Hebron-Harman Wins Maryland Green School Award --- (April 22, 2008) 

Hebron-Harman Elementary School recently received the Maryland Green School Award, sponsored by the Maryland Association of Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE). The Maryland Green School Awards Program recognizes Maryland schools that use their school site and curricular instruction to prepare students to understand and act on current and future environmental challenges facing all Marylanders; model environmental best management practices (BMPs) in building and landscape design, operation and maintenance; and build and maintain partnerships with the local community to enhance environmental learning and to design and implement projects and programs that result in a healthier environment.

Last year, Hebron-Harman Elementary received a $10,000 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to plant a native garden in the courtyard of the building. On April 23, 2008, students in grades pre-kindergarten through four spent the day weeding, mulching, and adding new plants to the garden. Principal Sue Bachmann is the only principal in the state to receive Green School Awards at two separate schools during her tenure.

On April 22, 2008, students and teachers from Hebron-Harman Elementary School, along with staff from Arlington Echo Outdoor Center, represented Anne Arundel County at the field hearing for the new “No Child Left Inside” Act, sponsored by U.S. Congressman John Sarbanes. The hearing took place at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge in Laurel, Maryland. Under the proposal, teachers would be eligible for environmental education training modeled on math and science teacher training partnerships. Also, to qualify for the grant money, states would have to develop and submit a K-12 plan outlining how they will ensure their high school graduates are environmentally literate. Hebron-Harman students presented and discussed classroom projects that they have been working on in collaboration with Arlington Echo. Students displayed bay grasses, diamondback terrapins, and American eels to Congressman Sarbanes, Governor Martin O’Malley, and State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick.

See photo gallery...Here--