Wachstumshormone

Feb

28

A Classroom Without Walls – Deepening Children’s Connection with Nature

Filed Under Children and Nature, Environmental Education, Environmental Literacy | 1 Comment

by Seth Webb
Free Horizon Montessori School

Connecting_to_NatureW3e each have an incredible gift: the ability to engage children with the world – indeed, the universe – that surrounds them and, of which, they are an integral part.

Working with children, our job is one of setting the kindling for the wonderful sparks of curiosity and deep interest to spring forth. While there may be a linear progression of lesson delivery in our albums, we don’t always teach that way, nor do we make overt and obvious the connections between the seemingly disparate ideas and materials across the curriculum that we share.

We wait for the “ah-has.” It is up to the students, alone or collectively, to do the work of the synapses – to make those links, to leap the gaps between ideas towards a holistic understanding of everything around and within them.

There is a way of knowing that comes from being genuinely part of what you are attempting to understand. That is, an authentic knowledge rooted in sensorial experiences that tickle and surprise. Through slowing down and taking our time, looking at the familiar from different perspectives, we can deeply explore the wild spaces around us. So it can be with the natural world outside the classroom. Read more

Feb

28

Hands-on Hanford: Linking Lessons

Filed Under Citizen scientists, Energy Alternatives, Energy Conservation, Environmental Education, Technology | Leave a Comment

Hands-onHanfordby Erika Holmes, Community Outreach and Environmenal Education,
Washington State Department of Ecology

I recently attended a forum bringing together state and federal agencies, non-profits, involved citizens, educators, and retired workers with a common goal: getting more young people interested in the Hanford Nuclear Site. With all of its intimidating acronyms, jargon, and bureaucracy, we agreed this is a tall task, but discovered two commonalities that had hooked us: interesting stories about Hanford’s history, workers, cleanup and the relationships we’ve built with other Hanford junkies.

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Feb

12

Abernethy’s ground-breaking Farm-to-School program

Filed Under Environmental Education, Farm-to-School, Food, School Gardening, Schoolyard Classroom | Leave a Comment

IMG_1282

O2n a quiet, residential, inner southeast Portland, Oregon street, a little elementary school is breaking new ground for the farm-to-school and school garden movement.

At Abernethy Elementary, students enjoy freshly cooked breakfasts and lunches prepared on site by a trained chef. The meals are often prepared with local and seasonl ingredients, some of which are harvested from the school’s Garden of Wonders. The garden itself is entirely planted, tended and harvested by the students, who use it throughout their school day as a “learning laboratory.”

Read their story…

Feb

8

Exemplary EE Programs in the Pacific Northwest

Filed Under Environmental Education, Environmental Literacy, Feature articles, Programs | Leave a Comment

Click on the image for an overview of outstanding regional EE programs.
Put your program on the map!

Recent additions:
• Solar panels in Seattle classroom
• CREST Farm-to-School Program
• Expeditionary Learning in Washington

Feb

1

Lessons for teaching in the environment and community – 10

Filed Under Environmental Education, Environmental Literacy, Inquiry, Jim Martin, Questioning strategies, Science | Leave a Comment

“Lessons for Teaching in the Environment and Community” is a regular series that explores how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula.

Part 10: Assimilation

When the world outside becomes the world inside

by Jim Martin, CLEARING guest writer

brainStarting in the world outside our skin, our personal tegumental boundary, I have claimed, is the best way to learn. By ‘learn,’ I mean integrate new material into old understandings so that they become a part of you. Part of you because they begin their synaptic lives with you by adding protein to the synapses they innervate, piles of stones along a new path, so they can find their way again. Becoming protein within you, they are you, a part of yourself that will travel with you wherever you go.

An enchanting thought, that, one that all teachers could give to their students in every class they teach. Learning for understanding, carried through each person’s life. I would think that thought would drive education, but it doesn’t. Even so, I’d like to talk about it for a bit.

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jimphotocroppedThis is the tenth installment of “Teaching in the Environment,” a new, regular feature by CLEARING “master teacher” Jim Martin that explores how environmental educators can help classroom teachers get away from the pressure to teach to the standardized tests,  and how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula. See the other installments here.

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