Think Earth Projects
The Think Earth Foundation initiates and sustains projects that increase awareness of the environment and affect behaviors to improve the environment.
Current National Projects
Think Earth® Online Curriculum
Our award-winning, free environmental curriculum is going online! After many years of being used and loved by teachers and students, it is time for the Think Earth Curriculum to be updated, both in content and format. The instructional materials are now available free online to all teachers nationwide, which means that significantly more teachers and students will receive the Think Earth message.
Students—and anyone else—can assess their environmental behaviors and conditions at home by completing the Think Earth Home Environmental Survey, entering their answers online, and receiving customized recommendations to help plan ways to conserve energy, save water, reduce waste, decrease pollution, and improve air quality. The Think Earth School Environmental Survey allows students to investigate behaviors and conditions at their schools. Learn more...
Current Southern California Projects
Think Earth, It's Magic! School Assemblies
In a dazzling elementary school magic show about the environment, students in Southern California are entertained while being introduced to the Think Earth themes. Along with the educational assembly by magician Paul Cash, teachers receive grade-specific Think Earth instructional units. Each year, about 35 assemblies are conducted, with an average of 350 classroom units distributed to teachers.
A Southern California partnership provides field trips on a Floating Lab in Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors where students participate in hands-on marine science learning activities. The mission of the Think Watershed partnership is to educate students about the watershed's impact on the marine environment and to inspire them to become environmental stewards. In the last five years, more than 400 classes, approximately 12,000 students, have participated.
Past Projects
Think Earth® Environmental Education Curriculum
The Foundation's first project was to develop a comprehensive, behavior-focused environmental curriculum with separate instructional units for each grade level from preschool through middle school. The curriculum units have been distributed to more than 40,000 Southern California teachers and about an equal number nationwide. Currently, the units are provided to teachers to accompany the Think Earth, It's Magic! live school assembly show, and they are being updated and revised to be published as an interactive online curriculum.
High School Environmental Clubs
The Foundation helped coordinate and sponsor a consortium of high school environmental clubs in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. The clubs conducted workshops, Earth Day events, and environmental high-school conferences.
Solar/Electric Vehicle Races
High school students in Southern California became involved in the ISSAQ project—Innovative Schools Advancing Air Quality—and competed in the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Challenge. This one day event held at the Irwindale Speedway for several years allowed students to demonstrate their projects by racing the vehicles they built, including single-passenger electric vehicles, solar-powered vehicles, and solar-powered bicycles.