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Dec

3

Best of Clearing CD-ROM Now Available!

Filed Under Art and EE, Biological Diversity, Climate change, Energy Alternatives, Energy Conservation, Environmental Health, Environmental Literacy, Forests, General public, Guest Commentary, Higher Education, Interviews, Justice and Equity, Language arts, Marine/Aquatic Education, Mathematics, Non-formal, Outdoor education, Perspectives, Programs, Questioning strategies, Resources, Reviews, Schoolyard Classroom, Science, Secondary, Service learning, Social studies, Sustainability, Technology, restoration, salmon | Leave a Comment

BOCcd-romcoverCTR.inddThe discs have been burned, and the packaging has been assembled, and the first batch of CD-ROMs featuring “The Best of Clearing, Volume VI” have been mailed out!

If you haven’t seen the advertising on this website, or seen reference to this document before, you should check it out… the best articles, activities, and reviews from past issues of Clearing compiled and published together on a CD-ROM. “The Best of Clearing, Volume VI” is a way to get the best of back issues of Clearing at a very low price (even less than the previous cost of a one-year subscription!).

And just so you know, we’ll soon be republishing an earlier B.O.C — Volume V — which gathers even more great articles from the recent past (think Mike Weilbacher, Jim Martin, and others) in one convenient reference volume for your resource library.

If you’re interested in helping to keep Clearing alive, this is one way to do it. Buy a copy of Volume VI in CD-ROM and keep an eye out for Volume V when it comes available. Click on the “Best of Clearing” link on the nav bar above to buy your copy!

Oct

25

Preparing Teachers to Teach About Sustainability

Filed Under Justice and Equity, Place-based Education, Sustainability | Leave a Comment

Recently Gregory Smith, Professor in the Lewis and Clark College Graduate School of Education and Counseling, received a $19,380 grant from the Gray Family Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation to train teachers in the West Linn (OR) School District on environmental issues. The Environmental Education Program seeks to encourage a strong local land ethic, sustainable communities, and stewardship of the natural environment by citizens throughout Oregon. The Fund is committed long term to institutionalizing a series of age-appropriate experiences that build a sense of place and responsibility towards Oregon and the region.

The Sustainability Education Initiative is a program of professional development coursework and activities for K-12 teachers in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. During three courses offered in 2009, Smith prepared 50-60 teachers to incorporate sustainability issues into their classrooms and help them implement school or community projects that will enhance local natural and social environments. Participants will be eligible for small seed grants to fund start-up projects. The grant aims to increase the number of teachers implementing sustainability projects in schools, and increase student and educator awareness of local natural systems, ecologies, and social needs.

Jul

1

Educating for Earth: Future Generations and All of Life

Filed Under Environmental Literacy, Justice and Equity, Perspectives, Science, Sustainability, Technology | Leave a Comment

by Mike Seymour

GSwaterchemWhat we have called the “environmental crisis” is the most significant challenge humanity as a whole has faced in its recorded history. How we understand and frame this crisis—and how we summon the political courage to change—will determine the extent to which we are able to continue existence on Earth in a way that is worth living.

The enormous significance of this issue demands that it come to the forefront of our thinking in all spheres (political, religious, commercial, and legal) and at all levels (individual, family, community, national, and global)—especially within education. How and why humans are undermining their ecological support—and what can be done about that—make a vital, complex, interdisciplinary area for inquiry at all levels of education. Not to educate with the earth and future generations in mind would be an unimaginable moral folly, much like saying we would rather continue to party on the Titanic’s foredeck while refusing to deal with the upcoming iceberg which is in full view. Read more

Mar

12

Educating for Eco-Justice

Filed Under Justice and Equity, Perspectives | Leave a Comment

…in an Era of Ecological Uncertainty

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by Chet A. Bowers

What is ironic, even tragic for future generations, is that the various approaches to educational reform being advocated by politicians, parents, and professional educators in the United State do not take account of the rapid changes occurring in the Earth’s ecosystems. Equally tragic is that these approaches to reform, like an unchecked virus, are spreading to other regions of the world.

These reforms do not take account of the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that is it being caused by human activity. Nor have the decline of key fisheries such as those of the Grand Banks and the North Sea, and the impact of the over 80,000 synthetic chemicals introduced into the environment on the viability of natural systems ranging from marine ecosystems to human health, influenced the different agendas for educational reform. Indeed, one of the central points to be made is that the reform proposals, as varied as they are, are based on a common set of cultural assumptions that were formed before there was an awareness of ecological limits.

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Chet A. Bowers is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. Professor Bowers’ most recent books include The Culture of Denial (1997); Let Them Eat Data (2000); and Educating for Eco-Justice and Community (2001); and Detras de la Apariencia: Hacia la Descolonizacion de la Educacion (2002).

Mar

11

Teaching Stewardship Through Native Legend

Filed Under Justice and Equity, Language arts, Non-formal, Perspectives, Resources, Social studies | Leave a Comment

Abstract: This article provides the reader with a general background of Alaska Native education and resource conservation, focusing on southeast Alaska cultures. European contact severed these education models by creating government schools. Since then Alaska Natives have worked to balance Native culture with western education. A synopsis of several legends which speak to natural resource conservation is presented with the conservation ethic discussed. The use of these types of legends in the classroom is encouraged as a means of bringing Native values and lessons into the classroom as one means of making education relevant to Native students. The lesson from this discussion can be applied to other indigenous groups.

by Dolly Garza

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Dolores “Dolly” Garza is a full-time Professor for the University of Alaska Marine Advisory Program. She has worked in Kotzebue and Sitka and now works in Ketchikan as a Marine Advisory agent, interfacing European science with Alaska’s marine resource users in the areas of subsistence management, marine mammal management and marine safety. This article reprinted from proceedings of the 2006 North American Association for Environmental Education annual conference in Anchorage, Alaska.

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