• CLEARING Quarterly Edition Fall 2011

  

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  The fall 2011 edition of CLEARING contains news, resources, stories and interviews.

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  Download and read the issue here!
  

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• NEW! 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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• INTERVIEWS WITH CONSERVATIONISTS

  
  What is the link between conservation and environmental education? Chris Gertschen, founder and former director of the Sawtooth Science Institute, talks to the leaders of conservation in the west to get their perspectives on the issue.
  Read the interviews here
  

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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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• Teaching Resource Spotlight

  
  
  
  Roots and Research in Urban School Gardens
  
  ©2011 Veronica Gaylie. This book explores the urban school garden as a bridge between environmental action and thought. As a small-scale response to global issues around access to food and land, urban school gardens promote practical knowledge of farming as well as help renew cultural ideals of shared space and mutual support for the organic, built environment. This book examines the practice and culture of the urban school garden as a central symbol for environmental learning. Roots and Research in Urban School Gardens can be purchased at Peter Lang Publishing.
  

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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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• Donate to support CLEARING!

  
  

  If you are a fan of CLEARING, or even if you just like it a little, you can help us keep this journal going by making a small donation. Thank you for your support. It is really appreciated!

  
  

  

• Recent Comments

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Asphalt to Ecosystems is an illuminating guidebook for designing and building creative, ecologically diverse schoolyards and integrating nature into learning and play activities across K-12 curricula. With a wealth of practical advice and over 500 color photographs, Sharon Gamson Danks offers a fully illustrated, easy-to-understand guide for transforming the traditional school ground’s slab of asphalt into edible gardens, wildlife habitats, and other sustainable uses. Read more

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by Richard Strickland, University of Washington School of Oceanography and Timothy Stetter, University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education

This fall, as flocks of new freshmen swarm to college campuses, many of them are bringing along college credits that they earned while they were still in high school. Some of them earned the credits by taking Advanced Placement exams, and others took detours from their home schools to attend classes on college campuses.

Some students, however, earned college credits by taking classes from their own teachers in their own high schools. The University of Washington (UW) offers a program in which leading teachers, guided by UW faculty mentors, teach at a college level and students can earn UW credit. Read more

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by 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

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The Mystery of Animal Migration

By Mariane Berkes
Published by Dawn Publications

Reviewed by Emily Baker-LaRouf

What pushes an animal to travel thousands of miles to places it has never seen or to reproduce in the same spot as its ancestors did?  The mysteries of the animal world are many and scientists still don’t hold all the answers.  Exploring these topics with children can be exciting and a little daunting.  I recently had the pleasure of reading Going Home to my kids and the timing couldn’t have been better.  With fall changing toward winter here in Minnesota we have watched the bird activity increase as the flocks head southward toward warmer climes.  This book provided a great jumping off point to migration in general. Read more

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Reviewed by Elizabeth Rinaldo

Study after study recommends integrating children into nature at a very young age. Little ones view with innocent and open eyes – they are curious and inquisitive and don’t yet know that it isn’t proper to get their hands dirty. Facilitating outdoor opportunities for children at a very young age can lead to a lifelong connection with nature.

Yet there are few pre-school or early elementary programs that offer any outdoor opportunities for children – beyond the daily excursion on the playground. Part of the problem is a lack of knowledge about such outdoor activities, lack of funding, or a lack of resources. Read more

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