Going Blue
Going Blue: A Kids' Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands is an award-winning publication from Free Spirit Publishing, created for ages 12 and up. This book is a partnership between EarthEcho International; author Cathryn Berger Kaye, an international leader in the field of service learning; and Free Spirit Publishing, whose mission is to help youth make a difference in the world. Their combined vision and expertise affords an exceptional opportunity to fuse knowledge about the oceans with the stimuli for action.
Going Blue seeks to inform youth about the issues surrounding our waters and provide the strategies and examples they need to see themselves as change agents. The book is divided among the five stages of service learning: investigation, preparation, action, reflection, and demonstration. With the aid of lively photos and illustrations, along with practical suggestions and activities, kids plan and do a meaningful service project that benefits the planet's water system.
A great resource for every classroom! Purchase your copy now!
Service-Learning Action Guides
The following service-learning action guides are available free of charge. Just click to download a .pdf file and make as many copies as you need (on recycled paper, of course) for classroom use.
STREAM: A Service-Learning Guide for Citizen Journalists
Who can be a Citizen Journalist? YOU! In every community there is a story that needs to be told—especially about how we continue to impact our environment. Is there a river that has become a dumping ground? Are single use water bottles still the norm? Does a beach or other waterfront area need more trash containers? Is a park overrun with litter? Be the eyes and ears and voice of your community. Tell your story! Find out how in this action-packed action guide.
Know Your Flow
Everything about you and your daily life requires water, from the clothes you wear, to the food you eat, to how you're powered. Get to know your flow by conducting a water efficiency audit at your school, and discover how you can Reduce, Recycle and Re-think your water use with the help of this Action Guide.
Out the Spout
Drinking where you live, even on the go, is an important way to protect water resources in parts of the world where they are threatened, and to protect yourself from potentially harmful chemicals. Worried that there might be more coming out of your spout than water? Bottled water is not the answer. Use this Action Guide to learn why filtered tap water is always best, and how you can become part of the Anti-Bottle movement that is helping people kick their plastic water bottle habit while raising money for water projects in your own backyard.
Down the Drain
Did you realize that everything you send down the drain—including things that you wash off your body or that first pass through your body—can end up back in local waterways, the ocean, and even the water supply? Use the tools in this Action Guide to investigate what is going down your drain, and to develop and implement a plan to defend your drain (and others) from toxins.
You Have the Power
Want to help curb the use of fossil fuels and the process of ocean acidification? Saving energy is an answer. This Action Guide will walk you through the process of conducting an energy audit and then creating, implementing and documenting an energy conservation plan. Get started right away, because when it comes to saving energy at school or at home, you have the power!
Clean Up
Our everyday actions add up. A plastic bag left behind after a picnic, plastic bottles strewn on the beach. Trash and litter accumulates in places that cause BIG problems for all of us by affecting our waters. We all know, “If you make a mess, clean it up.” The Water Planet Challenge: CleanUP is asking you to do just that. Help clean up our collective mess that ultimately affects our oceans and waterways. This guide describes the steps to take that makes a CleanUP lively, impactful, and more fun than you can imagine!
