Tampa

Students at J.S. Robinson Elementary in Plant City spent all year working on a project to restore habitat at a local site (Mary Help of Christian Center in Tampa). This effort, undertaken by 5th grade students in Mrs. Chequittea Lumpkins and Mrs. Judy Der's Classes, included growing native plants on their school grounds to transplant. They also worked with Mrs. Shannon Drossel's students, all who are Autistic, to teach them about the flora and fauna of Florida. This instructional practice consisted of developing PowerPoint presentations, reading comprehension practice and growing a garden of fruits and vegetables at school. When the spring came along, all of the students traveled to Mary Help to plant the plants they had been raising all semester. This fieldtrip was paid for through funds from a SWFWMD minigrant through Earth Force while the plants, books, classroom materials and supplies were provided through funding from the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission and Florida Ag in the Classroom Program. For this hard work, the classes were awarded the Staples Earth Force Environmental Award, the Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful Environmental Excellence Award for a group as well as being recognized as a Governor's Award Recipient by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. These students dedicated a year of hard work and received many commendations for their success.

Contact Earth Force Staff working with communities in this location: Rene Goytia rgoytia@earthforce.org

News St. Anthony Catholic Named "Cool School" and Talk About the Power of Earth Force - April 24, 2012

Why We Are Here: Earth Force has been in west central Florida for over a decade. Formerly known as Suncoast Earth Force, Earth Force has had a presence in Tampa Bay since 2000. In this time, many strong community connections and partnerships around environmental issues, civic engagement, education and service-learning have been forged.

Demographics: Over 52% of the 194,000+ Hillsborough County School District students participate in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program.1

According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the racial composition of Hillsborough County was as follows:2

• White: 75.5% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 57.5%)

• Black or African American: 15.8%

• Native American: .2%

• Asian: 3.0%

• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.0%

• Some other race: 3.5%

• Two or more races: 2.0%

• Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 22.3%;

Sources:

1.Hillsborough County Public Schools.(2011) Hillsborough County Public Schools FACTS 2011. Hillsborough County School District website link. Retrieved 2011-2-14.

2. American FactFinder, United States Census Bureau. "Hillsborough county, Florida - ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates: 2006-2008". Factfinder.census.gov. link. Retrieved 2010-12-17.

What We Are Doing: We are using a community-based approach to integrate environmental problem solving into both school and out-of-school programs. This has include building partnerships with school districts, universities, and other community based organizations that strive to empower youth in community engagement activities.

Earth Force History in this Community: Earth Force began in Tampa Bay in the summer of 2000 as Suncoast Earth Force. Youth led environmental service learning projects were mainly focused in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco and Pinellas Counties. Since then, Earth Force has built meaningful partnerships to help develop a community of resources to engage students in making a difference in their community.

Number of Youth: 600

Number of Educators: 27

Participating Partners: Partners include, but are not limited too;

Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County

Florida Aquarium

Florida Marine Science Educators Association

Hillsborough County Cooperative Extension

Hillsborough County School District

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful

Southwest Florida Water Management District

Tampa Bay Beautification

University of South Florida College of Education

University of South Florida Office of Community Engagement

Participating School Districts: Hillsborough County School District

Armwood High School

Brandon High School

Durant High School

Hillsborough High School

J.S. Robinson Elementary

Jefferson High School

King High School

Riverview High School

Robinson High School

Roosevelt Elementary

Shields Middle School

Turkey Creek Middle School

Twin Lakes Elementary

Walker Middle School

Independent and Private Schools

Canterbury School of Florida

Hillel School of Tampa

Incarnation Catholic School

St. Anthony’s Interparochial Catholic School

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