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The County of San Mateo has added a translation feature developed by Google Translate to assist web visitors in understanding information on this website in a variety of foreign languages. Please be aware that Google Translate, a free third party service which the County does not control, provides automated computer translations that may not give you an exact translation. The County cannot guarantee the accuracy of translations through Google Translate so translations should not be considered exact and only used as a rough guide. Anyone relying on information obtained from Google Translate does so at his or her own risk. The County disclaims and will not accept any liability for damages or losses of any kind caused by the use of the Google Translate feature.

San Mateo County Sustainability Department Schools Program

Additional Curriculum Resources

Come back often to this page to find a variety of environmental literacy curriculum resources.

students visit waste facility
teacher at Four R's presentation
student environmental club
students making reusable bags
waste sorting station at Portola Elementary School
earth day poster

    4R’S AND ZERO WASTE

    4R’S TEACHER RESOURCES TOOLKIT

    Search through this thorough collection of standards-based resources from various organizations curated by Schools Program staff on all things 4R’s, plastic pollution and more. From complete lesson plans to stand-alone exercises, you can save time and start implementing many of these lessons in your classroom or school today!

    4R’s Teacher Resources Toolkit

    GUIDE TO CONDUCTING STUDENT FOOD WASTE AUDITS

    This student food waste audit guide is intended to help educate students about the amount of food they waste in their school cafeterias and to
    encourage them to reduce waste and eat more of the nutritious foods provided through USDA’s school meals programs or brought from home.

    USDA Cafeteria Food Waste Audit Guide 

    HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE BAY SHORELINE INTERACTIVE MAP

    An interactive map made by Save the Bay shows the locations and provides detailed descriptions of open or active landfills and clsoed landfills. Descriptions include dates of operation, historical anecdotes of dumping activity, and what you would currently see at closed landfill locations. 

    Hidden History of the Bay Shoreline Map

    ARTICLE – EAST PALO ALTO TURNS TRASH INTO TREASURE

    Bay Nature magazine recounts the history of Cooley Landing from city dump to urban open space and ecological hot spot. 

    East Palo Alto Turns Trash Into Treasure

    SOLVE FOR EARTH LESSONS FROM THE TECH MUSEUM

    Find fundamental lessons in biodiversity, stormwater pollution prevention, human/environment interactions and decision making, and the intersection of systems thinking and sustainability created by the Tech Museum of San Jose. 

    Solve For Earth Sustainability Lessons

    PROTECTING OUR WATER RESOURCES: STUDENT ACTIVITIES FOR THE CLASSROOM

    An activity guide intended to educate students in kindergarten through ninth grade to
    help them understand the definition of water pollution using the basic principles of science and
    mathematics. The activities focus on the four main types of water pollutants – sediments, nutrients,
    bacteria and toxins. All of the activities are “hands on” and designed to blend with existing classroom curricula. Each
    activity is divided by classroom level and each of the activities is organized in the same way –
    detailing objectives, materials needed and background information.

    Protecting Our Water Resources: Student Activities for the Classroom

    THAT MAKES SOIL MUCH SENSE

    Dirt. Everyone needs a fundamental understanding on the literal foundation of our world. Soil recycles nutrients, sequesters carbon, absorbs and filters water, and is the foundation of the ecological food chain. The following websites contain information, lessons, experiments and games for K-12th grade directly to students or teachers.

    https://www.soils4kids.org/home

    https://www.soils4teachers.org/

    WE ARE ON NATIVE LAND

    Before Spanish and European contact and colonization, what we now know as California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse regions in the world. This cultural diversity was intimately tied with a profound knowledge, relationship and management of the diverse ecoregions of California and its most salient features: the coastline, vast grasslands, extensive marshes and wetlands, rivers and forests, oak woodlands, the foothills and mountain regions. The Ohlone and Bay Miwok Curriculum created in partnership with the East Bay Regional Parks Districit is a student tested and standards aligned curriculum that will enhance any local environmental literacy and sustainability lessons that are looking to respectfully learn from the past to gain more awareness and connection to our unique Bay Area ecology in the present. 

    Ohlone and Bay Miwok Curriculum

    A SCIENCE NOTEBOOK STORY: INVESTIGATING COMPOST

    In this lesson found on the California Academy of Sciences site, read on to see how several notebook strategies worked together to help students build their science ideas about decomposition. Examples of student work and downloads of the complete lesson plan are available.

    Investigating Compost Lesson

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