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Hazards on the Homefront mini-grants and projects

Mini-Grants Mini-grants can fund the cost of field trips.

Teachers in King County who have taken the Hazards on the Homefront workshop and are interested in completing a household hazardous waste project with their students can apply for a mini-grant. Grants are available in amounts up to $500 and may be used for teacher planning time associated with the project, for the cost of materials or for an honorarium or speaker's fee associated with the project.

To be eligible for a mini-grant, the project must

• focus on household hazardous products and their proper use and disposal, and/or safer substitutes.
• involve students.
• include adult supervision.
• be completed during the school year.

In addition, teachers must agree to summarize the project in a brief, final report upon project conclusion.

To receive a Hazards on the Homefront mini-grant, fill out an application (PDF, 69 K) and send it to Jennifer Howell at jhowell@triangleassociates.com or call 206-583-0655 more for information.

Examples of mini-grant projects and classroom-tested teacher lesson plans

Also see other projects and classroom lesson examples.

Elementary students make a garden

Nancy Reidel's students removed weeds by hand from the school courtyard and replaced them with native plants. Students created and maintain the garden without the use of chemical weed killers or fertilizers. View a slide show of their project on the school web site.

Sixth graders raise awareness with multilingual posters

Eckstein Middle School Students creating posters about household hazardous products.

Jessica Levine at Eckstein Middle School in Seattle used a Hazards on the Homefront mini-grant to teach her sixth-grade students about the hazards of certain everyday chemicals and to connect the study of acids and bases to the topic of sustainability. The project reached other classrooms, staff, and families through posters students created about hazardous products in their native languages and through persuasive essays some of them wrote in their English class. One parent commented that she was thrilled her daughter was learning about safer chemical alternatives and is on her way to making her own well-informed decisions. Download the poster project description (PDF, 242 K) and assignment (PDF, 31 K).

Native plant garden a success with seventh graders

Native Plant Garden A seventh grade St. Luke student helps plant a native plant garden on the school grounds.

Paula Konrady and her seventh grade students at St. Luke School in Shoreline received a Hazards on the Homefront mini-grant, which they used to research, design, and plant a native plant garden on the school grounds as part of their science curriculum. Tying it to her environmental unit, Konrady used this hands-on project to teach students the hazardous effects chemicals have on the environment and how these can be avoided by using safer alternatives to pesticides. The students not only learned to build and maintain a native plant garden, but they were able to better their school and community in the process. Download Final Teacher Report on Native Garden Project (PDF, 86 K).

Eighth grade students present a green cleaning products show

As part of their science curriculum, Carlie Jonas and the eighth grade students at McKnight Middle School in Renton received a Hazards on the Homefront mini-grant to produce a Green Cleaning Products Show. Students used the scientific method to design an experiment comparing a hazardous cleaning product with its safer alternative. After writing a detailed lab report including a cost analysis and comparison of each product's effectiveness, students presented their results at the Products Show for parents, community members, and other students.

Green Cleaning Products McKnight Middle School students with an experiment designed to compare a hazardous cleaning product with its safer alternative.

View useable teaching materials related to this project:

• Green cleaning product show flyer (PDF, 134 K)
• Green cleaning products show – project outline (PDF, 38 K)
• Green cleaning cost – analysis assignment (PDF, 19 K)
• Final teacher report on green cleaning unit (PDF, 33 K)

Tahoma Junior High students analyze development impacts on Cedar River

Barbara Shelton's students conducted Routes to the Environment experiments from the Hazards on the Homefront guide to understand how hazardous products affect water quality. With a Hazards on the Homefront mini-grant to fund lab and field materials, students analyzed the chemical and biological impacts from urban influences on the nearby Cedar River by testing the water quality upstream and downstream. Students then considered a construction scenario near the river and researched the effects of development on water quality and possible solutions to those effects. Student groups presented their development proposals to the City Commission. Download the full lesson plan (PDF, 33 K) and possible construction scenarios (PDF, 115 K) used in this project.

Cedar River Project Tahoma Junior High students conducted tests to understand how hazardous products affect water quality.

If you are interested in receiving funding assistance for environmental projects other than those related to waste reduction, recycling or resource conservation, please visit King County's Grant Exchange page.

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