Pine Jog Elementary Featured in “Parents Magazine”
Pine Jog Elementary has always excelled and continues to be one of the best schools in Palm Beach County offering innovative and hands on experiences to their students.
More recently, Parents Magazine asked state departments of education, charter-school associations, teacher groups, and Facebook fans to nominate innovative public elementary schools. More than 500 schools were nominated and Pine Jog Elementary was selected as one of the ten to be featured.
Click here to read the Parents Magazine article.
The school was chosen for its unique Environmental STEM program. Pine Jog Elementary won the National Green Ribbon Award in May of 2012 and was just listed as the first Green Star School this month by the Green Schools National Network.
The National Green Ribbon Schools information can be located at: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/obama-administration-names-78-schools-29-states-and-dc-first-ever-us-department-.
The Green Star Schools Award is listed on the Green Schools National Network website: http://www.greenschoolsnationalnetwork.org/.
The school has partnered with Florida Atlantic University and the Pine Jog Environmental Education Center to create the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified Green Elementary School in Florida.
The focus is environmental Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math. Students have the opportunity to engage in hand on learning experiences as they explore and discover the wonders of native vegetation and wildlife on the 150 acres of natural Florida habitat.
Among Pine Jog’s noteworthy achievements:
- The School’s staff has taken the green school model and continued to build upon sustainability concepts with a level of enthusiasm that is infectious. Students make use of energy and water consumption information available on touch screens in various locations throughout the school. The school is one of Florida’s most energy-efficient schools; Pine Jog has reduced energy use by 25 percent annually, which is enough to pay for one teacher’s salary each year.
- Approximately 135 acres of this campus, which is shared with Florida Atlantic University, are natural woodlands, featuring multiple outdoor learning labs and three miles of trails. As part of the United Nation’s Billion Trees Campaign, Pine Jog students planted 1700 trees in 2011.
- Students manage all aspects of a 4000-plant hydroponic garden, including its business plan. The campus also has nine themed ground gardens, an outdoor butterfly garden learning area, an urban peach orchard, a pond, and beehive, as well as extensive nature trails. Students created a YouTube video detailing how water is collected in cisterns and reused to irrigate the gardens. They create artwork and musical instruments from items that would have gone to the landfill.
- The School’s Reuse Center allows the community to drop off clothing, books, and classroom supplies that they don’t need or to find treasures to reuse.
- Students participate in the NASA Train like an Astronaut Program, through which they experience rigorous outdoor physical activities that are linked to the curriculum.
- All teachers are certified in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Federation’s Project Wild Curriculum, and study Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods.
- Each grade level has a unique long-term environmental project called Legacy Projects.
- The staff is committed to the green school movement and presents best practices at local, state and national conferences.
This 2012 National Green Ribbon School’s commitment is to focus on children as agents of change who communicate green messages to their families and community, and eventually reach people all across the globe.
For more information contact Fred Barch at (561) 656-5400 or via email at fred.barch@palmbeachschools.org.
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Public Affairs Contact: Natalia Arenas – (561) 357-7662 – natalia.arenas@palmbeachschools.org
