Socio-emotional learning (SEL) promotes student-centered programming and allows students to take initiative; helps students develop skills to work independently and in teams; builds leadership skills, as well as self- and social awareness; and encourages healthy relationships between students and with their peer mentors. There are many online resources that help educators get started in their SEL training.  (One such example is provided by CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning.) As part of the Green Girls curriculum, socio-emotional core competencies are built into every lesson in intentional ways and in practice. Students come to understand and learn to articulate their own self-determination and the ways that they can encourage one another through collaboration, conflict resolution and supportive feedback. Each Green Girls lesson begins with an intentional SEL activity. Practice is built into the rest of the lesson through examples such as “Time For Applause!” in which students take a moment to reflect on their own contributions and by giving each other positive affirmation. This also fosters a group environment in which students are comfortable, feel they belong, and develop a lasting affection for each other and the program itself.

We believe that students can learn more from each other than they can from their teachers. As educators, we are their guides, not the gatekeepers of knowledge who reward passive listening and rote repetition. When students, especially those in middle and high school, are given opportunities to work together, speak to each other, explore independently in pairs or small groups, express ideas and choose their own paths of learning, they get excited to learn. To monitor how we’re doing as guides, we developed a rubric that helps us measure our effectiveness in stating clear objectives, allowing for student voice and exploratory hands-on learning, guiding student engagement through independent work, assisting students to make or recognize connections, implementing clear assessment of student learning, and articulating outcomes with the students. 

Place-based education is a pedagogical philosophy that has been widely adopted by many environmental education institutions, and is defined in a number of ways. Wikipedia describes it as “education [that] seeks to help communities through employing students and school staff in solving community problems. Place-based education differs from conventional text and classroom-based education in that it understands students’ local community as one of the primary resources for learning.”

Another angle within the place-based pedagogy accounts for the lack of contact with nature, particularly in urban centers. Richard Louv issued a clarion call with his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, and went so far as to state that a lack of experiences in nature is harmful to childrens’ psychological and physical development. Louv’s work and other influences have sparked a movement. Highly respected universities around the world now dedicate majors and entire departments to environmental education and are charged with ensuring opportunities for their students to experience and benefit from place-based education.

There’s a strong rationale for this emerging consensus. A recent article in the scientific journal Nature asserts that “Extensive ecosystem restoration is increasingly seen as being central to conserving biodiversity and stabilizing the climate of the Earth.” 1  While much of this restoration will take place outside of cities, just as much will happen within urban forests and waterways, and opportunities for scientific learning and training will increase in cities. Green Girls is on the cutting edge of this movement, and has been for a number of years. The “real-world” training aspect of our program gives our students the chance to meet and interact with professionals and activists who are working to conserve and restore our city’s natural resources. We do this primarily through adoption of local areas in which students get to know and help restore their urban “backyards” through service-learning activities.

Advocacy training is another vital component of our curriculum. The Green Girls are not only learning the value of clean water and healthy street trees, but are also proactively advocating for these causes in their own communities and city. By practicing writing their elected officials, preparing draft plans of parks restoration projects and attending public rallies, the students are gaining the knowledge and confidence to engage in political action and influence real-world outcomes.

1 Global Priority Areas for Ecosystem Restoration; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2784-9?mc_cid=bbdc261dc4&mc_eid=2762f93b1a

The Green Girls program could not be successful without the support of our partners. Scientists, educators, technicians, urban planners and farmers in organizations such as NYC’s Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks), the Bronx River Alliance, an environmental organization protecting the Bronx River corridor, and Trees NY, a nonprofit that focuses on protecting our city’s urban forest, among others, have made it possible for our students to experience place-based education that inspires them to create positive change through service. Without these partnerships, we would not have the capacity or opportunities to perform service where it’s needed, nor would our students have the opportunity to learn from subject experts about the environmental needs of our city. Partnerships enable authentic experiences and those experiences spark interest and passion in our students.

Where to begin? We start by identifying an area or project and then reach out to some of the leading scientific or other agencies that would have information to help us plan a service activity. In parks, we almost always first contact the NYC Parks’ Stewardship division. Your own community’s parks agency may already have a service project planned for the park in your area or they may plan something unique with your group. Another route is to reach out to local nonprofit agencies dedicated to specific subjects, such as the local Audubon chapter or, in NYC, the Billion Oyster Project, which restores local oyster reefs. These organizations lead restoration and conservation initiatives and can put your girls’ service learning hours to productive use. Through creative collaboration, students become an essential part of the work while also developing their own science and stewardship skills along the way.

• helping professional educators facilitate developmentally appropriate lessons;
• providing support and encouragement to students in project preparation;
• serving as mentors to help the middle school girls develop healthy socio-emotional skills such as problem solving, conflict resolution and self confidence through consistent affirmations; and
• building their own knowledge and administrative skills and modeling leadership by providing logistical support, such as lesson preparation, taking attendance, calling students who are absent, and performing other tasks that keep the program running smoothly.