Take the Challenge | Build Your Team | Educational Activities | Teacher Pledge
Conservation & Climate Change (C3) Challenge Main Page
Build your C3 Challenge Team
Build your C3 Challenge team by soliciting participation from fellow teachers and school administrators. A sample memo you can tailor to your own needs and disseminate to co-workers encouraging them to participate is included below to help with the recruitment process.
Form a C3 Challenge Team to promote the Challenge in your school.
Climate LEEDer: The Climate LEEDer is the school's main contact for the C3 Challenge. The LEEDer is responsible for registering their school by e-mailing airoutreach@broward.org. The LEEDer will also recruit additional participants and ensure that all teachers submit their pledges by February 8, 2013. The Climate LEEDer also supports and guides students throughout the C3 Challenge process.
A collection of classroom activities for all grade levels (K-5, 6-8, and 9-12) are available for Climate LEEDers and are designed to accompany the Challenge. All activities are aligned with the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and can be downloaded.
Timeline
School's or Climate Change LEEDers should develop a realistic timeframe for promoting the Challenge in your school. The C3 Challenge will be held from October 1st, 2012 thru February 8th, 2013. Educate students and parents and encourage as many teachers as possible to participate by submitting the Teacher Pledge. We encourage that steps taken by the participants as a part of the challenge be actions that can easily be incorporated into their daily lives so that the positive impact of the Challenge can continue long into the future.
Develop a participation strategy
Spend some time thinking about how to maximize participation in the Challenge. A lot of the actions we can take to protect the environment are fairly simple, such as turning off the lights or unplugging machines that aren't being used! What are some ways you can motivate and inspire other teachers and students to actively participate in the Challenge? Remember the elementary, middle, and high school with the highest score WINS!!
Your school's score is determined by the combination of the percentage of teachers that pledge, a Share Your Story submittal, and a on-site evaluation.
Challenge Ideas
- Kick off the C3 Challenge with a school assembly, rally, public announcement, or other event or announcement, so that everyone at the school knows about the C3 Challenge and how they can participate.
- The school principal can offer a prize or other reward to the teachers that submit the most pledges. Give special consideration to incentives that are climate-friendly or further encourage greenhouse-gas reducing behaviors.
- Organize a school-wide education campaign to increase awareness about climate change and the various ways students, parents, and teachers can take action. The campaign could include posters, daily announcements, articles in student publications, speaking at faculty meetings, coordinating behavior-changing activities, such as a recycling drive, or a Carpool or Bike-to-School Week, etc.
Sample Introduction Memo
To garner support from teachers and administrators, let them know you want to start the C3 Challenge at your school and that you want as much participation from them as possible. Here is some sample language you could use in a memo or e-mail, or as talking points for a presentation at a faculty meeting, etc.
Dear [Teacher, principal, etc.]
We are concerned about global climate change and believe that through education and action, we can make a difference at our school and in our community. That's why we are taking the Conservation and Climate Change Challenge (C3 Challenge) at (school's name). Through the Challenge, we aim to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for our entire school by encouraging every teacher to submit a Pledge to educate their students on ways to reduce their carbon footprint at school and at home. To help participating teachers accomplish this goal, download the C3 Challenge Toolkit. The Grand Prize includes a special recognition by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners, a Climate Change Educational Collection of books, videos, and movies for the school library and more. Please join us in this effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at our school and to support us in finding solutions to this important global issue. We look forward to your participation!
Sincerely,
[Teacher/Student]
C3 Challenge Competition Announcement (PDF 2.92 MB) Legal Size
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