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.

The people of Cayley School, situated in a rural hamlet about one hour south Calgary, Alberta, struggled with a similar dynamic. In the spring of 2005, the teachers, parents, community members, and students of this small school (150 students in kindergarten through eighth grade) met with the Stewardship Centre of Canada to explore what their school could do to foster care of the natural environment.

The Youth Environmental Stewardship Program (YES) was born, sparking much activity at Cayley School.  The school maintains ten photovoltaic units and a small wind turbine to provide three kilowatts of power to the grid.  Students and staff participate in a thorough recycling program. An environment club meets weekly. Classroom instruction pursues cross-curricular inquiry into many environmental issues.  Recognized in the media, and given multiple awards for environmental projects, Cayley School has laid strong ground work for meeting the goals of the YES project.

However, in a meeting of YES stakeholders in the fall of 2007, consensus emerged that the specific vision of the program—shaping students toward lifelong leadership in environmental stewardship—was not being realized. Students did not display a general ethic of stewardship, nor were they eager to fill leadership roles in the YES program .

Thorough environmental instruction combined with exciting school-wide environmental projects had failed to translate into genuine environmental stewardship. Why? There it was again, that thirty-year-old question: Why do some people care about the natural environment enough to protect it, and others do not?

You can read the rest of this article in the online Clearing Magazine 2010 Compendium Issue, which you can open here.

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Exploring Place-based Education Programs in the Pacific Northwest

by Becs Boyd

A visit to Kennedy High School in Cottage Grove, Oregon on 18 November, turns out to be one of the most uplifting days I have spent in a school, perhaps ever.

There are a myriad of small things that contribute to this caring culture. For example, Horn’s approach to students who have been referred to his office, ‘When a student has been sent to me, maybe there are difficulties with the teacher, they know to grab a cup of tea. Then they read the quote on the Yogi tea, and then they grab their journal and then they write. What that does is it diffuses the anger and the distress they are feeling, and then they relate this to their life and we have a conversation. There are no discipline problems around here.’ Classes often begin and end with circle time, first an ‘expectations’ circle, where students and teachers state their hopes and expectations for their role in the class, and finally an ‘appreciations’ circle, where students are able to exchange thanks and appreciations for others’ role.

An important element for Horn has been caring for his staff and giving them the space and time they need to develop their own practices. He is a hands-on leader who at least once a week will combine two classes and substitute for two teachers to free them up to do preparation. On Fridays, when the primary focus is on projects, community service and conservation, he takes over these activities to give his staff half a day for meeting and preparation.

A second step has been to build a strong school ethos based on sustainability and service, which builds not only self esteem but also practical skills and wisdom. School activities are structured around five themes of sustainability – Agriculture, Architecture, Energy, Forests and Water. Horn has sought to develop a range of programmes with community partners that address each of these issues. Within each theme there is a focus on practical problem solving, academic skills, and on creating future employment opportunities . According to Horn, ‘Kennedy represents a new paradigm or a new way of thinking about education. It’s project based, it’s place-based and it allows students to engage in constructive activities that relate specifically to real-world issues, around sustainability and around environmental issues that are affecting us all’.
The wide range of ambitious projects in which students have been involved include:

- growing fresh organic food for themost in need in the community (over 3 tonnes to date), – partnering with the County to implement mitigation measures at a landfill site,

- gathering water monitoring data at industrial outflow sites as part of an annual canoe trip from Eugene to Portland,

- developing a low-cost energy efficient green housing prototype, which it is hoped could ameliorate housing conditions at the trailer parks on which many of the students live,

- learning how to build a straw bale house at the local energy research and education centre, Approvecho

- carrying out invasive species removal work through the school conservation corps, in partnership with the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Coast Fork Watershed Council.

Both teachers and students find this approach stimulating and enjoyable. Kris Olsen again, ‘One of the reasons I really love teaching at Kennedy is the focus on sustainability. Its also really important to be teaching material that’s relevant and I really don’t think there’s anything more relevant than issues around sustainability. The reality is that the future that these kids have is going to be really different from what our lives look like right now. They need to be ready to deal with issues around energy and sustaining our forests and a more sustainable food system.’

A student named Morgan talks to me enthusiastically, ‘I’ve been to all kinds of schools and this is best school I’ve been to. It’s cool because you get to go out and do lots of great things, like growing stuff in the garden, forestry work, environmental work. It changes the way you see things. There’s a lot more respect here too, between us and the teachers.’

This place and project based approach has been essential for breaking down the barriers between school and community. As Horn says, ‘my first thought was that you really need to engage kids in the life of the community, outside of the school. So if it’s that segregation, where they walk in the front door of the school and they don’t go out you really just have this little petri dish where it’s difficult forkids to relate to the real world.’ The standing of the school within the community, and the sense of self-respect disadvantaged communities have for themselves, have also grown dramatically as practical projects have begun to make a difference to local environmental and social issues. Now parents wave as Horn cycles past some of the poorest and most challenged trailer parks in the area. One of his next plans is for a community garden and cafe right in the centre of one of these parks.

There is also a philosophy of helping others to learn. Kennedy students teach in local elementary schools. As Horn says, ‘all of our kids have now taught agriculture, bee-keeping, water-testing, aquaculture with hydroponics. They’re teaching third graders and fourth graders these skills. And what’s happening is they have to prepare and they’re nervous and you see these toughest of tough kids, you know their eyes tear up and their voice shakes when they’re infront of a bunch of third graders. It’s beautiful to see actually. And then they come back and go ‘I’m never misbehaving ever again, that’s really hard, that teaching’.

Currently student performance is measured on the basis of State tests. In order to gain a sense of the broader learning that each student is gaining, Horn already ensures that each builds up a portfolio of written work. But he is also planning a more radical move away from narrow subject assessment to a mode of assessment that fits better with the personal and social development that the school offers, ‘The one thing we’re looking at doing next year is doing away with the grading system, the ABCDF and moving toward a narrative system. So each student will have a description of what they’re good at and what they need to work on’. This can take account of the ‘portfolio of adventurous experiences’, from beekeeping to winter camping to community project work to performing at an ‘open mike’ at the local Axe and Fiddle cafe, which Horn believes can have a transformative impact on a student’s life.

Horn is also working on plans for a ‘walkabout’, which would be a prequisite for graduation. ‘Walkabout’ would be an experiential learning, self-driven, self-developed project that fosters good citizenship and also involves some sort of transformative experience. Horn says, ‘It’s not just ‘go create a project and good luck’. There’s a rubric, a step by step process. It’s been highly successful elsewhere…And kids chronicle their transformation in the process. Where kids are self-driven and it becomes a part of the culture for them to participate in something that is meaningful to them, that has positive experience and has intentional positive effect on the community.’

Finding resources (in addition to the allowance for salaries supplied by the State) to sustain school activities falls largely to Horn, but he is aware that the nature of the school and the kinds of issues it tackles give it a distinct advantage when it comes to finding funds. Partnerships with business and State agencies have proven highly successful. During the 2009-2010 academic year alone, for example, the school brought in approximately $700,000 to support its programmes and provide employment opportunities for its students.

Tom Horn and I spend the last hours of the afternoon at the local Axe and Fiddle, owned by the inspirational Hoedads founder Hal Hartzell, watching students perform at the monthly ‘open mike’. There is no dedicated music teacher at Kennedy, but many of the staff sing or play instruments and have passed on their skills to the students. It is impressive how hard students have worked to rehearse songs and compose their own lyrics, and it clearly takes a lot of courage for some of them to stand up there in front of their peers. Horn himself is persuaded to take a turn on the guitar with a band of other staff.

The last word goes to Tom Horn, ‘As a student teacher, I kept asking these fundamental questions – by raising reading levels are we seeing kids matriculate into college or do great things with their lives? And there wasn’t necessarily a corollary between their academic scores and their potential as human beings…. And seeing five years down the road some of them are incarcerated – these were some risky kids. And at the same time you ask all these questions about the environment, whether its global warming or forest floor ecology and the issues we see in our own back yard here. Those are things I always thought about as an environmentalist. And there was a disconnect between the real world and education. Education was almost a form of segregation…. Now we are in a very interesting time in history educationally in this country. There were 6.9 million drop outs last year. Kids are feeling disaffected by the educational system. But kids [at Kennedy] are accepting responsibility for their role here because they understand that we are significantly different’.

Becs Boyd is exploring place-based education programs throughout the Pacific Northwest through a Churchill fellowship. Her blog can be found at http://pbechurchillfellowship.blogspot.com/

Share on Facebook

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.

Share on Facebook

from Callister, Jamogochian, Lemos, Weddle, & Yoder (2010) – Community-based Education: Model Programs. Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources.

http://www.ncsr.org/materials/index.html

This top-ten list of advice from Jon Yoder may be of assistance for teachers just beginning to integrate environmental literacy into their classroom:

1. Start small and find other teachers interested in doing a community project. Support and collaboration are critical for success as you begin this work.
2. Don’t let issues such as transportation and funding stand in your way. Be creative and persistent and employ the resources of your community.
3. Getting to know community partners is a must, so be prepared to make calls and meet with potential partners. They are often more than willing to work with you and may have resources you can use.
4. Make sure that your class does not become a work crew. The work you do should be the work of your partner. This is not a field trip or guest presentation, but joining the authentic work of your partner.
5. Be organized and plan ahead. You can never foresee all possibilities, but being organized helps you become more successful with students and partners.
6. Promote the program. It is not about you but about the students and their capacity to serve as a resource for their community
7. Involve students in the selection of their work and in designing their products. This may be the first time they have some control over their learning. It can be empowering for them.
8. As your work expands, think of ways that the program can sustain itself when you are no longer there.
9. Do not worry about having to know the content or being in charge of direct instruction. You will become a facilitator and instruction comes from the community partner and the curriculum resources you organize. One of the great joys of this approach is that you often get to learn along with your students. Sometimes they can even teach you. The teacher is no longer the “sage on the stage,” but instead is the “guide on the side.”
10. Remember it is about community! The work students do needs to have a context to it. They should come out of their study with a clear understanding of what their community is, how it can function, and possible roles for them to participate. Do not forget that this approach also fosters community building within the classroom and students become reconnected to themselves and to each other.

Share on Facebook

The US Forest Service Conservation Education program (CE) helps people of all ages understand and appreciate our country’s natural resources — and learn how to conserve those resources for future generations. Through structured educational experiences and activities targeted to varying age groups and populations, the USFS CE enables people to realize how natural resources and ecosystems affect each other and how resources can be used wisely.

Welcome to the USFS Region 6 and thank you!

Share on Facebook

My primary goal as an educator at the Environmental Science School is to create connections between students and nature. I do this because I believe once students have a deep connection to nature, they become advocates, often for the rest of their life. We have lots of time and experiences with nature as part of our program.

An example. We spent several trips a few years ago along a certain creek watching, counting and learning about salmon. We watched a female dig a redd (her nest) and the whole cycle. Every time we went back the kids looked for red girl, as they had named her. During one rainy day the kids noticed a pipe dumping gunky water into OUR stream onto OUR fish. They were outraged. We followed the pipe back and discovered it was a street drain, full of crud and oil from cars off the road. I did not tell them how to feel or act, they did that on their own, based on their connection to that place. After school they  ALL met and cleaned up that whole street, then, unknown to me, a bunch of them went to an evening political debate between a couple of candidates for mayor. They stood up in a room full of adults, and demanded to know what the candidates were going to do about the street drains in our town which dump oil and gunk onto OUR salmon stream. They were articulate, bright and passionate advocates.

As far as I am concerned, this is why I teach.

Rob Sandelin is a naturalist and environmental educator who has since childhood spent much of his life observing and studying nature in the mountains of the Northwest. He has served as a park naturalist at Yosemite National Park, Olympic National Park, and Denali National Park. Currently he teaches field skills to student naturalists at the Environmental Education School of the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. He is the author of This Week in the Woods, a series of natural history essays; the Cohousing Resource Guide; and the Intentional Communities Resource Pages website. He lives with family and friends in the Sharingwood Cohousing Community in Snohomish County.

Share on Facebook

This interview is the first in a series that will be a regular feature in Clearing. Check back each month for a new interview with a leading environmental educator in the Pacific Northwest.

Saul Weisberg is executive director and co-founder of North Cascades Institute. He is an ecologist, naturalist and writer who has explored the mountains and rivers of the Pacific Northwest for more than 30 years. Saul worked throughout the Northwest as a field biologist, fire lookout, commercial fisherman and National Park Service climbing ranger before starting the Institute in 1986. He authored From the Mountains to the Sea, North Cascades: The Story behind the Scenery, Teaching for Wilderness, and Living with Mountains. Saul serves on the board of directors of the Association of Nature Center Administrators, the Natural History Network, and the Environmental Education Association of Washington. He is adjunct faculty at Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University. Saul lives near the shores of the Salish Sea in Bellingham, Washington with his wife and daughters.

Clearing talked to Saul on April 12, 2010:

You were the co-founder of the North Cascades Institute in 1986 and have been its executive director ever since. What changes have you seen in the field of environmental education over the years?

I’ve seen a big increase in the extent and rigor with which EE is pursued over the past 30 years. The various fields within EE (outdoor education, adventure education, conservation education) have blended and cross-pollinated each other. Now we see meaningful discussion of issues of social and economic justice, worker’s rights, and sustainability that bring even more people into the EE community.

I’m inspired by the recent emergence of E3 Washington as a powerful force to connect educators, environmentalists and the business community. I think that’s the future of EE – to grow beyond environmental education into true, deep, interdisciplinary, education for all – good education that really makes a difference in our communities.

How has the North Cascades Institute adapted to those changes?

We started out as a field-based organization focusing on natural and cultural history. That’s still at our core. Our mission is to conserve and restore Northwest environments through education – so at heart we’re a conservation organization whose tool is education. That sets us apart from many of our peers, and influences how our board and staff look at issues. It’s not just about doing good education, it’s about effecting positive change on the landscape of home.

We’ve been successful because we pay attention to the world as it changes around us. We listen to the scientists, pay attention to trends in public land management, learn from discussions by writers and bloggers. We’re always asking what’s the next thing that the public, and the schools, need to know. What do we need to pay attention to now, in 2010?

How did the recession affect the activities at NCI over the past couple of years?

Well it scared us into paying attention even more than we normally pay attention – which is quite a lot. Early in 2009 the schools were really worried about the state budget and we had a fairly significant number of schools pull out of spring programs. Our leadership team at the NCI met every Monday throughout the year, looking at trends, refocusing prioritities, and keeping close watch on the budget. We didn’t fill a couple of positions we would have filled in a normal year, and had to pull back in some other areas to focus on our priority youth programs. And we had a two-week unpaid furlough for all staff at the end of the year. The result of all this was that we ended the year really strongly – in the black, with several new initiatives successfully launched, and with a stronger staff and programs than when we began.

Tell me about some of those new initiatives at NCI. What are people excited about these days? I saw that you have recently acquired a 36-foot Salish canoe. It’s a thing of beauty, by the way.

The new canoe is a beauty. It’s a traditional Salish design in fiberglass, holds up to 18 paddlers, black hull, “oxblood” interior (it was made in Canada and that’s what they said). I love these big canoes. You can have a really diverse group in them, big people, small people, people in wheelchairs, and everyone is pulling together, talking and laughing, and seeing the world from a different perspective together.

The other project which we piloted in 2009, is “Cascades Climate Challenge.” Last year we brought 20 kids (4 each from DC, Chicago, Denver, SF and Seattle) to the North Cascades for 33 days to study climate change. Then they went home to begin field projects with their high schools and partner elementary schools. Then we took them to Washington DC for a week to meet and share with government officials. It was very, very powerful. We’ve got a bunch of videos up on our website about all of these programs. This year it’s expanding into 2, 3-week programs for a total of 40 kids, but all from WA and OR. Got to reduce the carbon footprint of a climate program….

Speaking of which, are you seeing evidence of climate change in the North Cascades?

The North Cascades have more glaciers than any other area of North America outside of Alaska. And they are dramatically shrinking. Mountains that I climbed 30 years ago now show rock and snow where there used to be ice. We’ve developed programs to focus attention on the challenge of climate change, and how human communities will have to adapt. These summer programs for high school students are some of the most exciting and rewarding work I’ve ever done.

Are you concerned about the seeming growth in anti-science, climate change-denying elements in society?

There always will be people who don’t want to think for themselves, or believe what the facts are saying. I think it’s worth engaging with them, to a point. We try to keep our focus on education, sharing information along with the affects of that knowledge on society. If we know something is threatening the planet we have an obligation to speak up, but also to be compassionate towards others who don’t agree with us. Issues like climate change will be with us forever. It’s worth taking the time to get it right.

But we can’t take too much time.

What do you think the future holds for non-formal education centers like NCI?

A recent editorial in the journal Nature pointed out that much of what people know about science is learned informally through time spent in the field, at nature centers, museums, zoos and aquaria. It goes on to say that education policy-makers should take note. We’ve been taking note of that for years. People learn best through deep, intimate experiences in nature. That’s what all of us in EE strive to provide.

What gives you the most pleasure in your role as Director of NCI?

Working with people. Making a difference. Seeing people get turned on by something they learn at one of our programs. Bringing in a big grant. Getting a clean audit. Hanging out at the Learning Center at Diablo Lake on a spring evening with a glass of wine, watching peregrine falcons soaring along the cliffs.

Where do you go when you need to reconnect with nature?

I go paddling on one of our local lakes in my 16’ solo canoe. It’s a quick way for me to reconnect with what’s blooming, which birds are singing, and with myself. This time of year the canoe often lives on top of my car. I do spend less time in the backcountry than I used to, and that bother me. This is the year for that to change. I need to get back into the high country.

Do you have a favorite place in the Pacific Northwest to visit?

Let’s see – mountains, rivers, ocean, eastside, westside… it’s all my favorite place. But I do love the northern stretches of the Olympic coast, any high ridgeline in the North Cascades, the Pasayten Wilderness, Malheur and Steens Mountain in Oregon.

It has been noted that most the great naturalists and nature writers could point to events in their childhood that led to their affinity for nature and their future work on environmental issues. What was your first nature experience that influenced your life?

Camping with my family at age 6 in Algonquin Provincial Park. We started a family tradition of spending 5 weeks each summer camping in parks throughout the US and Canada, often going back to the same place year after year. Those places became home to us, we stopped being tourists and felt like we really became part of the land.

Who is/are your environmental hero(es)?

Everyone who is looking at birds and bugs and flowers, teaching kids, and challenging themselves and each other to get busy and save the world. We’ve all got to pull together.

What are you currently reading?

The Collected Poems of Kenneth Rexroth, Wild Comfort, the Solace of Nature by Kathleen Dean Moore,  and Insectopedia by Hugh Raffles.

Are you optimistic about the future?

I’m not optimistic, but I am hopeful. I believe that we can change the world, save the world. There’s a quote by E.B. White that I really like. It goes like this… “I arise in the morning, torn between a desire to save the world, and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day.”

I think most of us understand what he was talking about. In my mind, a good day is when we can do both – savor and save the world. I like to think that’s our job.

Share on Facebook

Children were taken hostage in Russia, thousands died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and bombs were detonated in Palestine and Israel. All of these events have occurred while I have been an environmental educator at IslandWood. How these events define my role as an environmental educator may seem obscure at first, but they are actually paramount to my decision to devote my life to this career.

I began to question the value of environmental or outdoor education last September when I read reports of the hostage crisis in Russia. Children were sacrificed for political gain while I was preparing to teach children about ecosystems.  My career choice and what was needed in the world did not seem to be congruent. I could not see how what I was doing was alleviating suffering and dissipating hate. I wondered why it is important to teach children the abiotic parts of an ecosystem when there is a current of hate running through our society. Through this ongoing monologue I realized what role I want to play in environmental education. I want to help children build relationships and a sense of community in hopes that they will leave their experience with me a bit more likely to make positive choices.

I do not believe that children should grow up thinking that the environment is the world’s greatest problem, and it is their duty to save it, which some refer to as the ‘gloom and doom’ approach. Personally, I think that social problems have greater potential to exterminate humans long before we have a chance to kill the planet. The point of this polemic is that I believe children should be taught the value of treating everything with respect, which includes the natural world.

My role as an environmental educator is to teach about the environment, both natural and human-made, and to help others see and value the relationships in and between both. At IslandWood I spend a significant part of 4-day School Overnight Program discussing communities, those in a watershed or ecosystem, our group’s and their home community. Mornings begin with a focus question, which I have altered so that they are broader and can have answers that apply to the students’ own life. For example, “What is an ecosystem?” becomes “What is a community?,” so that human and natural communities can be discussed. The final question of the week “What can I do to make the world a better place?” can have myriad answers that connect their experiences at IslandWood and their lives back home.

I think that the experience of being outdoors in a small community can change people’s lives in extraordinary ways. The setting removes familiar pressures and attitudes, the people often feel freer to be themselves, and the experience is interesting. The combination of environmental education in the outdoors has had a great role in bringing me to this point in my life. I have lived, worked and studied in small communities in nature and believe that I am a better person because of it. I have facilitated these experiences for others and am consistently amazed by its impact. Patience, tolerance, respect and gratitude are virtues that can grow from environmental education, and I believe that these virtues are what is needed to save the world.

Julie Corotis is a graduate student of the IslandWood School on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Share on Facebook

by Mike Weilbacher

With the new wave of interest in the environment, will we finally give students the tools they need to become environmentally literate citizens?

In just a few weeks, high school seniors all around the United States will walk proudly across stages, hoisting their diplomas as they graduate from formal K–12 education. As their teachers, we’ll look on with some wistfulness, for the world into which they are graduating—one of spiraling financial crises coupled with huge international challenges—is vastly different from the one in which they started their senior year only 10 months ago.

But wait, it gets worse. If you place your finger on the pulse of the planet, this is what you’ll discover: global surface temperatures rising, glaciers melting, oceans warming, sea levels rising, rain forests burning, coral reefs dying, old-growth forests disappearing, deserts spreading, the world’s population increasing, and species vanishing at the highest rates since the extinction of the dinosaurs.

In short, the ecology that underpins our economy is also collapsing. And the solutions to this challenge elude not only most of our graduates, but also us—their teachers, administrators, and parents.

Will our graduates be ready for these new realities? Will they confidently stride into this world as college students, workers, voters, consumers—in short, as competent, caring adults capable of making good decisions on the pressing issues of the day?

Environmental Ignorance

Forty years ago, in the first issue of the Journal of Environmental Education, William B. Stapp (1969) defined the goal of the nascent field of environmental education as producing a citizenry that “is knowledgeable concerning the biophysical environment and its associated problems, aware of how to help solve these problems, and motivated to work toward their solution” (p. 30).

Today, a new U.S. president actively seeks approval from the American people for repairing the economic collapse while preventing the ecological one. There will be fierce pressure on President Obama to forego environmental projects in lieu of economic ones. Have the past 40 years of environmental education met Stapp’s challenge and created the environmentally literate citizenry we need to negotiate the coming trade-offs?

In a word, no.

A typical high school student is aware of environmental issues, has discussed and debated climate change or rain forest loss in some class sometime, and might have bumper-sticker answers to lapel-pin questions. But do our students know where the trash goes when it leaves their house? The leading source of greenhouse gas emissions? Why we recycle? (Glass and aluminum, after all, are not rare resources.) If you ask a group of students what we can do to combat the warming trend, several will chime in that we need to remove chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from hair spray. (Many high schoolers conflate global warming with ozone depletion and haven’t been told that CFCs were removed from the market 20 years ago.)

My organization surveyed high school students on these questions and more and discovered that although students are overwhelmingly “pro-environment,” they possess remarkably little information about breaking environmental issues. One small example: We asked them to name one bird they can identify by song. The leading answer? None. If local birds disappear from the landscape because of extinction, or arrive three weeks late because of warming climates, it’s possible that no one will notice.

Oh, there are numerous bright spots in the environmental education movement, but progress is hardly keeping up with the increasingly urgent issues that face us today. When Stapp coined his definition four decades ago, the United States was riding a wave of interest in the environment triggered by the Santa Barbara oil spill, Ohio’s Cuyahoga River catching fire, Lake Erie being declared biologically dead, and charismatic birds like eagles and peregrine falcons vanishing. As we addressed these issues, the wave crested, and interest in ecology quickly ebbed.

Today, even though an interest in green ideas is resurging, the issues are far more global, complex, and intertwined with politics. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels currently exceed 385 parts per million, almost 40 percent higher than pre–Industrial Revolution levels, and they are rising every year. Consequently, the Arctic Ocean is changing dramatically as the Arctic warms more quickly than anyone expected, and our graduates may see an ice-free polar cap in the summer in their lifetimes.

An International Union for the Conservation of Nature report (2008) noted that one in four of the world’s mammals are at risk of extinction from habitat loss, poaching, and climate change. Many critically important rivers—such as the Nile, the Yellow, and the Colorado—no longer empty water into the sea. Mountains of discarded cell phones and computers make their way to destitute Chinese villages, where they are picked apart for valuable metals, exposing the villagers to high concentrations of incredibly toxic materials.

To address today’s geopolitically entangled world of large, complex eco-issues, students simply have to know more than they did 40 years ago.

What’s the Problem?

Four issues have become huge obstacles to environmental literacy. First, students are extraordinarily disconnected from the environment. Richard Louv’s revelatory 2005 book Last Child in the Woods called attention to a world of children rapidly retreating from outdoor play and time spent in nature. Instead, modern kids stay indoors, “’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are,” as one 4th grader famously said (p. 10).

Viewing screens has become a child’s full-time job. Kids are plugged in 24/7, watching an average of 25 hours of TV a week (Gentile & Walsh, 2002) and then logging additional screen time on the Internet, browsing the Web, playing video games, and engaging in whole new verbs, like IMing and Facebooking. Louv coined the phrase nature-deficit disorder to describe the “human costs of alienation from nature” (p. 34), including diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness. Just when students need contact with nature more than ever, they have abandoned it.

Second, ask any environmental educator and he or she will bemoan No Child Left Behind, whose pressures have caused many schools to trade outdoor field trips for test prep. Science teachers routinely eliminate such concepts as environmental education, which do not appear to relate directly to questions on the tests. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Web site (2009) bluntly states, “No Child Left Behind is contributing to an increasing environmental literacy gap by reducing the amount of environmental education taking place in K–12 classrooms.”

Third, students’ exposure to environmental education depends on the luck of the draw and the amalgam of the interests of whichever teachers they happen to have throughout their school career. In my daughters’ school, there were two 5th grade teachers, one contagiously obsessed with birds and birdwatching and the other in love with Broadway musicals. One class went on an all-day birding trip; the other performed a play for the entire school. Both are equally interesting and important activities, but why didn’t the two cross-pollinate and give all 5th graders equal access to both? My daughters caught the birding bug, but one-half of the 5th grade never saw a nesting piping plover.

And finally, the downside of the large nonprofit universe of environmental education facilities—zoos, museums, aquariums, nature centers, parks, arboretums, children’s gardens—is that schools approach environmental education like a Chinese menu. They pick a field trip from column A and a lesson plan from column B; toss in an occasional Earth Day assembly, litter pickup, and letter to the president; and assume that their charges are now environmentally literate. And the nonprofits, wanting students to return the following year, emphasize fun over content, immersing the students in activity-based education that is designed to serve as an appetizer for environmental literacy but ends up becoming the main course. They often retreat from tough concepts like water shortages and stay with politically lighter ones like the water cycle.

The upshot? Even though there are more centers for environmental education and more college degree programs in environment-related fields than ever, and even though building green schools has suddenly emerged as an important idea (pre-economic meltdown), we are perhaps even farther from environmental literacy than we were in 1969.

Students are graduating from our schools thinking that green is good. But we haven’t given them the tools they need to become environmentally literate citizens.

New Research May Turn the Tide

Fortunately, several important research efforts are threading their way through the education system. For example, the Children and Nature Network, a Web-based organization (www.childrenandnature.org) that reports a wide variety of data and activities related to repairing the nature deficit disorder, showcases data illuminating the educational benefits of immersing students in the outdoors and environmental education experiences. And there’s tons of data.

The American Institutes for Research (2005) studied the effects of weeklong residential outdoor education programs in which most of the participants were at-risk youth. Comparing students who experienced the outdoor education program with those in a control group who had not had the experience, the researchers found a 27 percent increase in measured mastery of science concepts, plus enhanced cooperation and conflict-resolution skills, higher self-esteem, and gains in problem solving, motivation, and classroom behavior.

A Canadian study found that children whose school grounds include diverse natural settings are more physically active, more aware of nutrition, more civil to one another, and more creative (Bell & Dyment, 2006). Another study discovered that children playing in green settings have reduced symptoms of attention deficit disorder (Taylor, Kuo, & Sullivan, 2001).

The more studies are published, the more they agree: Exposure to nature raises test scores; increases creativity, cooperation, and self-confidence; reduces stress; and enhances cognitive abilities.

Promising Models

When the next wave of environmental interest washes over our schools, as it inevitably will, this body of research will support the new ideas for truly fulfilling Stapp’s dream of environmental literacy. Here are a few intriguing efforts now underway.

No Child Left Inside

In response to Louv’s book, more than 1,000 nonprofits with almost 50 million members have launched a variety of efforts loosely organized under the title “No Child Left Inside.” For instance, the National Audubon Society has pledged to place a family-oriented nature center in every congressional district. Connecticut governor M. Jodi Rell launched a special Web site (www.nochildleftinside.org) promoting state parks, an idea copied by many other states. And the U.S. Congress has considered a No Child Left Inside act that would provide federal funding for environmental literacy plans and for state efforts to train teachers in model environmental education programming, including outdoor learning. In the last session, the act passed the House, and supporters are eager to try again in the new Congress.

Green Charter Schools

For better or worse, the charter school movement has been sweeping across the United States in the last decade. A growing number of charter schools have been designed around the simple premise that the entire science curriculum can be taught through environmental education.

The Green Woods Charter School in Philadelphia is located on the campus of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, a 340-acre living laboratory of forests and fields, streams and ponds. The center’s naturalists are integrated into the science faculty of the school, and the students spend quality time immersed in the woods.

Wisconsin’s River Crossing Environmental Charter School, located in a one-room schoolhouse, provides a hands-on curriculum with subjects integrated through environmental studies. Students in 7th and 8th grade participate weekly in field trips and real-world ecosystem restoration projects, such as restoring the prairie and building rain gardens for storm water.

Other sites include California’s Environmental Charter High School, Connecticut’s Common Ground High School, and Florida’s Academy of Environmental Sciences. A Green Charter Schools Network (www.greencharterschools.org) has formed to assist teachers and staff. Sadly, precious few students are fortunate enough to attend these schools.

Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning

Another innovation that has grown in popularity in the last decade is the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning movement, a cumbersome name for a simple concept. In place of the rigorously scheduled school day of science, English, and gym periods, these programs use the environment and the outdoors as the centerpiece of students’ curriculum. This format breaks down barriers between disciplines, stresses team building and individualized learning, and involves students in real-world community issues.

In suburban Philadelphia, for example, the pioneering Watershed program at Radnor Middle School engages students in outdoor field studies all year, including stream testing, canoeing, trout rearing and release, and more. Students in the program spend all day together, except for math and foreign language classes, in which they are integrated with the rest of the school. Students hone their communication skills at conferences and youth summits.

One analysis of 40 Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning programs (Lieberman & Hoody, 1998) discovered that students in these programs outscored their peers on standardized tests, had better grades, and acted more independently and responsibly. At one school using this approach, reports to the principal’s office declined 91 percent in the three-year study period.

Wood Kindergartens

A rather radical movement has leapt across the pond from Europe and, coupled with Richard Louv’s work, has begun making inroads in the United States. In the Wood School model, child care workers and youngsters ages 3–6 spend the entire day outdoors in nature. The program is held outdoors in all seasons, although the group moves indoors in extreme weather. Proponents of this process assert that playing outside for prolonged periods strengthens the students’ immune systems and improves development of manual dexterity, physical coordination, tactile sensitivity, and depth perception.

Here in the United States, many nature centers, such as the Chippewa Nature Center in Midland, Michigan, have begun opening variants of Wood Kindergartens, versions that might not strictly adhere to the European’s outdoor component but still allow the students full and frequent access to natural areas and nature-based play (Reynolds, 2007).

Greening of the Culture

U.S. schools teach what American culture considers important. Once society decided that computer literacy was central to a solid education, computer classes invaded schools at warp speed, and the “digital divide” became an important and contentious issue.

As environmental issues heat up (pardon the pun), the culture is coming to consensus—again—on the importance of the environment. Green cable channels, green Web sites, eco-chic clothing, green roofs on green buildings, and innumerable products made from recycled objects are beginning to infuse the culture with a newfound interest in sustainability—an interest that ideally will create a ground swell of support for environmental improvement.

But the four horsemen of the global apocalypse—warming, species loss, water scarcity, and population growth—are bearing down on us, and many environmentalists worry about a vanishing window of opportunity for addressing these issues. Science fiction writer H. G. Wells was prophetic when he wrote in 1920 that “human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”

Environmental literacy is one race that education must win.

What Every Student Should Know About the Environment

There are scores of possible models of environmental education programs, and most have many of the following large concepts in common. As students go from kindergarten through high school, they can work their way down the list.

1. Earth overflows with life.
One of science’s biggest mysteries is how many species share this planet— estimates range from 5 million to 100 million species. Many environmental education programs begin with the premise that life is vanishing; young learners should first know that Earth teems with a huge number of creatures.

2. Each creature is uniquely adapted to its environment.
Every species evolved to possess a unique set of adaptations that enables it to survive and thrive in its ecosystem. Students should be on a first-name basis with many local creatures.

3. The web of life is interdependent.
Organisms evolve complex relationships, each depending on numerous other species for their survival.

4. Materials flow through ecosystems in cycles.
All creatures need water, air, and nutrients to survive. These materials cycle and recycle through ecosystems. The water we drink today is the same water we’ve always had, and always will.

5. The sun is the ultimate source of energy flowing through ecosystems.
Food grows from sunlight energy; our houses are heated by fossil fuels created many millennia ago from ancient sunlight.

6. There is no waste in nature; everything is recycled.
In nature, every waste product is used by other creatures. Humans have bent those circles into straight lines, where things are used once and tossed.

7. We consume resources to live.
Every student should know where the trash truck takes the trash, where water comes from, and how the nearest power plant makes electricity.

8. Conservation is the wise use of finite resources.
We are physical creatures with real needs—to eat, drink, build houses, write on paper. But how do we use these resources sustainably?

9. Humans can have a profound effect on environmental systems.
Fossil fuels pump carbon dioxide into the sky; habitat loss is causing the extinction of large numbers of species. Our actions profoundly affect the ecological systems that sustain living things—and us. Nature can often repair these systems (forests grow back, for example); but humans are changing systems faster than nature can adapt.

10. Each of us can powerfully affect the fate of the natural world.
Because each of us is directly plugged into the planet, the actions we take—or fail to take—profoundly influence earth’s systems.

Mike Weilbacher is Director of the nonprofit Lower Merion Conservancy in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. He travels the United States as an environmental educator, performer, and workshop presenter. E-mail: mike@dragonfly.org; Web site: www.mikeweilbacher.com; Blog: www.mikeweilbacher.blogspot.com.

References

American Institutes for Research. (2005). Effects of outdoor education programs for children in California. Palo Alto, CA: Author.

Bell, A. C., & Dyment, J. E. (2006). Grounds for action: Promoting physical activity through school ground greening in Canada. Toronto: Evergreen.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation. (2009). What has NCLB done to environmental education? [Online]. Annapolis, MD: Author. Available: www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_sub_actioncenter_federal_nclb_done

Gentile, D. A., & Walsh, D. A. (2002). A normative study of family media habits. Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, 157–178.

International Union for the Conservation of Nature. (2008). IUCN Red List reveals world’s mammals in crisis [Press release]. Gland, Switzerland: Author. Available: www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/red_list/?1695/IUCN-Red-List-reveals-worlds-mammals-in-crisis

Lieberman, G. A., & Hoody, L. L. (1998). Closing the achievement gap: Using the environment as an integrating context for learning. Poway, CA: State Education and Environment Roundtable.

Louv, R. (2005). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Reynolds, C. (2007, January 22). Everybody in the vegetable patch! MacLeans, 42. Available: www.macleans.ca/education/universities/article.jsp?content=20070122_139722_139722

Stapp, W. B., et al. (1969). The concept of environmental education. Journal of Environmental Education, 1(1), 30–31.

Taylor, A. F., Kuo, F. E., & Sullivan, W. C. (2001). Coping with ADD: The surprising connection to green play settings. Environment and Behavior, 33(1), 54–77.

Share on Facebook