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Green Ambassadors expanding environmental programs at Huntsville schools

Published on January 30, 2025

The Green Ambassador program is continuing to grow in its second year as Green Team’s school program. The number of student field trips to experience hands-on activities has increased and Green Team is in the process of distributing school grants for the first time.

“This network of people that are focused on the environment is starting to really come together,” Green Team Education Specialist Joel Donelan said. “These schools and the students are really being given very diverse opportunities to get exposed to just a mindset of sustainability and conservation and protection of our planet. It’s really exciting to see how everything continues to grow and what this does for the thousands of young people that we’re able to touch through this program.”

children raising hands at school assembly looking at projection screen with display about trees

Green Team launched the Green Ambassador program for the 2023-24 academic year, connecting with 20 schools and reaching about 9,000 students. The program has grown this academic year to reach more middle and high school students. Jemison High students fished and tested soil at Hays Nature Preserve while Grissom High students built their own water filtration systems and competed against each other to see who had the cleanest water.

New Century High students did some invasive species removal at the Huntsville Botanical Garden.

“Those are areas we want to grow our program with our older students in high school and middle school,” Donelan said.

Green Team is awarding about $10,000 in grants to schools to help fund a variety of environmental projects.

“We only gave out award money last year (at the year-end Green Ambassador Awards) but we didn’t do grants,” Donelan said. “So this is a little bit different because we found out some schools had projects that they wanted to do throughout the year but they just didn’t have the funds to do it. This kind of alleviates that issue.”

students at outdoor classroom checking water in a vial with trees in background

Here is a summary of the grant-funded projects at schools:

Grissom High: A greenhouse where students are expanding their work of growing vegetables to donate to area organizations providing meals for those in need.

Hampton Cove Middle: A recycling program that provides incentives and rewards for those who participate and a celebration of the project.

Williams Elementary: Creating a raised garden space for students to improve their understanding of nutrition and foster a connection with nature.

children at outdoor table with adult giving demonstration under green canopyMorris Middle: Creating a sustainable orchard with apple, plum and pear trees to help students understand the benefits of farm-to-table food and creating a space to serve the community through harvesting events.

Rolling Hills Elementary: Expansion of outdoor classroom to show how the four biomes (hydrosphere, biosphere, geosphere and atmosphere) work in unison to provide an environment conducive to growing. The outdoor classroom will expand to 5 gardens: herbs, veggies, fruit, and flowers and ornamentals.

Academy for Science and Foreign Language: Refreshing a pond used for their outdoor classroom that will hold koi and goldfish to foster environmental stewardship.

Providence Elementary: Adding environmentally friendly practices to their STEAM Night by giving away terracotta mini plants of lavender to over 300 families.

Highlands Elementary: Expanding their outdoor classroom from a pollinator garden to a place where students can learn about composting, gardening, wildlife and weather.

Lee High: Enhancing biodiversity and aesthetics of the school courtyard by planting native urban friendly trees.

Montessori School of Huntsville: Transforming a chicken coop outfitted with solar panels into an outdoor classroom space with students and other volunteers involved in the renovations.

Hampton Cove Elementary: Student leaders will help students in other classes create and design reusable grocery bags.

Challenger Middle: Community wide cleanup and celebration with refreshments.

Chapman Middle: Field trip to U.S. Space & Rocket Center to learn how sustainability is important on earth and in space.

Challenger Elementary: Campus beautification project where the students will learn about gardening while they plant and mulch the area to make the campus more inviting.

Holy Spirit Regional School: Expanding outdoor classroom with pollinator garden for students to experience which pollinators are native and the role they play in agriculture.