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The Cleveland Museum of Natural History - Cleveland, Ohio
 The Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Future Scientists is a group of 12 high school aged students that learn about the natural sciences through field experiences and other activities. They typically meet with the Museum's curatorial and education staff as well as local, regional and national scientists and researchers and graduate students from local universities. Visits are made to Museum-owned natural preserves, City, State and National Parks, area nature centers, zoos, and wildlife rehabilitation centers. 
With support from CPF the Future Scientists were able to engage in the Tremont Neighborhood Urban Ecology Project, located on 2,250-square feet in an urban recreational park called Clark Field in Tremont, Ohio. Students were introduced to diverse plant communities, they constructed a rain garden, created maps of the project site, assisted in the removal of invasive species as well as conductng a complete biotic assessment of the existing landscape throughout four seasons.
Another key goal of this project was to involve the community. It is important that this project contribute to the education, not only of the Future Scientists, but of the community and casual observer as well. By working closely with the Chair of Friends of Clark Field neighborhood group, community members were able to get involved in the planting and maintance as well. |
Lemon Bay High School - Englewood, Florida
 In Englewood, Florida Lemon Bay High School student Zander Srodes, age 16, has been giving lectures about sea turtles to children since he was 11. His passion for protecting and raising awareness for endangered sea turtles that nest along the local coastlines inspired Zander to write and publish a 20-page children's activity book titled "Turtle Talks." Zander gives his interactive presentation at schools, libraries, and nature events across Florida. Zander eventually approached the Lemon Bay High School Spanish club to help translate the activity book in order to bring sea turtle conservation to Spanish speaking students. Funding from Captain Planet Foundation helped Zander along with his classmates, create a tour of presentations for predominantly Hispanic elementary schools with high numbers of English language learners. |
Green Map System & Fundacin GeoVida - Pereira, Columbia
 The mission of Green Map System (GMS) is to promote sustainability and community participation in the local, natural and built environment. Through a partnership with Fundacin GeoVida, a non-profit organization based in Colombia, GMS used Green Mapmaking to help youth express their concerns and hopes for the local environment to their peers, older community members and policy-makers. Children identified their own environments assets and liabilities, and put global environmental problems into a solution-oriented local scale. Through connecting the natural and the built environment with their school's environment they gained a better understanding of the importance of conservation and rational use of resources for the long-term.
 Students participating in the project came from a municipality located in the traditional coffee growing region of Risaralda. Their community, Pereira, has developed an industrial and commercial core and is facing rapid urban development, threatening the open and public spaces, polluting the air and water and fostering unsustainable land-use practices. Lesson plans in the curriculum included sustainable agriculture, food security, reforestation, recycling and waste management; eco-literacy, social responsibility, critical assessment, design and communications were all part of the lesson plan.
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The New York Restoration Project - New York, New York
 The New York Restoration Project restores, develops and maintains parks in northern Manhattan and in the South Bronx. The Harlem River Aquatics Program incorporates a wide range of hands-on educational activities designed to increase students understanding of the environmental issues facing the Harlem River and the larger Hudson River Estuary. The Harlem River Aquatics Program meets in weekly, two-hour activity sessions throughout the school year and summer months. Their curriculum features direct observation of and interaction with the river at Swindler Cove Park and its neighboring salt marshes at Sherman Creek. The Hudson River Estuary health is assessed through discussions of biodiversity, habitat loss and restoration, and community stewardship. Through hands-on investigations, students classify local wildlife and vegetation, measure water quality, and learn about the watershed.
 Students learned to assess pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and inorganic nitrogen, as important indicators of ecosystem health. They received instruction in the use of seining nets, a secchi disk, and a Leaf Pack, which contains the apparatus necessary for collecting, sorting, and identifying aquatic macro invertebrates, also valuable indicators of water quality. Students also inspected cages of oysters suspended in the Harlem River to monitor the progress, identify and remove parasites, and record the growth of oysters and other marine life in their journals. Students also learned about the rich natural and social history of the Harlem River, as well as lessons in marine science such as tides, currents, and wetland habitats.
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Atlanta Regional Commission - Atlanta, Georgia
 The Model Atlanta Regional Commission (MARC) youth leadership program brings together 10th and 11th grade students from the public and private schools in the region for six months of study, hands-on activities and presentations by regional leaders and planners. During the process stduents began to formulate their ideas for what makes a livable region and how to address regional challenges such as traffic congestion, water and air pollution, loss of green space, affordable housing and sprawl. Most residents of the Atlanta region say they want a region with lots of sidewalks, scores of mixed-use communities, new transit options, luscious forests and trails on the banks of an urban river and a sharp reduction in the homeless population. This vision of the region is a constant work-in-progress. And the MARC students contributed their ideas to the vision and shared them with Atlanta's regional leaders.
 Before they were accepted into the program, the students wrote an essay about the regional issues that interest them most. This essay is one of the most heavily weighted parts of the application process. Students who were accepted were divided into four committees Environment and Land Use, Community Services, Transportation and Air Quality and Communications and Public Involvement. In their committees they researched issues of interest to them and then proposed two resolutions to address a problem or improve quality of life. At their final meeting they presented their resolutions to the entire MARC class, who then voted on the resolutions. The students then returned to MARC at the agencys regular board meeting where they presented their resolutions to the Commissions board.
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