott said he’s learning about career fields he didn’t know existed, such as water resource management.That’s the key, said Rhodes. Environmental sciences is such a broadly defined field with many rapidly growing career options – for instance, Cincinnati’s Metropolitan Sewer

District is rapidly expanding staffing to meet its obligations under the 2004 consent decree that ordered it to improve its aging system.

The sewer district hosted Aiken University students last summer in an internship program, showing students a career field with a broad, expanding range of options.Rhodes said the jobs available in governmental infrastructure are perfect for her students because they require a range of preparation, from basic skilled jobs needing only an associate’s degree up to sophisticated engineering positions requiring advanced college degrees.

Brad Moffitt, an agricultural education consultant for the Ohio Department of Education, said Aiken is revolutionary in that the school is exploiting an often-unrealized link between urban job preparedness and the critical field of agriculture.“Aiken has taken it upon themselves to specialize in environmental sciences,” said Moffitt. “And the basics of environmental science are soil, air and water, and maintaining a safe environment for living creatures.”

It’s too early to say whether the ongoing experiment at Aiken will yield higher test scores – the school’s results on the science portion of the Ohio Graduation Test won’t be available until this summer. And it’s also too early to say whether Aiken’s experiment will survive deep budget cuts, likely throughout CPS this year. Organizers of the broader “green” school curriculum say their work will not cost extra over the long run.“

We’re serious about this program, and we think there’s demand for it within the community,”