Buena+Middle+School,+NJ

     **Buena Middle School, in Buena, New Jersey** developed a a Green Thematic Unit for its 6th Grade students as part of the NJ TALENT 21 Grant entitled: __Live Green, Live Longer __ **Content Area:** Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Math, Arts, Physical Education, Health **Unit Summary:** With increasing awareness and a political push toward a "green" and sustainable environment, this unit will use the building as a teaching tool and focus on the following: energy conservation, water efficiency, "green" materials and resources indoor environmental quality, civic responsibilities, and innovation and design to meet such improvement. Fifteen teachers will work collaboratively covering the various 21st century themes over the course of a marking period to develop awareness of these themes, and allow students to use a constructivist approach to develop potential solutions to societal problems. These lessons will be taught through a problem and project based pedagogy.
 * Unit Title:** Live Green / Live Longer
 * Target Course/Grade Level**: 6

21st century themes: Global Awareness; F inancial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy; Civic Literacy; Health Literacy on creating solutions in their local area eventually leading to a global perspective of sustainability. 
 * Primary interdisciplinary connections**: Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Math, Arts, Physical Education, Health
 * Unit Rationale:**

**Sustainable sites** Alternative transportation Pollution Prevention <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Environmental Site Assessment <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Alternative Transportation <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Protect or Restore Habitat <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Heat Island Effect, Non-Roof <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Heat Island Effect, Roof <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Light Pollution <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Joint Use of Facilities <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Capstone sustainability project

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Water Efficiency** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Water Efficient Landscaping <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Water Efficient Landscaping, No Potable Use or No Irrigation <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Innovative Wastewater Technologies <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Water Reduction in your school <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Track water use in the school <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Quality of potable water <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Water quality in rivers, streams and ponds and identify causes and solutions. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Capstone water efficiency project

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Energy, and Atmosphere: Energy is Everything** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Building Energy Systems <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Energy Performance <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Optimize Energy Performance <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">New Buildings vs. Existing Buildings <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Green Power <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Current uses of energy production methods <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Global warming and climate change <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">How green buildings can significantly reduce the negative impact on greenhouse gas emissions <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Energy audits <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Energy conservation <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Energy policy <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Capstone energy project

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Materials and Resources: The Three R’s…Reduce, Reuse and Recycle** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Waste management, Storage & Collection of Recyclables <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Regionally produced products <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Material conservation and financial savings <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Material and product reuse <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">New materials that are being produced using recycled content <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">School & community recycling project <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Local and global resources <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Populations and other factors that will impact how and where we live in the future <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Cradle to Cradle <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Capstone recycling project

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Related research, science and technologies of indoor environmental quality <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Indoor environmental quality assessment, data collection, analysis and action steps <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Acoustical quality <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Indoor air quality <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Outdoor air and ventilation quality <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Low emitting materials <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Indoor chemicals and pollutant control, green cleaning and green hygiene (pesticides) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Lighting system and controllability <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Daylight and views <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Thermal comfort <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Mold prevention <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Capstone Indoor Environmental Quality project
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Indoor Environmental Quality. A Healthy Place to Work, Learn, and Play: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Innovation and Design** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">A problem based approach where students become part of the process and take on an open-ended “Green Challenge” for greening their school, home and community. They can use the LEED framework as a starting point and design action plans and implement change