www.jceckids.org
Organization Type:
Public Private Partnership
Mission:
To promote environmental education, encourage the use of the environment to integrate curriculum, advocate project based learning, utilize environmental education to meet state standards, instill a sense of stewardship for the environment, and add fun to California’s fifth grade classrooms!
Contact:
Kris McNamara
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-9758
Phone: (818) 553-7255
Fax: (818) 553-7270
Geographical Focus:
State
Counties Served:
All
Activities:
Research, Education, Recycling, Advocacy, Policy, Conservation, Restoration, Water Monitoring, Resource Management, Water Pollution Prevention
Topic:
Wetlands, Cultural History, Kelp Forest, Islands, Beaches, Rocky Intertidal, Wildlife, Energy, Watershed Hydrology, Habitat Restoration, Endangered Species, Water Quality/Storm Water Runoff, Bay & Estuary Habitats, Open Ocean/Oceanography
Educational Resources:
Activity/Learning Kit, Posters, Maps
Education Programs:
Jiminy Cricket’s Environmentality Challenge is a partnership program of The Walt Disney Company and the State of California's Environmental Education Interagency Network (CEEIN). CEEIN includes representatives from the California Department of Education and the departments, boards, and commissions of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, California Environmental Protection Agency, and the Resources Agency of California. In this program, students are encouraged to blend the idea of Environmentality—thinking and acting environmentally at school, at home, and in the community—into their daily lives. The Environmentality Challenge offers an excellent opportunity to integrate the environment into mathematics, language arts, history/social science, and service learning curriculum enabling the fifth grade teacher to meet required state standards.
The Environmentality Challenge consists of two parts: the pledge and the class project competition. The teacher and class choose their level of participation. At the most basic level of participation, the pledge portion, the teacher discusses environmental issues with the class. Each student then completes the pledge form as an in-class or homework assignment. On the pledge, students write down what they are personally going to do to help our environment—something as simple as turning off the tap when they brush their teeth, or as complex as organizing a recycling drive in their neighborhood. Students who make pledges are recognized with a complimentary Environmentality goody—to reward the student's efforts to make a difference. The next day the teacher can incorporate the pledge activity into a math lesson, using graphs and percentages to show how many students indicated the various environmental activities on the forms.
The class may end their participation with the pledge or go on to the class project competition. This is where the fun begins! The teacher helps the class target one or more "real world" environmental problems, enables the students to take responsible action to improve the situation, and evaluate the results. Students can write and perform an environmental play for their schoolmates, monitor a local creek and conduct a creek cleanup, research the history of a local open space and protect it from development, or complete any other project to benefit the environment. The class submits a student-driven, student-written, and student-created portfolio describing their project. Once submitted, a team of distinguished judges evaluates the portfolio on a regional basis. The top regional winners go on to the Grand Prize judging. Class project competition participants may win all kinds of goodies—T-shirts, hats, up to $500 for the winning teacher and the Grand Prize Winner will receive an unforgettable, all-expense-paid class field trip to DISNEYLAND® Resort!—and the environment wins too!!
Target Audiences:
5th grade (accept combination classes-4/5 or 5/6)
Group Size Accommodated:
Up to 40 students for class project competition, unlimited participation at the environmental pledge level of activity
In-Service Training:
A variety of education and in-service training opportunities are offered by our partner organizations (California Department of Education, Resources Agency of California, California Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Food & Agriculture)
Volunteer Opportunities
Many classes participating in our program include volunteer activities in their communities as part of their environmental action class projects. For example, classes have participated in the following (to name a few):
• creek, canyon, and beach clean-ups
• community-wide recycling drives
• habitat restoration projects
• watershed monitoring and reporting
• endangered species research and breeding
• tree plantings