Projects for the State Farm Youth Advisory Board

W.A.T.E.R. - Woodstock Always Takes Environmental Responsibility
Woodstock, Georgia
Year Funded: 2010
Students involved in this project will conduct water quality testing of local waterways, organize community clean-up events, participate in community events to educate citizens about water quality and the health of local ecosystems, and use technology to produce videos to document the program.

Rain Drops Keep Falling in the Recycling Bin
Pomona, Kansas
Year Funded: 2010
West Franklin High School students will address environmental responsibility through the recycling of rain water to hydrate recreational facilities and feeing a greenhouse containing a hydroponic growing system to raise vegetables and fruits which will be distributed to the local food pantry.

Environmental Action through Youth Service
Frederick, Maryland
Year Funded: 2010
Environmental Action Through Youth Service (EAYS) is a youth leadership development program where youth volunteers will receive leadership training and learn how to develop environmental action and green living service projects.

Green and Clean on the Hilltop
Weippe, Idaho
Year Funded: 2010
Timberline High School's Environmental Club will initiate and monitor a recycling program in the community and school with a strong connection to a science and environmental curriculum.

Teeland Middle School River Rangers
Wasilla, Alaska
Year Funded: 2010
Seventh-grade students at Teeland Middle School will develop cross-curricular, problem-solving skills through the study of stream ecology by collecting original baseline water quality data for nearby streams, and collaborating with government agencies in service-learning projects that restore and conserve local watersheds.

What's Good for the Garbage Dump is Good for Our Children!
Wilmington, Delaware
Year Funded: 2010
Soon-to-be mothers will research household toxins and their effects on children to develop and conduct safe parenting classes in their community and also maintain an educational webpage.

Thomas Bell Foster Park
Houston, Texas
Year Funded: 2010
Greens Bayou Corridor Coalition, Bayou Preservation Association, and Galena Park ISD will develop and implement a plan of action that addresses reclaiming the native aspects of Greens Bayou through Invasive Species Removal, planting native species, and salvaging native components in place.

Things Green Learning Center
Whittier, California
Year Funded: 2010
A permanent display called the Things Green Learning Center will be run by youth from the local community. The Learning Center will give school children tours of the facility that features a changing and interactive hands-on display that will also present independent movies based on sustainability and what going green means. The display will feature Eco-Friendly products that help to reduce pollution (Los Angeles has the unhealthiest air in the nation) and conserve energy.

Kentwood Cares for Kent
Kent, Washington
Year Funded: 2010
Kentwood High School students will choose from an array of team based activities to make an impact on their classmates and community. Projects will focus on environmental restoration/tree planting, recycling, and graffiti prevention and elimination. The juniors will work with elementary students, service clubs and the general public. Additionally theyíll mentor incoming juniors to sustain efforts.

Concordia Preserve Study
Austin, Texas
Year Funded: 2010
The Concordia Preserve Study will study this nature preserve that includes caves, wetlands, Native American artifacts, and wildlife habitats. Students will learn how to best utilize and protect the preserve and enhance student involvement in environmental responsibility. Students will be able to mentor younger peers on their work through the service-learning model.

Our Food, Our Environment, Our Future
Roswell, Georgia
Year Funded: 2010
'Our Food, Our Environment, Our Future' will address root causes of the environmental, agriculture and health crisis in America. This project will create connections among classrooms, cafeterias, and gardens. Through this program, over 300 youth will beautify nearly 2,000 square feet of the school grounds and learn about design and build a community garden. Youth will also participate in creating on-line educational resources for teens across America to learn about environmental responsibility.

Nature Scene Investigators (NSI) Community Environmental Education
Costa Mesa, California
Year Funded: 2010
Nature Scene Investigators (NSI) is an interactive clue-based environmental education activity guide designed to get children and families into Orange County's local parks where they will go on nature investigation operations. As they search for a secret location where the answer to the NSI operation can be found, children will solve clues that will help them learn about environmental responsibility, conservation, and healthy choices for people and the earth.

Student-Led Sustainable Energy Program and Outdoor Sustainable Research Laboratory
Fort Wright, Kentucky
Year Funded: 2010
The Kenton County School District (KCSD) will expand its student-led Sustainable Energy Program and design and construct an outdoor sustainable research laboratory to showcase and monitor sustainable practices to students, industry leaders, and the community at large. The student-led program and outdoor laboratory will be a national model that will showcase the educational and environmental benefits of integrating sustainable practices into everyday curriculum.

Project Pond: An Outdoor Learning Laboratory
Madison, Alabama
Year Funded: 2010
Project Pond is a multi-dimensional project that will enable a large area of land to be transformed into an outdoor learning laboratory with the establishment of a 1/2 acre pond and additional 1/2 acre garden area. Partnerships will be developed with various groups to teach environmental responsibility, create stations that will provide hands-on authentic learning, and establish service-learning projects that will address the needs of the community.

Bag It Better!
Mason City, Iowa
Year Funded: 2010
The Bag It Better project will engage young people and adults in the community to educate the public and propose a city ordinance to help the environment by reducing or eliminating the use of disposable shopping bags at shopping locations.

Energy Matters
Columbus, Indiana
Year Funded: 2010
Using a three prong approach, the Energy Matters program, which was the outcome of focus groups conducted and led by students at elementary schools, will recycle water bottles, recycle and exchange incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs, and conserve electricity by turning off lights. A Student Advisory Board (SAB) with representatives from each of the eleven elementary schools will facilitate what they believe is a 'life changing program' that affects all community members.

Bringing Botany Alive: Biodiversity in an Urban Setting
Indianapolis, Indiana
Year Funded: 2010
Bringing Botany Alive will partner with college and elementary students to educate all partners and the public about preserving biodiversity. Students will design and development a rain garden, native species restoration at the EcoLab shelter, and an interactive learning station. In this service-learning experience, high school students while learn and then educate kindergarteners, college students and the public about the importance of preserving the environment with special emphasis on biodiversity.

Leading Green
New Haven, Connecticut
Year Funded: 2010
Imagine this: 150 urban, predominately low-income high school students become the architects, site designers, and builders of the nation's greenest school. Through Leading Green, students at Common Ground High School will do just this: audit environmental practices across the school, develop a green site plan for the 20-acre campus, focus in on several high-impact sustainability strategies, and compete for the opportunity to implement these specific proposals.

Sprouting Out in Avondale Program
Chicago, Illinois
Year Funded: 2010
The Sprouting Out in Avondale Program allows Concordia's existing Emerging Leaders teen program to serve the Avondale community by expanding the teen vegetable garden as well as establishing and managing a local farmers' market

Fondy High Prairie Restoration
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Year Funded: 2010
High school students in an Environmental Science class will research, design, and seed a prairie restoration on six acres of unsightly land with erosion problems that surrounds a pond on their school property. The students will make the restoration site a community outdoor education area with trails, interpretive signs and benches that can be used by high school students, nearby Lakeshore elementary students, and residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Working to Reuse
O'Fallon, Illinois
Year Funded: 2010
"Working to Reuse" will allow for students to provide leaf, branch, and general lawn debris pick-up for the general public located around an 8 block radius of our school to be used as compost the material for use in the school's community garden.

Midwest Water Conservation Project: Development and Marketing of Rain Barrels
Manhattan, Kansas
Year Funded: 2010
Students construct rain barrels, then develop a comprehensive marketing plan to persuade local residents to conserve water, generally used for yard and garden irrigation, through use of the barrels.

Key West High School's Alternative Energy Center
Key West, Florida
Year Funded: 2010
Students at Key West High School will expand their environmental responsibility education by introducing three initial alternative energy options at the high school: biodiesel, turbine (wind) power and a solar array with a student-led community program designed to pass their knowledge acquired in the classroom on to the citizens of the Florida Keys.

Green Aid
Boise, Idaho
Year Funded: 2010
Students at Lowell Scott Middle School plan to build a greenhouse on their campus to enhance student learning through authentic, hands-on activities and donate the fruit and vegetable crops to people community members in need.

Fruits of Our Labor, Like a Good Neighbor
Clifton Park, New York
Year Funded: 2010
Students in the Shenendehowa Central School District will create a closed loop waste cycle within their school community in order to reduce the amount of non-biodegradable waste created and reuse as much as possible. Project highlights include composting lunch waste and using it to support an organic food garden.

Reduce the Juice Waterloo 2010
Newmarket, Ontario
Year Funded: 2010
The Reduce the Juice Waterloo 2010 Project will involve a student team raising awareness about energy conservation, renewable energy sources and working with a local manufacturer to design and implement a solar system that feeds power directly into the grid and participate in the province of Ontario's new MicroFit program which offers a fixed price for renewable energy generated.

Frontier Academy's Operation: Green Roof
Greeley, Colorado
Year Funded: 2010
Frontier Academy students will be developing a green roof to be used as a model for environmental stewardship. The benefits are numerous, including energy conservation, reduction of carbon footprint, and a source of edible plants to combat obesity.

The 'Good Neighbor' House
Highland, Illinois
Year Funded: 2010
The Highland High School Building Trades Program, together with other students at HHS, will design, build, finish, landscape, and publicize a house that serves an an example of environmental stewardship. In addition, this house will be utilized to raise public awareness about 'green' features that can be utilized and/or installed in any new or old home.

Berkeley Springs High School Greenhouse Renovation
Berkeley Springs, West Virginia
Year Funded: 2010
Through the renovation of a greenhouse, Berkeley Springs High School will develop a curriculum around growing healthy food, utilizing what is grown as a youth economic enterprise, increasing local food security by increasing youth awareness, and utilizing an alternative form of energy to create a sustainable environmentally sound program.

LHS Goes Green Initiative
Liberty, Texas
Year Funded: 2010
The LHS Goes Green Initiative empowers a high school's Teen Leadership class and Student Council to increase recycling efforts by the students and the community.

Back to Nature
Orlando, Florida
Year Funded: 2010
Back to Nature' will be an innovative academic environmental project, in conjunction with a local non-profit wildlife refuge, where a group of elementary, middle, and high school students will design and create new animal enclosures and an environmental education center. This education center will be used by students throughout the district as a free program to allow students in low income schools to visit a wildlife environmental refuge.