Because of persistence and a passion for the environment of a former CHMS student (now a senior at Hinsdale Central HS), a new solar panel has been installed at Christina Andre’s alma mater, Clarendon Hills Middle School. Christina inadvertently found out about an Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation grant for renewable or efficient energy projects. To date, the Foundation has awarded $10,000 grants for photovoltaic solar panel systems to 22 schools in Illinois. Principal Dave Bendis – himself an environmentalist – helped Christina through the application process.

This one-kilowatt system will power far more than its normal output, as it will be part of students’ environmental unit. It will connect this project with the “real world” when the kids track how much energy the panel is producing. This program will reach other schools – and the interested public – statewide, through a website displaying real-time information on each participating school’s power output. What an enlightening opportunity – thanks to Christina Andre, one powerful young woman. Shine on! Information from The Doings, Clarendon Hills, 10/5/06

he excitement is building as the Sustainable Design High School Challenge is getting well underway. Representatives from 8 schools laid the cornerstone for this all-new program that involves students in sustainable or “green” building design, when they met last month for the first time. Our “green” architects – Ted Witte (Gensler), Mike Lopez (Wight), Bill Sturm (Serena Sturm), Kelly Andereck (A Design), Roger Muterspaugh (Cordogan Clark), and Colby Lewis (STR Partners) – look forward to working with the student- designers. (Architects interested in mentoring high school students are welcome to join us.) Schools are invited to step up to the challenge, along with Downers Grove North, Downers Grove South, Glenbard South, Naperville Central, Naperville North, Wheaton North, Wheaton-Warrenville South, and Willowbrook High Schools. The next meeting date is Monday, November 20th at 6 p.m. Interested architects, high school teachers, principals, and assistant principals should call us at 545-9710.

Avery Coonley (Downers Grove) teacher Sharon Binter recently called to let us know she is a convert – she loves her Ripples in e-mail format. Sharon tries to conserve paper whenever possible, and added that most of her students have been submitting all their assignments via e-mail since last year.

ENVIROSCAPE WATERSHED MODEL WORKSHOP FOR K-12 TEACHERS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 4:30-6:30 PM

• Discover the model that offers a birds-eye view of a watershed
• Cross language and cultural barriers
• Take the complexity out of understanding serious environmental issues
• Learn how to use the interactive model
• Learn to demonstrate point and non-point sources of pollution
• Borrow the model for use in your own classrooms after taking this class
• ATTN: Teachers of Geography, Science, Health, Special Ed (because this model is hands-on and so visual) and other interested educators
• Earn 2 CPDUs

GROUNDWATER FLOW MODEL WKSHP FOR MS- HS TEACHERS
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 14, 6-8 PM AND THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 6-7:30 PM

• Expand or improve your environmental or science ed program
• Discover the model that lets your students “see” groundwater and how it moves
• Build a sand-filled Plexiglas model
• Learn how to use the hands-on groundwater flow model with your class
• Receive the model and supplies worth about $500 (Public Middle & High School Teachers)
• All others (Public Elementary, and Private & Parochial K-12 Teachers) are invited to learn how to use the model to borrow for their own students
• Encourage colleagues to join you, so the model really gets used in classrooms around the school
• Must attend both evenings
• Earn 3.5 CPDUs

ENERGY BIKE WORKSHOP FOR 4th-12th TEACHERS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 4:30-6 PM

• For all educators who teach an energy unit
• Discover new, enlightened way to pump up your class & bring energy conservation to your students
• Learn about the “Energy Bike”
• Learn how to use this powerful, hands-on (and FEET-ON!) learning tool
• Help move students of all ages from an abstract idea to a concrete understanding of energy use
• Let your student/cyclists feel how much energy it takes to generate electricity, as they compare the energy needed for incandescent versus fluorescent light bulbs
• Borrow the bike for your students to see & feel pedaling energy being transformed into light energy
• Earn 1.5 CPDUs

Call us, 545-9710, to register for these workshops at the Environmental Sustainability Center, Route 53 & Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn

The company hasn’t removed the calories from the candy, but “Endangered Species Chocolate” (ESC) has done a lot to make you feel good when you choose their gourmet treats. Maker of the number one selling brand of all-natural chocolate, ESC is committed to a philosophy of sustainabi lity; and to ensure this, the ESC team followed the journey of its cocoa beans “from the cacao trees in Nigeria on which they grow, to the ocean vessels that transport them, to the chocolate production facilities in Europe, to its LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) registered headquarters in Indianapolis.”

In August, Illinois House Bill 4451, which stiffens the penalty for littering, was signed into law. Henceforth, in addition to any customary fines and penalties for littering on Illinois highways, the offenders are required to clear a portion of highway (to include the “scene of the crime”) of litter for 30 days. This law will really bug all those litterbugs now!

We’ve recently learned from Warrenville’s Navistar International (parent company of IC Corporation, the nation’s largest school bus manufacturer) what’s new and exciting in the world of school bus technology. IC has teamed up with a leading power systems supplier, Enova Systems, to introduce the first hybrid school buses in the nation. The bus, which was extensively, and successfully, tested and evaluated last spring, couples a V8 diesel engine with an 80 kilowatt hybrid-electric powertrain, incorporating a transmission, batteries, and an electronic motor. According to IC Corp, this power system “recovers kinetic energy during regenerative braking, charging the batteries while the bus is slowing down-making school buses ideal candidates for hybrid technology because of the frequent stops and starts they perform along their daily routes.”

November 1 Deadline, IL DCEO Zero Waste Grant
November 8 4:30-6:30 PM Watershed Model K-12 Teacher Workshopbr
November 14 6-8 PM Groundwater Flow Model MS-HS Teacher Workshop, Part I
November 15America Recycles Day
November 15 Deadline, Healthy School Communities Grant
November 16 6- 7:30 PM Groundwater Flow Model MS-HS Teacher Workshop, Part II
November 16 7 PM An Evening with Award-Winning Writer Richard Louv, College of DuPage
November 20 6:00 PM “Sustainable Design HS Challenge” Sponsors’ Meeting, at SCARCE
November 29 4:30-6 PM Energy Bike K- 12 Teacher Workshop
November 30 Deadline, SeaWorld/Busch Gardens/FujifilmEnvironmental Excellence Awards
December Trash To Treasure Workshop – Call for date & details
January 31 Deadline, I DNR Illinois Biodiversity Field Trip Grant
June 25-28, 2007 11th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference

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