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Jan

11

Preparing Teachers for Environmental Education

Filed Under Perspectives, Resources, Science, Social studies | Leave a Comment

by Louise Conn Fleming

Abstract: Our teacher education team at our university teaches the junior year methods and assessment to preservice middle grades teachers. Starting Spring 2003 we began using “The Projects” as part of methods instruction. In this paper I will review what educators say about how middle grades students should be taught, why environmental education meets those criteria, explain our program, and share our results.

Preparing Teachers for Environmental Education

Most adults in the U.S. have grown up out of touch with the environment, and it appears that the generation in schools today is growing up that way as well. The middle grades, grades four or five to eight or nine, are a time when children are beginning to see themselves as they relate to their world at large. This is a crucial time to focus their attention on how their actions have an impact on other inhabitants of our planet. However, most middle grades teachers, having grown up without experiences in nature, lack both the understanding and enjoyment of the environment and the knowledge of why or how to teach about it. Read more

Jan

2

Humane Education for a Humane World

Filed Under Activities, Biological Diversity, Justice and Equity, Outdoor education, Reviews | Leave a Comment

Animal CollageHumane education examines the challenges facing our planet, from human oppression and animal exploitation to materialism and ecological degradation.  It explores how we might live with compassion and respect for everyone.

by Zoe Weil

In 1987, I offered several courses in a summer program for middle school students at the University of Pennsylvania.  The courses met from 9-5 and lasted 5 days.  One of the classes I offered was on our treatment of animals and another was on the environment.  In each course, we went on field trips.  In the class on the environment, we visited a recycling center, a wildlife rehabilitation center, and held a Council of All Beings on a protected beach.  In the course on animals, we visited an animal shelter, a farmed animal sanctuary and conducted a critical review of conditions for animals at the zoo.  We watched videos about what was happening to animals and the environment, wrote letters to elected officials and CEOs of polluting companies, and created campaign, slogan and T-shirt ideas for activism.

When the two weeks were over, I was astounded by what had taken place.

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Zoe Weil is the co-founder and president of the International Institute for Humane Education (IIHE) which, through and affiliation with Cambridge College, offers a distance-learning M.Ed. in humane education which is the first and only program of its kind in the U.S.  IIHE also offers its acclaimed Sowing Seeds humane education workshops monthly around the U.S. and Canada.  Zoe is the author of The Power and Promise of Humane Education and Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times.  For more information about IIHEís training programs and Sowing Seeds workshops, visit www.IIHEd.org.

Jan

2

Resource: Ocean Currents

Filed Under Resources | Leave a Comment

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What causes ocean currents? What impact do they have on Earth’s environment? How have they influenced human history?

This teaching guide for grades 5-8 provides 7 activities for students to explore the causes and impacts of ocean tides and gain an understanding of the influences of wind, temperature, salinity and density on ocean movement.

Students are given the opportunity to explore such real-world situations as the 1990 Nike shoe spill, the raft Kon Tiki, and other oceanic voyages in history.

From Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS). ISBN 0-924886-44-7. $21.00. Order online at www.lhsgems.org.