• 2011 CLEARING Compendium

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  Click to read the 2011 CLEARING Compendium!

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• Lessons for Teaching in the Community and Environment

  
  This new, regular feature by CLEARING “master teacher” Jim Martin explores how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula.
  Read series here

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• NEW! Resources for the Classroom

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  Reviews of selected classroom EE resources by graduate students at Washington State University.

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  Biomes

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  Forests

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  Washington History and Salmon

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  Oceans and Aquatic Environments

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  Insects

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  Food Chains

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• THE BEST OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

  
  Learn the secrets of successful environmental education programs! Read the perspectives and opinions of experienced teachers! Discover new ideas that can turn your classroom into an innovative and dynamic hub of place-based learning! The Best of Clearing is full of fresh ideas and old wisdom to help you create powerful learning experiences for your students.
  
  Learn more and buy it today!

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• ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY and the CLEARING COMPENDIUM

  
  Attention: Clearing is currently compiling case studies that demonstrate what ideal school-based environmental literacy programs & activities can look like. These case studies will help teachers understand how to more effectively integrate environmental literacy into their classrooms, and will be featured in the 2011 Clearing Compendium published this fall!
  
  Tell us about a model program that you think deserves recognition!
  
  Read the 2010 edition here!
  

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• Guest Writers: Voices of the PNW

  Jessica Levine, Eckstein Middle School,
  Seattle, Washington

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  Gregory Smith,
  Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon
  

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  Harmony Roll,
  Taiga Teacher, Anchorage, Alaska

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  Lindsay Huettman,
  Wilderness Awareness School

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  Megan McGinty, North Cascades Institute

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  Jim Martin,
  Retired Science Educator, Vancouver WA
  

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• INTERVIEWS WITH CONSERVATIONISTS

  
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• K-12 Activity of the Day

  
  My Life's JourneySocial Studies—Grades 9-12
  Thinking and writing about your life using the river as a metaphor.
  To reinforce the elements of river formation and drainage, students in Language Arts class compare their own life's journey (from birth to present) to that of a river. Students will have already learned about a river's physical features from their science class and know the terminology associated with it.
  On a poster, have the students draw a river with illustrations or photos depicting each element of the river (origin, oxbow, rapids, waterfalls, confluence, dam, calm deep pools, eddy, riffle, mouth). In addition to the illustration or photo of the physical feature, have the student describe how the element of the river relates to their life. Along with the poster, the students should write a narrative describing each element of their personal journey. Emphasize that the students delve into their lives only as deeply as they feel comfortable. -from Debra Nickerson, Yelm Community Schools, Yelm WA.
  —Reprinted from a past issue of CLEARING
  
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The 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!

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Preparing students with 21st century skills

Reviewed by Ella Inglebret and CHiXapkaid (D. Michael Pavel)

The salmon serves as an indicator species reflecting the overall health of the natural environment in the Pacific Northwest. For Native American tribal members, the salmon has played a central role in sustaining communities both historically and in contemporary daily life. Based on the importance of the salmon to all people living in this region, tribal leaders, environmental organizations, government agencies, and educators formed a partnership to create curriculum resources that bring awareness to the status of the salmon population as it interconnects with the broader ecological system. The outgrowth of these efforts is the Shadow of the Salmon curriculum, designed to prepare eighth- grade students with 21st century critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills as they address environmental issues. Read more

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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.

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By Clifford E. Knapp

The exploration of the educational potential of communities through direct experiences is not a new idea.  In 1912 naturalist, John Burroughs, wrote: “. . . The way of knowledge of Nature is the way of love and enjoyment, and is more surely found in the open air than in the schoolroom or the laboratory” (Burroughs, In Finch and Elder (Eds.), 1990, p. 275)  In 1915 educator and philosopher, John Dewey, re-published some earlier speeches in his book, The School and Society.  He wrote: “We cannot overlook the importance for educational purposes of the close and intimate acquaintance got with nature at first hand, with real things and materials, with the actual processes of their manipulation, and the knowledge of their social necessities and uses” (p. 11).  Why has it taken so long for educators to expand their concept of classrooms to include community outdoor laboratories?

Today, many innovative educators are venturing into the community to enrich the curriculum and to energize the instructional program and their own teaching lives.  Why are they doing this?

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by Mike Seymour

What 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

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• READ THE LATEST POSTS!

  • Inquiry: Letting Kids Wonder
  • Lessons for teaching in the environment and community — 20
  • Lessons for teaching in the environment and community — 19
  • K-12 Oregon Forestry Literacy Program supports teaching about forests
  • Youth, Education and Climate Change
  • 5 EE Resources You Should Know About
  • Gardens Grow Minds: The School as Green Educator
  • EE Research: Playing in the woods

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