Resources for Green Educators
We receive mail at home and at work six days a week but rarely consider the impact the postal system has on humans and the environment. The U.S. mail travels by truck, bike, mule train, or Segway, whether along dirt roads or super highways, to reach the densest city neighborhoods and scattered rural ranches—and touches all of our lives. Figuring out the “greenest” way to move the mail is a challenge that the US Postal Service (USPS) takes seriously. It’s also a challenge that the Smithsonian National Postal Museum turned over to a group of thirteen year olds.
In the Green Ways to Move the Mail program, the teens learned about mail transportation and its impact on the environment and then shared their knowledge with others using fun, hands-on activities. The resources provided here are designed to inspire educators to adapt the program for use in their classrooms, camps, or afterschool programs.
The program used mail transportation as a challenge to teach systems thinking, team work, problem solving, and interdisciplinary knowledge. The five different Green Ways activities touch on subjects ranging from history to engineering to social studies.
Explore these resources and modify them as you see fit. Throw your own Green Ways to Move the Mail Festival, get great ideas for science fair projects, or just learn more about the connections between mail transportation and the environment!
This program is generously sponsored by
Ford Motor Company Fund
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