Greetings Greenlight Readers!

The Fairchild Challenge team is excited to be blogging here on Greenlight!

The Fairchild Challenge is a scalable, replicable and transformative program with respect to infusing entire school systems with meaningful, appealing environmental education opportunities. The Fairchild Challenge is entering its eighth year and growing in Miami, Chicago, California, Utah, Pennsylvania and Costa Rica!  Indeed, educators form 46 sites have now been trained to replicate the Fairchild Challenge in cities around the country and internationally.

Designed for high schools, the Fairchild Challenge, by demand, now includes a middle school program and an elementary school pilot program in South Florida. Last school year, more than 50,000 students and 1,800 teachers from 125 schools were engaged in the Fairchild Challenge.

This is a standards-based, interdisciplinary environmental education outreach program provided at no cost to schools each academic year. The Fairchild Challenge comprises an annual series of point-earning projects, contests and performances in which students participate. The overall goal is for schools to accrue enough points to earn the Fairchild Challenge Award at the annual Awards ceremonies.

The annual menu of Fairchild Challenge options or contests is diverse and includes: writing opinion and research papers; performing songs and skits; creating school gardens, artwork, videos, PSAa and newsletters;  conducting intergenerational ethnobotany interviews; capturing school energy, water and tree-canopy data; designing solar devices; and formulating green cuisine menus, to name a few.

The scope and potential of the program are profound. Ultimately, we see a Fairchild Challenge program in hundreds of cities - large and small - with teachers and students e-linked and blogging, podcasting and ultimately invested in the environment. 

We are thrilled to share some of our stories, student entries, discussions, news and events of this exciting program on this Greenlight blog.

Until our next post, here are two brief videos highlighting our program. Additional program information is available at our website: www.fairchildchallenge.org

        Celebrating Nature   ~   Cultivating Minds   ~   Inspiring Action