Resources

"Air, Awareness, and Action" Curriculum

Punto Verde Consultants and the Environmental Education Exchange welcome you to the "Air, Awareness, and Action" course! This course forms part of a pilot program, Sustainable Schools, that is currently being carried out in four border cities.  Learning and practicing the philosophies and values of a Sustainable School will not only improve your school's environment, but it will also have a positive impact within the community as well as the students.  To get you started, we've prepared a list of free resources for you to use as you transform your school into a sustainable place for education.  Get all the chapter and activities here.

Endangered Green Sea Turtles: Ambassadors of Conservation

Through a unique, multidisciplinary sea turtle education program the idea of a pen pal takes on a whole new meaning.  In the fall of 2005 Pro Peninsula offered the program Ocean Connectors to underserved, bilingual 5th and 6th grade students in San Diego and La Paz.  These students used creative arts, language skills and conservation themes to connect via good old fashion snail mail to students of similar age in parts of Southern Mexico where scientists believe some of the endangered green sea turtles inhabiting South San Diego Bay migrate to nest. More...

Innovation towards Sustainability

What does it take to have a green campus? What principles and practices are necessary to bring sustainability to an educational institution, its people, buildings and processes? Punto Verde has put together a toolkit that can help answer these very questions: Sustainable Educative Spaces (SES), a program developed by the consulting firm from Monterrey, Mexico, is intended to help educational institutions to achieve their goal of becoming sustainable and lessen the impact of their campus on the environment. More...

The Valley Nature Center in Weslaco

The Valley Nature Center in Weslaco is the only nature center south of Corpus Christi and east of Eagle Pass. It has been in operation as a non profit organization dedicated to environmental education since 1985. This past school year, the center had more than 6,000 students visiting on field trips. Students from first through 8th grade from all of the Lower Rio Grande Valley came and enjoyed nature. They were taken on guided tours, watched a video and completed a knowledge hunt using the educational displays in the exhibit hall. The center also received preschool and kindergarten groups. For current events and programs offered by the visit www.valleynaturecenter.org

Texas A&M’s Border Environmental Health Coordination Program

The School of Rural Public Health at the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center is conducting a project to investigate childhood exposure to pesticides in rural Texas colonias.  In addition, a promotoras-led health education intervention has been developed and is being tested as an intervention method to reduce exposures. More...