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April 22 is Earth Day this year, but at WHRO Public Media taking care of the earth is one of our passions all year long. For the last few years, under the Batten Environmental Education Initiative, developed through a generous gift given by Jane Batten, we’ve focused resources around environmental education in several ways.
Earth Science Courses
To help combat the growing shortage of highly-qualified Earth Science teachers throughout the Commonwealth, WHRO Public Media developed a video course that covers all topics required in the current Virginia Standards of Learning. The course consist of lessons taught by a highly-qualified Earth Science teacher “teaching to the camera” as if instructing a class of students.
Additionally, WHRO developed an online Earth Science course for Virginia schools. In this exciting online course, students learn to see the planet around them like never before. Through media-rich activities, videos, collaborative discussions, hands-on scientific investigations, and real-world projects, students explore cosmology, geologic time, the Solar System, ocean life, fossil fuels, and more. The course is provided free to all public and private schools in Virginia as well as to all of the Commonwealth’s home schools.
GreenBeats
GreenBeats℠ is a WHRO-produced series of animated shorts that focuses on critical environmental issues and themes. The 10-part series promotes environmental education and stewardship and is targeted toward children grades 3 through 5. Watch the series at whro.org/greenbeats.
Student Competitions
PBS Kids Writers Contest
Our annual Young Storytellers writing contest features a special award for winning stories with an environmental theme. Each year, Kindergarten through 5th grade students are invited to create a great story and illustrate it. Since adding the environmental category, we’ve received some great stories about recycling and protecting the earth.
Great Computer Challenge
WHRO has also added environmentally themed problems to its annual Great Computer Challenge. This competiton is an opportunity for students in Kindergarten through 12th Grade to demonstrate their knowledge of various computer applications and programming skills.
Environmental Van
Our education specialists are very excited about the newest addition to our line-up of educational van programs. In addition to our Literacy Van and STEM Van, we now have an Environmental Van available to visit schools. WHRO Educators will use the Environmental Van throughout the Hampton Roads community to increase children’s awareness of environmental topics and discover ways in which they can contribute to the environmental health of our planet.
The van has a walk-through component in which students can interact content through four 27-inch, all-in-one touch screen monitors that are mounted in the van. Students will explore content that WHRO Education has created that tie into Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL). The team also created post-lessons that teachers can conduct after the van visit, designed for a home- school connection. Students can take what they learned and still be able to access the digital content from home.
eMediaVA Collections
WHRO’s digital learning distribution platform eMediaVA℠ is constantly expanding to including educational content from local scientific and other organizations including Library of Congress, National Geographic Education, Sesame Workshop, Science Museum of Virginia, NASA and many more. This digital content can be used by teachers to supplement their classroom instruction or incorporated into other online courses or e-textbooks that teachers may use in the future. Parents also find great educational resources to teach their children about recycling, gardening, weather, science, biology and more. Explore this great content at eMediaVA.org.
Environmental Programming
We'll be celebrating Earth Day all month long through progras on WHRO TV 15, WHRO World and WHRO Kids. Check out these great programs to learn more about weather, sea level rise and science.
