Comprehensive, semester-long earth sciences research class in which students received environmental education about anthropogenic impacts. Students read "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Colbert and had intensive discussions about the impacts of human activity such as mass extinction, alteration of ecosystems, rise of new diseases etc. Subsequently, students complete an original research project and create a scientific poster. The course culminates in a scientific poster presentation where students share and defend their research at the county Earth and Space Science Lab. The course supports all 5 MD Environmental Literacy Standards.

Students utilize textual evidence from "Lord of the Flies" to make images that show how humans have impacted the environment of the island. Common impacts shown are deforestation, forest fires, and refuse. This supports MD Environmental Literacy Standard 2 Human Dependence on Earth Systems and Natural Resources and Standard 3 Environmental Impact of Human Activity.

Students in AP Biology and AP Environmental complete a stream study of Owens Creek which runs along the Northern border of our campus. They investigate different aspects of stream health and then use their collected data to make arguments as to how healthy the stream is. The background information and write-up is based on resources from the Alice Ferguson Foundation and supports MD Environmental Literacy Standard 2 Human Dependence on Earth Systems and Natural Resources and Standard 3 Environmental Impacts of Human Activity. Additionally, discussions around how public policy affects stream health supports Standard 5 Individual and Collective Responses to Environmental Change.

Students observe the life cycle of the painted lady butterfly, construct trophic level diagrams, and measure the efficiency of energy transfer between trophic levels. Students take measurements of all food the caterpillars consume, all the frass they produce, and their final masses to show that energy transfer is highly inefficient. This supports MD Environmental Literacy Standard 2 Human Dependence on Earth Systems and Natural Resources because the lab prompts conversations about why vegetarian diets are more sustainable.

The Human Impact Film Festival is a project completed in Honors Biology and is a collaborative effort between science and the media specialist. Students research human impacts on the environment related to habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, climate change, overpopulation, and overuse of resources. They then design and evaluate solutions to their chosen issue. All of this information is used to create a 5 minute documentary to educate the public on the issue and inform them of the best way to help. Student films are then shown at the Thurmont Regional Library and a winner is selected by judges from local organizations. This project supports all 5 Environmental Literacy standards.

Teachers in the English, science, and social studies departments discussed ways students could be empowered by thinking about the future instead of feeling hopeless in the face of daunting challenges. Many issues of the present are legacies of colonial economic and political systems, but they continue to impact the future. What might the future look like if we just eradicated that past?
The idea this activity explores is that to create better futures, we need to first imagine them. Students were asked to write utopian speculative fiction that is set in a future where their chosen social or environmental issue has been solved. This supports Environmental Literacy Standards 4 and 5.

Students investigate the links between biodiversity and ecosystem stability by playing a role-playing game where they try to survive as the first settlers in early Peru 5,000 years ago. Students are given a few different sources of food and have to set up their society to maximize food production. They do the simulation over 20 rounds and face different disturbances at the end of each round. For example, some years an El Nino may impact their fishing, or an earthquake may destroy their potato crops. Throughout the simulation, the population grows and students struggle to survive and feed their people unless they diversify their resources. Standards 2 and 4 are supported by this activity.

Students design a fully sealed ecosystem in a bottle to explore the cycling of essential elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorous through biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem. Students use a minimum of 2 containers, one is for an aquatic ecosystem and the other is for a terrestrial ecosystem. Both ecosystems must be able to interact in some way to insure the proper cycling of elements. Students observe the ecosystem over the course of a month and write a lab report that reflects on nutrient cycles, the interrelationships of organisms, and the relevance of scientific modeling to understand real ecosystems. This project supports Standard 2.

Through yearly field trips with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, our science students have learned how people living in the bay are affected by the behavior of all residents in the bay watershed. Students learn about population dynamics, human impacts on aquatic organisms, and they get firsthand experience with field research work. Photography students document the trips using photojournalism techniques and wildlife photography. These trips support all 5 MD Environmental Literacy Standards and they also create lifelong memories for our students.

Students find soils from different areas of our campus and make a hypothesis about which soils will be best for the growth of plants. They then use a Nitty Gritty soil kit to test the physical and chemical properties of their soil. After all of the soils are tested students, rank which soil would be the most conducive for growing plants and have to justify their ranking.

Students from Catoctin High School traveled to New Brunswick Canada to represent Maryland and compete in the 2023 NCF-Envirothon Competition. Students in Envirothon compete in events that target forestry, aquatics, soils, and wildlife skills.

Students informed staff of our intent to apply during professional learning sessions. They covered the 3 objectives and discussed our plans to meet each one. After discussing the green schools process, students listened to staff to see what was important to them and they captured staff thoughts on a collaborative Jamboard.

Completed a multi-month workshop course hosted by MAEOE titled "Addressing Environmental Justice." Sessions were held once a month with activities to be completed in class or with the Catoctin Conservation Club. Students will be completing an environmental justice action project later in the spring based on resources provided by this course.

Catoctin's science department attended a presentation about using student made environmental films in science class during our January inservice. Brian Brotherton from Catoctin collaborated with Sharon Steger from Middletown and Janet Ady from Mobilize Frederick on the presentation. The goal was to promote the Human Impact Film Festival and to increase the adoption of video as a powerful and engaging medium for students to work in.

Beth McCook from Urbana High School presented on how we could start a Youth Climate Institute Chapter at our school. Students become climate ambassadors and complete action projects and service leading to a capstone project and presentation.

On a trip to Smith Island with the CBF, teachers learned inquiry based learning techniques and S.T.E.M. practices to empower students to explore wetlands, grass beds, oyster reefs, and the health of bay ecosystems.

On a trip to Port Isobel with the CBF, teachers learned inquiry based learning techniques and S.T.E.M. practices to empower students to explore wetlands, grass beds, oyster reefs, and the health of bay ecosystems. Science teachers were accompanied by the visual and performing arts department chair who is planning to incorporate photojournalism and environmental photography into our photography program.

Sarah attended the Maryland Agricultural Education Conference in St. Mary's county Maryland. She learned how to identify invasive species and used marine life to determine the health of aquatic ecosystems.

Barry attended the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis. While there he attended the leadership development conference and met Temple Grandin. Barry supports environmental literacy as an advisor for both FFA and Envirothon.

For 2023 the Conservation Club was celebrating the 43 Native trees we planted with the MD DNR. Students who weren't involved in the initial planting were given an opportunity to see our hard work and help water, weed, and re-mulch. Additional campus clean-ups of the Cougar Trail and athletic fields we also completed. We were also able to do work in the wider feeder pattern, so students were able to volunteer at the middle school and 2 different elementary schools. Activities carried out at the elementary schools included campus litter removal.

During AP Environmental Science, students were inspired to cook a vegetarian lunch after calculating their ecological foot print. Students learned about the environmental impact of the meat industry, and learned they could reduce their food consumption carbon footprint by eating lower on the food chain. Students designed their own recipes to encourage eating less meat and hosted a lunch for science students and the teachers in the science department.

The Recycling Battle Royale is a student-led, school-wide recycling challenge that is video game themed to encourage participation. It is a collaboration between the Learning for Life Program and the Conservation Club. Additionally, student leaders presented to the students in each teacher's classroom during built-in flex periods. Currently, our recycling compliance is around 80% every day, and before the challenge it was close to zero. This has been an incredible behavior change in the school in a very short period of time.

Catoctin High School has been doing a lot of work toward implementing a composting program including advocacy, grant writing, and working with administrators. At the time of this application's due date, we have been awarded the MSDE School Waste Reduction and Composting Grant for $2,820, but are waiting on the funds to be distributed. Advocacy has included speaking at county budget town halls, board of ed meetings, and meeting with FCPS food and nutrition services and facilities to discuss sustainable practices.

Not only do Catoctin High School (CHS) students focus on sustainability, they also carry out environmental justice initiatives such as food recovery. This decreases the amount of food that enters the waste stream and also feeds disadvantaged people in our community since more than 30%-40% of CHS families qualify for free or reduced meals.

The Student Government Association (SGA) hosted a week-long clothing swap between students. Clothing swaps rely on clothing donations, which decreases unnecessary clothing entering the waste stream. Clothing swaps also disincentivize consumer participation in fast fashion, a major contributor to waste and carbon emissions.

Previously deforested areas on Catoctin's otherwise foliaged areas were reclaimed through a tree planting event that took place on April 13th. 43 native Maryland tree species were planted in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The $2,717 of funding for the planting was provided by a grant through the state of Maryland Department of Transportation. The cultivation of native trees provides habitat and food for native species. Fruiting trees were planted to be a future source of fresh food for students, wildlife, and to educate students about agroforestry.

Club members installed 19 signs identifying the native trees that were planted the previous spring. The signs are used by members of Envirothon and environmental science classes to check their tree identification skills. The area is also used during cross country meets, so other students in the region get to enjoy the trees and can learn as they pass through.

Students in the Learning for Life program performed much needed maintenance on our nature trail called the Cougar Trail. They removed weeds, removed rocks that made the trail less accessible, and added mulch to many areas. In total they restored 1,700 feet of overgrown, unusable trail into what became part of our school's cross country track. This trail is now often used by science classes and agriculture classes for education, and used by sports teams for its rugged training terrain.

Catoctin High School has been using compostable trays for the past few years. Recently, Frederick County Public Schools has replaced some compostable options with plastic. As a result, CHS students have aggressively voiced their disapproval by writing letters, creating petitions, attending Board meetings, speaking with leaders, and forming alliances with other FCPS schools.

Over 270 plants were distributed by horticulture students for the purpose of improving air quality within Catoctin High School and within student homes. Another 236 plants currently reside in the science department greenhouse to be used in environmental education. All plants were propagated in school greenhouses.

Three students from Catoctin High School discussed sustainable changes that need to be made within Frederick County. Specifically, they asked for support for composting programs, including expanding the composting pilot in Frederick City, and for ways better waste management could save, or even make money. They also discussed funding for more engaging environmental education by partnering with the county parks department.

Continued volunteer efforts with Chesapeake Bay Foundation's environmental conservation events. These include tree plantings in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Catoctin students presented at the Thurmont Green Fest on April 15th, 2023, and will be presenting at Thurmont Green Fest 2024. Thurmont Green Fest is hosted by the Thurmont Regional Library and is an excellent networking opportunity for students to connect with local organizations. We have also partnered with the Thurmont Regional Library and Cunningham Falls State Park to pull invasive Japanese barberry from the park annually. The first event was April 2, 2023 and this year it will be on March 2nd.

Catoctin students attended the Youth Environmental Summit hosted by the Rotary Club of Southern Frederick County on November 19th, 2023. Topics discussed include food recovery and composting, funding for free tree plantings, plastics recovery, sustainable architecture, lithium-Ion recovery, and green school certification.

Santa's Workshop is a free, student-run event at Catoctin High School for children within the community. At this event, Catoctin Conservation Club hosts a bird feeder station where children are educated on native birds. Catoctin Conservation Club also hosts a plant sale during this event.

Continued student volunteer efforts for Streamlink tree planting events in the Emmitsburg and Thurmont areas. Numerous plantings have been attended since 2021.

Catoctin students participated in a native tree planting hosted by Maryland DNR in Walkersville, MD on 9/30/2023.

Catoctin students participate in invasive species pulls hosted by the Thurmont Green Team. These pulls focus on Japanese Barberry, a highly aggressive invasive plant found all throughout our area. We have also helped the Thurmont Green Team and town of Thurmont plant trees in local parks with MD DNR.

Mobilize Frederick has been involved with Catoctin High School since the beginning of our Green Schools journey 2 years ago. They provided us with professional development at inservice days in August of 2022 and 2023. Since that initial meeting, they have supported us financially with $500 worth of water testing equipment and gardening supplies, and they paid for our Green Schools application fee. Carey Murphy and Janet Ady were both judges at the 2nd Annual Human Impact Film Festival. They have included us in their climate conference and have connected us to a wide network of like-minded groups. They have also helped the students become advocates for change in our county. We owe them!

The PLANT Award is recognition for communities who care for their trees. Communities of all types can receive the award— schools, HOAs, parks, local governments, government facilities, scout troops and churches, just to name a few.

Awarded for Catoctin native tree planting on 4/13/23. Total of 36 volunteers, with a mix of students from all grade levels and outside volunteers.