Urban Ecologist Community Service Ideas

• Design a game for young children related to the Urban Ecologist kit.
• Paint a mural with the Wonderwise theme over graffiti.
• Feature community-minded scientists on a school bulletin board.
• Collect children's science books for the needy.
• Create a play that teaches young children about concepts in the Wonderwise scenarios.
• Organize an environmental walk to school event.
• Write or make a picture book about Wonderwise concepts to read to younger children.
• Organize a public issues forum focused on topic discussed in Wonderwise. Become an advocate. Contact your legislators on topics discussed in Wonderwise.
• Help neighbors paint and repair their homes.
• Make maps of local parks, libraries, or historic sites.
• Petition your city to make drinking fountains and/or restrooms in public areas available.
• Volunteer to clean up trash at a community event or county fair.
• Design a mural or quilt highlighting important aspects of the community.
• Organize a campaign to paint storm drains to prevent dumping of hazardous materials.
• Set up an informational display at a local library on the Wonderwise topics.
• Volunteer to help set up for a community event on the Wonderwise topics.
• Distribute bags during the fall for residents to clean leaves from their streets and yards.
• Adopt a pothole and raise funds to repair it.
• Adopt a billboard and use it for a public service announcement about the environment.
• Find a local wetland and organize an event to clean it up.
• Clean up a vacant lot.
• Help fix a run-down playground.
• Start a yard of the week award for your neighborhood.
• Participate in an annual parade.
• Spruce up and paint the community or youth center.
• Plant a community garden. Adopt a town monument and keep it clean.
• Plant flowers at the town hall and in public areas that could use some color.
• Paint a mural or clean up a local park.
• Mow the lawns and care for the plants of neighbors who are away on vacation.
• Build and/or paint park benches.
• Write and produce a play about a current environmental issue.
• Plant a garden or tree where the whole neighborhood can enjoy it.
• Organize a car-pooling campaign in your neighborhood to cut down on air pollution.
• Adopt an acre of a park or a mile of roadside to keep clean.
• Clean up trash along a river or in a park.
• Get together with friends and make conservation posters for the community center.
• Encourage your parents to buy products made from recycled materials.
• Conduct an energy audit at your school.
• Monitor the indoor air quality.
• Organize an asbestos check.
• Test the drinking water for lead.
• Plant a commemorative tree to honor someone.
• Create a children's nature garden, labeling plants and trees and scheduling guided tours.
• Replace trees that have died.
• Adopt highways and clean up clutters.
• Organize a hazardous waste collection.
• If you see a tree that's in trouble, find out what's wrong with it and how to make it better.
• Pick up liter.
• Clean up a beach or riverbed.
• Start an environmental club.
• Clear a new trail at a nature center or park.