Disney’s Planet Challenge for

Classroom Environmental Science Projects

Application deadline: Dec. 18, 2009; level: grades 4-6

Disney’s Planet Challenge is a project-based environmental competition for 4th – 6th grade classrooms to empower students to make a difference in school, at home and in their local communities. Participation in the program is free, and enrollment is open.

For the project, students are asked to identify an environmental issue in their local community and come up with a solution that they manage and document from start to finish. Past examples range from implementing campus-wide water conservation programs and electronics recycling drives to protecting local habitats. Classrooms develop a portfolio that will be evaluated on environmental-relevance, student learning, changes in practices and attitudes, community involvement, lasting benefits to students, school and/or community and originality.

National, regional and state winners will receive an array of Disney prizes, including a class celebration at Disneyland(R) for the national grand prize champion. The winning class will also have a chance to meet a Disney Channel star and the class and its winning project may be featured on the Disney Channel. Other prizes include thousands of dollars in classroom grants, class screenings of the next Disneynature film, Oceans, and more. Additionally, winning teachers will receive a one year NSTA membership. The grand-prize winning educator will also receive an expense paid trip to the national 2011 NSTA conference where he or she will be recognized at the NSTA awards banquet. For more information, visit www.Disney.com/planetchallenge.

The Planet Challenge web site provides tailored lesson plans customized to reflect the curriculum standards of each state for each grade level (grades 4-6). Teachers can easily find and download relevant lessons to help them link their class project to their state standards. The web site also includes a range of multimedia features that allow students to tap into their digital creativity and create an online portfolio by uploading class work, videos, photos, charts, news articles and other documents. Classrooms that choose to maintain digital portfolios have the environmentally friendly option for a paperless submission via the web site.

Application deadline: Dec. 18, 2009

Portfolio submission deadline: Feb. 26, 2010

Winner announcement: April 2010; Grand Prize Celebration: May 2010

SOURCE: The Walt Disney Company. Lily Bedrossian, 818-553-7292 Lily.Bedrossian@disney.com

Filed under: Grades 6-8, K-12 Education News, K-12 Outreach Programs, Web Resources

Tags: Competitions for Students, Environmental Engineering, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5