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Apr

7

From Screens to Streams: Using Technology as a “Bridge” to the Outdoors

Filed Under Citizen scientists, Environmental Literacy, Marine/Aquatic Education, Place-based Education, Programs, Science, Social studies, Sustainability, Technology | Leave a Comment

EricBeck
Rather than viewing technology as an enemy of environmental literacy, technology-based learning can help cultivate an environmental sensibility by serving as a “bridge” to the outdoors.

By Ryan Johnson

When I was ten years old, I was absolutely obsessed with the original Nintendo Entertainment System. My cousins had one, my best friend had one, it seemed like everyone I knew had a Nintendo. I would have done just about anything to have one as well, but my parents refused, despite my continuous complaints and numerous solicitations.

I thought I was the most neglected ten-year-old child in the world, while my parents, patiently suffering my pleas, would remind me that the Beartooth, Big Horn, and Pryor Mountains, the McCullough Peaks, and Shoshone River were just beyond my doorstep. These natural features were, in fact, truly magnificent and unavoidable constituents of the landscape, dominating every view with snow-capped peaks, granite cliff faces, rainbow-colored bluffs, and crystal clear riffles, containing everything from wild horses to Grizzly Bears to rattlesnakes. Now, perhaps needless to say, I prize every single second I am able to gaze upon the mountains and deserts of northern Wyoming, and I cherish every memory of running through alpine forests and mountain biking through tumbling sage brush. But a conscious acknowledgement of my privilege of being born into such natural wonder eluded me, and as a result I still found modern, escapist forms of entertainment media seductive. Even in a place completely dominated by mountains, peaks, rivers, valleys, prairie, and high desert, I still found a way to explore MTV far more often than Heart Mountain. Read more

Mar

30

Bringing Home the Data: The Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School

Filed Under Programs | 1 Comment

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Students hike upstream to collect water quality samples as part of their research at the Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School. Photo by Mike Weddle.

by Mike Weddle

The Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School (JGEMS) is a public charter school located within Waldo Middle School in Salem, Oregon. The ten-year old school has an enrollment of 90 students in grades six to eight. JGEMS students have classes in all subject areas that are part of a regular middle school curriculum, but the overriding focus for all curriculum areas is the environment.

Introduction

Teachers are always looking for engaging and meaningful projects for their students. At the same time, government or non-government conservation organizations are seemingly always shorthanded when it comes to conducting all the research projects they would like to do. At the Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School (JGEMS) in Salem, Oregon we have been able to use student scientists to conduct these research projects, providing both the assistance needed by the organizations and the engaging and meaningful projects that students need. We have found that projects done in collaboration with non- school organizations provide an incentive and a relevance to research work that may be missing from research done in school. Additionally, collaborating with outside organizations can provide expertise, equipment and even funds that may not normally be available to the classroom teacher. Read more

Feb

17

A While in the Wild: Educating for Environmental Empathy

Filed Under Place-based Education, Programs | Leave a Comment

Experiences in wild nature, the leadership of a significant adult, and the educational support of the classroom offer powerful tools in shaping students toward lifelong leadership in environmental stewardship.

In the grassSMby Fay Mascher M.Ed., Cayley School
Jonas Cox Ph.D., Gonzaga University
Charles Salina Ph.D., Gonzaga University

On a visit to the coulee, a startled owl exploded off of a nest that we thought was empty. On the bus ride back to school, one boy reached for my hand, “Feel my heart,” he said. “It’s still going really fast.” –from the Cayley School action research project

Since the 1980’s, researchers in environmental education have explored this basic question: Why do some people care about the natural environment enough to protect it, while others do not?  Current environmental education, taught as a unit of instruction within the science curriculum, tends to assume that imparting information about the environment will inspire students to care for it. But a generation of young people educated in this way has not yielded a generation of adults committed to caring for the natural world. Read more

Feb

8

Catlin Gabel School—a Focus on Food

Filed Under Environmental Literacy, Food, Programs, Sustainability | Leave a Comment

By Eric Shawn

The interdisciplinary study of food has emerged as a theme in sustainability education at Catlin Gabel School, an independent, co-educational school with 725 students in preschool through 12th grade in Portland, Oregon. The focus on food—a necessity for human life, and a subject of much recent thinking worldwide in terms of sustainability—touches many disciplines across the school and touches our learners from age 4 to 18. Read more

Jan

15

Coyotes’ Teachings: How to Cultivate Awareness and Natural Connections

Filed Under Lindsay Huettman, Outdoor education, Place-based Education, Programs | Leave a Comment

by Lindsay Letitia Huettman

coyoteI am out in the foggy, wet Pacific Northwest winter with my 10-12 year-old homeschoolers’ program, heading to an amazing place we call Elk Meadows. As we cross the meadow, we stop for a word of thanksgiving about the day and send the kids to their Sit Spots. The instructors also head out into the landscape, finding a place to rest and watch the morning wake under the goliath presence of Mount Si. Life is revealed to all our senses in this temporary silence. As a mentor, it helps to model to my genuine excitement at the small birds in the willow thicket while enduring the cold, damp earth that I rest upon. This is a great time for instructors; a sacred time to breathe and connect to the elements, earth and its creatures. It is also the time I invite Coyote to come out and do his secret, stealthy duty as the ultimate mentor. During this peaceful space, Coyote brings me glimpses of the internal workings of my beloved students.

If any of the students were looking my way, they would see my attention on the meadow; my head turning to interpret bird calls. Perhaps they see my chest moving up and down, taking large gulps of the mist rolling off the Snoqualmie River, and observe my eyes scanning the horizon, searching for elk on the forest edges. What they wouldn’t see is a part of my awareness is also listening to Coyote. Read more

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