2011 CLEARING Compendium
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 hereTHE 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!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!
Guest Writers: Voices of the PNW
, Eckstein Middle School,
Jessica Levine
Seattle, Washington
Gregory Smith,
Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon
Harmony Roll,
Taiga Teacher, Anchorage, Alaska
Lindsay Huettman,
Wilderness Awareness SchoolINTERVIEWS 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
K-12 Activity of the Day
Exploring the Tidal Zone Nature Awareness—Grades K-3 Observing the Total Beach
1. Close your eyes and listen to the sound of the seashore. Listen from a distance. Listen more closely to the water on the rocks, the wind and the plants and the water on the sand. How many different sounds can you hear?
2. Observe the various movements at the seashore (plants, animals, boats, clouds, water, sand). Record the fastest movement, the slowest movement, and something that doesn't seem to move at all.
3. Identify the four tidal zones (spray, high time, mid-tide, low-tide). Plant a marker or stick between each zone for further comparisons.
4. Make an animal survey of the four tidal zones, examining one square foot in each zone.
5. When the tide is out, feel and/or record the temperature of the ocean, a mid-tide zone pool, a high tide zone pool, and the air. What conclusions can be drawn about animals and plants living in these tidal areas?
6. Taste the water of a shallow high tide pool and a large mid-tide pool. Is there any difference? Why?
7. What evidence can you find that shows the force of the ocean? Look for large logs that have washed up. Feel and compare its texture with a living tree. Notice erosion of shoreline (rocks, tide pools, sand, etc.)
8. How does the sea palm, clam, crab, barnacle and limpet withstand wave shock? Compare and test those with holdfasts.
9. Watch for and discuss man's influence on the beach environment.
—Reprinted from a past issue of CLEARING
Jim Martin, Mar
16
No Student Left Indoors
Filed Under Resources, Schoolyard Classroom | Leave a Comment
Creating a Field Guide to Your Schoolyard
No Student Left Indoors is your opportunity to learn and teach about our planet by helping your students to create a field guide to your schoolyard. Whether you’re a nature buff or nature-phobe, a literary genius or writing impaired, artistically talented or one who can’t draw a straight line with a ruler, and teaching gift or challenged students in an urban, suburban, or rural school—you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of this before.
You’ll learn:
- Who can participate in and benefit from a schoolyard study
- What those benefits are
- Where to look for nature in your schoolyard
- When to conduct your studies
- How to teach students to discover, observe, and record the nature in your schoolyard
- Why everyone is talking about No Student Left Indoors
This is a project for a class, grade, or entire school. It can be a long-term project based on inquiry, investigation, and hands-on learning, The project connects science, language arts, history, creative arts, and technology.
Available from http://www.takeawalk.com/
or through Acorn Naturalists http://www.acornnaturalists.org
Mar
2
The Kids’ Guide to Nature Adventures
Filed Under Resources | Leave a Comment
80 Great Activities for Exploring the Outdoors
Whether their outdoor adventures include camping, hiking, or just exploring the backyard, kids will have a memorable experience with this cheerfully illustrated “nature guide” in their backpack. It’s filled with super projects and games. The fun begins at home with instructions for making such necessities as a sleeping bag and first aid kit, and continues at the campsite with ghost stories and a sing-along. Take a closer look at wildlife by learning animal calls, setting up a bird restaurant, or constructing an earthworm apartment. Try one of the 10 special hikes; maybe the one where you go on the prowl for owls. Most important, see how to leave everything as you found it, and how to bring nature back home in the form of a journal, sketchbook, audiotape, or photographs. With 80 cool outdoors activities to choose from, children won’t want to come back inside!
—from Taproot, A Publication of The Coalition for Education in the Outdoors.
ISBN 1579903738 from Lark Books, 2003, 28 pgs, $17.95 ($27.95 Canada)
Feb
25
Q and A: Michael Becker Talks About Hood River Middle School Outdoor Classroom
Filed Under Climate change, Interviews, Outdoor education, Place-based Education, Programs | 2 Comments
Anne Marie Untalan, Michael Becker, and Ashley Sprouse, developers of the HRMS Outdoor Classroom Project.
CLEARING: What have been the most difficult issues in getting this project started?
Michael Becker: One of the Permaculture Design Method principles is to start small, and I highly advocate for starting with small projects that you can have initial success with. Trying to get space is often a hurdle, and if you can show that you have managed a small space efficiently and generated student interest and outcomes you’re more likely to be able to expand. It’s important to have a sense of where you’d like to go in the future but be focused on what you can do today. Read more
Feb
22
Beach Hoppers: Inquiry-based learning while having fun!
Filed Under Art and EE, Marine/Aquatic Education, Programs | Leave a Comment
Field trips are exciting. Field trips incorporating inquiry-based learning and live animals are even better.
by Stephanie Schroeder
This second grade unit focuses on beach hoppers, tiny amphipods found on most sandy beaches. The first three lessons focus on learning beach hopper characteristics in the classroom and teaching students how to do scientific fieldwork. Once the students are beach hopper experts, they take a field trip to the sandy beach to conduct experiments on beach hoppers.
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Feb
19
Review: Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature
Filed Under Non-formal, Outdoor education, Resources, Reviews | Leave a Comment
©2008 Jon Young and Wilderness Awareness School.
This a book that needs to be in the possession of everyone who claims to be, or aspires to be, an outdoor educator. This book goes to the heart of developing a sense of kinship with nature and teaching about connecting to the land and to nature.
The Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature is clearly the book of a lifetime for authors Jon Young, Ellen Haas and Evan McGown. It calls on ancient wisdom and generations of teaching to lay out a path for anyone with a desire to share nature with others. It offers dozens of activities, stories, songs, and games, guided by the excitement of discovery, real connections with animals and plans, and a sense of belonging through knowing our place on the planet.
Coyote’s Guide can be purchased through the Wilderness Awareness School website at www.wilderness awareness.org .
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