Mickle students lead 'Schools as Teaching Tools' initiative
Students at Mickle Middle School got the chance this past week to switch up their role in the classroom while spreading the word about sustainable initiatives within their school. The 7th grade Guided Studies class worked hard to develop and perfect presentations to inform their peers across the whole school of a new building sustainability tool that Mickle is using called Arc. Mickle and Pound are both part of the Schools as Teaching Tools program through Arc that is being piloted in only 8 other districts across the country. Arc is a platform that helps collect and analyze building data to develop a performance score based on energy, water, waste, transportation, and human experience. Its goal is to easily and efficiently provide information to improve overall sustainability.
These student leaders were focused on the transportation and human experience aspects of Arc, which assess emissions from students’ transit to and from Mickle as well as their satisfaction with the physical environment and air quality in school. They guided 605 of their fellow students through a brief survey to collect the data needed to generate a performance score for Mickle.
Leading these students’ efforts was Mickle science teacher, Katie Hammond. Hammond is very proud of how the students stepped up to guide their peers and of the initiative they took with the Arc program.
“Our students are going to complete projects that will raise awareness about sustainability at Mickle,”Hammond says. “Many of them want to go back into the classroom and teach the classes they taught during the survey.” The Guided Studies students were excited about the effect their presentations had on Mickle’s score for Arc sustainability, but are always eager to help it improve.
“The students did beyond what we could have expected,” Hammond concludes. “They may really influence Mickle by encouraging their peers to reduce their environmental impact and promote sustainability.”
