Maryland Green School Program Assistance

ShoreRivers is recognized as a Maryland Green Center by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE). As a Green Center, we offer support to schools working toward being certified or recertified as a Maryland Green School. 

Vision: ShoreRivers envisions schools where sustainability and environmental literacy are ingrained in culture and practice, inherently teaching children to be stewards of their communities and environment. 

Mission: ShoreRivers’ Green Center mission is to support the Maryland Green Schools Program by sharing our expertise in citizen-science, restoration, and environmental education, and outreach.

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• What is the Maryland Green Schools Program?

  As a certified Maryland Green School, you are recognized as a school that encourages your students to transform into the next generation of environmental stewards through fostering environmental literacy, sustainable practices, and celebrating good works in the environment. K-12 schools become certified through an application process that must be renewed every four years. 

• Why be a certified Green School?

  This is a sustainable school program that is nationally recognized as having a significant impact on students and schools. For many students, their first experiences in "becoming green" start at school. The experiences students get and the fun they have doing their Green School projects make lasting impressions in their journey to be lifelong stewards of the environment. 

  Additionally, this program is aligned with the environmental literacy and school sustainability goals of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement and supports Maryland State Department of Education graduation requirements.

• How can ShoreRivers Support my school in this process?

  ShoreRivers can offer support on many aspects of the Green Schools certification process, including:

  • Application Assistance

  • Professional Development for Teachers

  • Connections to Resources

  • Environmental Lesson Plans and Supplies

• What elements can't shorerivers facilitiate?

  ShoreRivers is unable to provide support in the following ways:

  • Facilitating your school celebration or other environmental activities/lessons 

  • Facilitating activities on Earth Day

  Due to our direct partnerships with school systems, we spend the majority of the school year providing environmental education lessons and experiences in and out of the classroom, ultimately restricting our ability to visit schools we are not already directly partnered with. We can however provide support by sharing ideas, lesson plans, and supplies that you can facilitate for your school to meet these requirements. 

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Interested in becoming certified as a Maryland Green School or want more information?

Please reach out to Morgan at mbuchanan@shorerivers.org

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“I’ve been able to draw on this experience in countless interviews and connect with other professionals in the field to this day, thanks to the Green Schools Program.”

— Hannah Claggett, Kent Island High School Grad, Class of '20 on forming the school's first Green Team and obtaining the first Green School Certification

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CLICK TO SEE Highlights of Our Green Center Work

Galena Elementary School

ShoreRivers worked with Galena Elementary School to restore wetland habitat on their school campus through a partnership between our Ag & Restoration department and Sultana Education Foundation. A rain garden was installed on the property, and students, teachers, and volunteers helped to plant native species on site.

North Dorchester High School

ShoreRivers supported North Dorchester High School students in building oyster cages for use by volunteers growing oyster spat as part of the Marylanders Grow Oysters Program. Oysters grown in these cages are later planted to restore Chesapeake Bay sanctuaries. 

Choptank Elementary School

As part of our Sturgeon Discovery Program, ShoreRivers fostered a partnership between Choptank Elementary’s third-grade teacher Crystal Owens and nationally-renowned local artist Shelton Hawkins to amplify student voice through a school beautification project. Hawkins worked with students to design and install a mural that compiled students’ own works of art into a large, flowing piece that now decorates the school hallways and gives everyone who walks by a lesson on what the endangered Atlantic sturgeon looks like.

Queen Anne's & Kent Island High Schools

ShoreRivers and Oyster Recovery Partnership teamed up with Queens Anne’s County and Kent Island High School students to create coasters that inform the public on the importance of recycling oyster shell in restoration efforts. Student-designed coasters were distributed at local seafood restaurants including The Narrows Restaurant, Knoxie’s Table, Fishermans Inn, and Fisherman’s Crab Deck.