Print edition: 
GODDARD — At Goddard High School, named Kansas' 2010 Green School of the Year by a group of environmental educators, it's part of the curriculum.
Every Friday, students round up all of the paper, aluminum and plastic that has accumulated in the district's more than 20 buildings and deliver it to a local recycling plant. Last year, they collected more than 20 tons of paper, 30,000 bottles and 10,000 aluminum cans from Goddard school buildings, according to the district's records.
The effort is part of an ecology class taught by Denise Scribner and Marylee Ramsay, an upper-level science course that students can take after completing physical science and biology.
At Goddard, Scribner said the green movement won't be a fad. For this age of students, it will be a way of life.
"In the '60s, the word 'ecology' wasn't even in the dictionary," she said. "It's the student of today that is going to be living with the hardships of our national resources."
As Scribner talks about an upcoming recycling project or about spreading mulch in the school's native prairie grasses, students are surrounded by images of loons, trees and environmentally themed articles on the classroom's walls.
Her white board has a "Green Tip of the Day"; one recent tip told students to turn of the air conditioning and use cross-ventilation instead.
Goddard High's efforts are reflected in similar endeavors statewide, as cash-strapped districts move toward green-thinking measures that could pay off with savings on both utilities and equipment.
For example, the Kansas Green Schools Network has grown to include more than 330 green-minded schools since its creation in 2008.
"Twenty years ago, you didn't think about, 'are we going to have enough' of something?" Scribner said. "This is the first generation I think that's going to be concerned about: 'Is there enough food, water and land?' "
The green-minded students collect paper bags, among other recyclable items, and will host a "Celebrate Earth" event later in the year to teach the district's 500 fourth- through sixth-graders about conservation.
Think science fair, but with rain barrels instead of baking-soda volcanoes.
"It helps them understand that they are responsible for their actions and that they can make a difference, even if it's something as simple as putting a piece of paper into a recycling bin," Scribner said.
For their efforts, Scribner and Ramsay were named the 2009 Environmental Educators of the Year by the Kansas Association of Conservation and Environmental Educators, the same group that awarded the school its green honor in April.
The teachers also received a grant for recycling bins at the district's new high school, which is still under construction. Teachers from Goddard High have brought at least four other grants to the school for similar measures, including a 20- foot-high windmill that is used to aerate the school's retention pond.
Senior Jarrell Cummings said one of the reasons he enrolled in the class is that it offered chances to get off campus, but that he learned a lot about the Earth and pollution.
This year, he serves as a student aide for one of Scribner's classes.
"It's a good class to take because you can use the skills in real life," Cummings said.
Even though some students admit that they enrolled in ecology because they didn't want to take chemistry or physics, Scribner is optimistic that they are learning life skills.
"When the Gulf oil spill happened, I didn't have to bring it up in class; the kids brought it up," she said. "They make a point of stopping by the class and letting us know that they signed their family up for the Waste Management recycling program or they got Mom to buy a recycling bin.
"And they are the first ones to tell us about their new car and how fuel-efficient it is."
