Herman Chang, a Grade 6 teacher at Hillview School in Edmonton, was recently outside supervising recess on an uncharacteristically warm day.

The children took advantage of the warm weather in a different way than Chang expected. Instead of playing games they previously couldn’t, the students decided to pick up the garbage left behind by the melted snow.

“No one asked them to do that, it was just something they felt they needed to do,” said Chang. “There were all these Grade 3 students cleaning up the playground. They didn’t want to play in garbage, and they took action.”

It’s not always easy to get a group of energetic young children passionate about something like the environment. But Chang has certainly figured out a way.

For the past four years, he has used creative and unique projects to inspire his class — and, indeed, the school’s entire student body — to care about environmental stewardship.

Chang’s work at the elementary school (which serves students from kindergarten to Grade 6 plus an early education program) has made it a finalist for a 2014 Emerald Award in the education category. The awards, administered by the Alberta Emerald Foundation, annually recognize environmental excellence in the province in a wide range of categories.

This year, Chang organized a convention at the school, during which guest speakers came in and taught students about how to be more energy conscious. The best part for the students was that they were tasked with creating videos based on what they learned.

Last year, Chang was equally creative in guiding environmental lessons.

He brought in Peter Lenton — a.k.a. Peter Puffin — a Juno Award-winning children’s singer, to co-write songs about the environment with the students. The school then produced a CD (for which Lenton played instruments and the children, including those in the early education program, did the singing.) Songs titles included Recycling Blues and If Trees Ruled the World.

The students then went “on tour” with Lenton, visiting several neighbouring schools and performing in front of about 1,400 students in total.

For a week, they also partnered with Evergreen Theatre (a local theatre company that performs for young audiences), to create and perform plays with environmental themes.

“The idea of environmentalism can be very abstract,” said Chang of his varied approaches to explaining the topic. “So if these young kids can explain what it means, then I think they are doing really well.”

You can quickly spot signs of Chang’s passion for teaching environmental stewardship all over his classroom.

In the back of the room there is a garden full of lush herbs and a few vegetables that is tended to by his eager students.

It may not seem like much, says Chang, but the garden and the fairs, albums and plays are helping the students at Hillview become environmentally conscious citizens.

“At an elementary level, it’s a much smaller scale of what you can do, but the outcomes are potentially great,” said Chang. “The students take away an awareness of the environment, how to take care of the planet, and question the things around them. If they are questioning, they are thinking critically about the environment.”

Chang spends much of his free time writing grants. In total, he has been awarded about $70,000 in grants, which have gone directly into energy programming and education at Hillview.

The humble teacher credit the staff at the school for being both accommodating and supportive of his unique environmental efforts, and the children for fulfilling them. “This isn’t about me,” he said about the Emerald Award nod. “This is a nomination for the hard work the students do. They were the ones that were awesome during the convention, they made the cool movies, they created these great songs and plays.

“I always stress (to the students) it’s all because of you,” he said. “They are the ones that run with these ideas. I just suggest them.”