Best Management Practices
1. Energy Conservation
In November 2010, we saw 18.51% reduction in electric consumption compared to our consumption during the months of November 2008 and 2009. The school saved 3,877 kWh which equates to a savings of $550. In February 2011, we reduced our electric consumption by 8.51% as compared to our consumption during the months of February 2009 and 2010. The school saved 2,478 kWh which equates to a savings of $325. In March 2011, we saw a 17.8% reduction in electric consumption compared to our consumption during the months of March 2009 and 2010. The school saved 4,600 kWh which equates to a savings of $600. The total savings for these three months was 10,955 kWh which equates to $1,475. We were the first school in the county to capture the flag 3 times and the first school to capture the flag in back-to-back months. Our students can take much of the credit for our reduction in energy use, they are very diligent about turning off lights and unplugging items not in use. Every class has a member of the Green Team who helps to monitor the class and who helped come up with our conservation guidelines. The Green Team students have taken ownership of Ridge Elementary's conservation efforts, they are very diligent about their responsibilities and are extremely proud of the work they have done to help decrease the schools consumption of electricity.
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2. Waste Reduction
Every classroom has made a conscience effort to make recycling a part of our daily routines. Every room has a recycling receptacle. Students have served as classroom monitors who help empty recycling containers throughout the school. Students have made posters that hang throughout the school as a reminder to recycle, reduce, and reuse. We celebrate National Recycling Day and students attend recycling assemblies where they learn the importance of reusing, reducing, and recycling. As part of our efforts to reduce, faculty and staff use email as a form of parent and family communication instead of paper newsletters, flyers, and announcements. Each week our principal calls families to update them on the week's events. Families appreciate the electronic delivery of the Rocket Weekly instead of a paper copy. Our media specialist has created an area on our school website where families can access important school documents that have traditionally been sent via paper. Many of our classrooms are equipped with Smart Boards or Promethean Boards which also reduce our daily paper use.
3. Habitat Restoration
Each year we add native plants and trees to our school yard habitat. These plantings are helping us establish a self-sustaining butterfly garden and native Maryland garden. The Maryland garden contains native plants whose purpose is to control erosion. This year classrooms will start seedlings in classroom greenhouses that will then be planted in our backyard habitat to enhance the existing gardens. In the spring, we are increasing our no mow zone in order to provide an additional habitat for animals. Students have planted trees and plants to not only beautify our schools grounds but also to replace those that have been lost to disease or grounds improvement. Our students have even helped with habitat restoration outside our school grounds by working with our community partners to restore beach grasses along the Chesapeake Bay.
4. Structures for Environmental Learning
Blue Bird Nesting Boxes
Students and staff maintain 13 blue bird nesting boxes and a nature trail. Every grade level utilizes this project to learn about the lifecycle and habitat of blue birds. The students have just cleaned the boxes for the spring and are observing the birds that are now building nests. Three boxes are currently being used by Blue Birds but another has a Chickadee nest inside. This has allowed the students to compare the way different birds build nests. The second grade class was also responsible for mapping and numbering the nesting boxes to allow for easier communication when discussing the nesting box activity.
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Environmental Education Lab
Our Environmental Education Lab (EEL) is an outdoor classroom where students participate directly in a variety of cross-curricular environmental activities. Students use the area to plants seeds, grow pumpkins, and also work on a variety of science related topics. They also use this area to enjoy their other subjects in the outdoors. Recently, a Killdeer bird and her mate have made her nest in the rocks around the planting beds of the Environmental Education Lab. The students are very excited about our newest residents and are learning all kinds of facts and information about Killdeers.
5. Responsible Transportation
Several staff members carpool to school. We have in-house and walking field trips instead of traveling by car or bus to a destination. One way we do this, is by having the Pre-K and Kindergartners grow and harvest their own pumpkins in the outdoor classroom instead of traveling by bus to a local pumpkin patch. Each spring several staff members bicycle to school on Friday's. We consolidated our bus routes and eliminated the need for one bus.