School as a TeachingTool - clarifications?

Anya Fiechtl

Architect

Buro Happold

LEEDuser Premium Member

55 thumbs up

October 21, 2011

The Principal at our school project asked a couple of questions about their sustainability curriculum program that I was unable to find a solid answer for: 1. Does the school need to commit to implementing the curriculum beyond the first year? If so, for how long? 2. Does the curriculum have to address the school building directly? Or can it address human and natural ecology, and green building in general? I can guess the answer based on the credit intent "To integrate the sustainable features of a school facility with the school’s educational mission." However, I'm wondering if anyone has further evidense of these specific requirements... Thanks in advance for your input!

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Dan LeBlanc

Senior Sustainability Manager

YR&G

LEEDuser Basic Member

62 thumbs up

Fri, 10/21/2011 - 15:16

Anya, I haven't seen anything in the requirements as to how long the curriculum should be implemented, but I think the expectation is that the School as a Teaching Tool curriculum will be implemented on an on-going basis and provide a foundation for other sustainability related content in the future. And yes, the curriculum needs to address the building directly, but from my experience all of the 10 hours don't need to be dedicated specifically to the green building technologies/materials in the building. The lessons can be related to or provide context for teaching about aspects of the building, like teaching about the importance of conserving energy and resources.

Anya Fiechtl

Architect

Buro Happold

LEEDuser Premium Member

55 thumbs up

Sat, 10/22/2011 - 01:01

Thanks Daniel, I hope you're right that the curriculum can include some lessons that provide context. Our Principal has already collected a 3-ring binder full of lessons from the GEF website (under the "curriculum" tab). The site includes interesting topics like "air pollution math", "litter from lunch", "how to grow a sunflower plant," etc. These seem less connected to the building but still vauable learning opportunities about sustainable processes and practices.

John Drigot

Design/LEED Specialist

The Neenan Company

LEEDuser Basic Member

133 thumbs up

Wed, 12/07/2011 - 17:37

Anya, I have pursued The School as a Teaching Tool on a few schools now and have seen the requirements change over the past couple of years. On my first project I was able to describe the resources that I made available to the teachers and a general outline of sustainable features of the school. On my latest school project this strategy didn't quite make the grade. The reviewer asked for, " specific examples of curriculum, such as teaching plans, course outlines, etc. demonstrating how the sustainable features of this specific school facility will be integrated into the school's sustainability curriculum such that the school building and grounds themselves serve as a teaching tool" (Whew). I was surprised with this response since the curriculum doesn't need to be implemented until 10 months after certification is awarded. I'm not going to fight it, instead I'll just put it off until the construction application. Hope this helps.

Veronica Medina

System WorCx

LEEDuser Premium Member

14 thumbs up

Fri, 05/25/2012 - 19:32

I was able to earn this credit on one elementary school project using some lessons from GEF along with additional lessons about energy savings and native habitats. On another elementary school the same credit was denied, the reviewers stated "it appears that several of the lessons are general environmental stewardship curriculum and it is unclear how these courses use the school as a teaching tool."