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This lesson assumes you have already determined that a rain garden might be a good project for your class and that you have generally located where you want to install the garden; for example, a location where a downspout spills water onto an impervious surface or lawn, or where stormwater runs off pavement. The lesson includes background content and context for students to understand how rain gardens address and fit into larger stormwater management issues and approaches. In the lesson, students develop a proposal and presentation to school stakeholders to install a rain garden on school grounds. The lesson lays the foundation for Parts 2-4: siting, designing, and installing a rain garden.

High school students may be familiar with the idea that they live in a watershed. They may even have engaged in individual community or school projects, such as stream clean ups or water testing, that benefit or relate to their watershed. Yet, in most cases, students have not explored how the watershed works or identified how the various parts—different land uses and types, different stakeholders—contribute to the whole.

Understanding a watershed as a whole provides a real-world basis for systems thinking and deeper ecological understanding. It also offers a venue for students to identify and explore different levels and kinds of engagement in science, activism, and policy.

As an introduction to this toolkit, students will view and discuss the video The Source of Life that follows the journey of water from an area of rural Colombia to its capital city, Bogotá. They use the video as a jumping off point to explore the issues facing the watershed in which they live and to identify ways they can become involved in protecting their water along its journey. The toolkit provides online resources for understanding watersheds, connecting to local watershed resources, engaging in watershed activities in the classroom, and identifying opportunities for watershed activism. It also includes a list of suggested projects that can make use of the resources.

Biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems modeled on biological entities and processes. For millennia, humans have studied nature to design useful items in areas from transportation to entertainment. From using birdwings as inspiration for human flight machines, to modeling the nano-structures in the eyes of moths for anti-glare screens, we have looked to the wild to improve our lives.
In this lesson, students view a video that follows the journey of water from an area of rural Colombia to its capital city, Bogotá. They learn about a special ecosystem high above the city and some of the unique plants there that make it possible for Bogotá to have clean water year-round. Students will use these plants as inspiration for their own efforts at biomimicry.

Supplementary References

Every LEED Prep lesson includes references in the Assess section to the GBES LEED v4 Green Associate Exam Preparation Study Guide (when relevant), the LEED Green Associate Candidate Handbook (for Task and Knowledge Domains), and LEED Impact Categories. Those resources are included here, along with other references students may find helpful in preparing for the LEED Green Associate Exam.

In this lesson, students learn that in addition to systems thinking and life-cycle analysis, another important aspect of successful green building projects is an integrative process. This strategy prioritizes connections and communication among professionals and stakeholders throughout the entire life cycle of a project. The idea is that the more the people on the team understand the perspectives of the other people on the team, the better the project will be. Then students work as team members, experts, and stakeholders to evaluate a neighborhood plan and propose changes to make the plan more sustainable. This foundational knowledge helps prepare students for the LEED Green Associate Exam, Integrative Strategies Knowledge Domain.

View this lesson for free! Click here to download a pdf of the full lesson, and view the supplemental materials here.

In this lesson, students learn a traditional architectural design process, the GBCI certification process, and key steps a LEED Green Associate/program manager would take to get from one to the other. Working in their eco-charrette teams from Lessons 7.2 and 7.3, students enter details about their projects into a test version of the LEED Online system to get first-hand experience with the system. In this way, they learn how to navigate through the system, upload documentation, and search for LEED requirements and worksheets so they are prepared for the Green Associate Exam and ready to assist in the management of the LEED documentation and certification process.

In Session 1, students discuss why effective green building relies upon third-party rating systems. Then they use the USGBC’s LEED Project Checklist to check the certification level they were able to achieve for the designs they created in Lesson 7.2. In Session 2, students research an array of Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI^®) programs—such as PEER^®, EDGE, SITES^®, WELL^®, Parksmart℠, and TRUE—as well as other popular rating systems, including BREEAM^® and the Living Building Challenge. Then they learn more about the roles of USGBC and GBCI and important aspects of the LEED rating system. Finally, they review how Arc, a platform developed by GBCI, can help project managers keep track of progress toward their goals.