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Kansas teachers invited to sign up for KDHE’s 2023 KICK Outreach Challenge

Kansas educators are invited to sign up for the 2023 Keep It Clean, Kansas (KICK) Outreach Challenge sponsored by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s (KDHE) Bureau of Waste Management. 

KDHE is sponsoring 25 teachers to participate in this summer’s Green Leader eeCredential program, an online professional development program to become a Green Leader and receive one graduate credit through Baker University. This also is the first step in entering a student team into the KICK Outreach Challenge. 

The summer Green Leader eeCredential is slated for July 6-Sept. 7.  

KDHE partnered with the Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education (KACEE), a nonprofit organization, to launch the KICK Outreach Challenge in August 2022. 

The challenge is a competition for Kansas students in grades K-12. Classrooms work as a team to create and share projects that educate others about recycling, composting and other waste reduction activities in Kansas. Three classrooms are selected each year to win a grand prize of $1,000. 

In addition to competing in the KICK Outreach Challenge, educators and students receive access to a free virtual Google classroom that features a curriculum of on-demand videos and activities centered around recycling, composting and waste reduction. There also are virtual office hours for students and educators to meet and communicate with professional environmental educators. 

The course is student-driven and provides learning opportunities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). KACEE hosts the online course, and it counts as one of two courses needed to achieve recognition as a Kansas Green School of Excellence. 

For more information on the KICK Challenge or to enroll in the Green Leader eeCredential training, which is July 6-Sept. 7, go to https://www.kacee.org/kick-challenge

Keep It Clean Kansas is a program of KDHE’s Bureau of Waste Management. The mission of the program is to educate Kansas residents on waste reduction and recycling in hopes that those messages will be carried out in homes and communities throughout the state. 

The 2022 challenge winners were the Global Guardians (Wichita Collegiate School); Canyon Creek Green Team (Canyon Creek Elementary School); and Maize South Middle School. 

To read more about the 2022 challenge winners and download the KICK Outreach Project Guide, visit KICK Outreach Challenge | KDHE, KS

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Posted: Jun 22, 2023,
Comments: 0,
Author: Ann Bush

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