Housed in a refurbished 19th-century brick silk mill, the Seven Generations Charter School, a kindergarten-through-fourth-grade elementary school in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, is one of many green charter schools popping up across the country.
Seven Generations offers its nearly 200 students a research-based curriculum called EIC, or Environment as an Integrating Context for learning. The idea involves using nature and the environment as a teaching tool for everything from math to reading to history. A nearby pond, for instance, offers not only science lessons on the lifecycles of pond creatures, but also serves as a muse for creative-writing exercises
Nationwide, there are now at least 200 green charter schools and dozens more looking to move in that direction, says Jim McGrath, president of the two-year-old Green Charter Schools Network in Madison, Wisconsin.
(READ more of the story in Good Magazine)