Investigating the Secrets of the Underwater World

By Cindy A. Littlefield
Illustrations by Sarah Rakitin
Published by Williamson Publishing, 2003, 120 p.

Reviewed by Sharon A. Hollander

I review children’s books, and I read through plenty on science and nature. I can honestly say that I felt a wave of relief when I came upon Awesome Ocean Science! Investigating the Secrets of the Underwater World, a Williamson Kids Can! Book.

I recently took home a big stack of books on the environment, and I was disappointed, not to mention bored by most of them.  Perhaps appropriate as sources for school reports, I can’t imagine a child spontaneously picking one up for leisure reading. In fact, some of these books would test even an adult without bulletproof interest in the topic.  Well-written and visually appealing, Awesome Ocean Science! stood out in the crowd. …..Click here to read more

Share on Facebook

An Outdoor Environmental Learning Classroom for the
Students of Suquamish Elementary School

By Melinda West

There is a Salish legend passed down by the First Peoples of the Pacific Northwest that explains the origin of the cedar tree and why it has been referred to as: “Long-Life Maker”.  For over four-thousand years this slow-growing, shade-and- water-loving evergreen has resided amongst the fir, yew and hemlock trees, in forests along the edges of Puget Sound. The legend explains that the cedar trees were once generous people who looked to the welfare of others in their community and responded to their needs.  I’d like to tell you a story that makes me believe the spirit of this legend is alive and flourishing today. …..Click here to read more

Share on Facebook

What is your current job title?

I am a Field Science Educator for the Olympic Park Institute.

How did you get into this field?

My educational background is in Biology and Secondary Education, and when I graduated from college, I just wasn’t ready to teach in the classroom.  I had an urge to be outside; to live in and experience natural places. Teaching in an outdoor setting seemed to be the best of both worlds.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I’m working on developing a bird feeding behavior/natural history curriculum that is usable for a wide range of students. I’m also at the early stages of developing a hands on, long-term river ecology program which would get students to monitor – via underwater video footage, as well as stream health monitoring – changes or consistencies in the river ecosystem we have access to near our facility.

What is your favorite part of your job?

Opening students eyes to the natural world, and giving them the tools to learn about it and enjoy it keep me coming to work every day.

If you could change anything about your work, what would it be?

I’d love to have more time to impact students. If I had the ability, I would love to see longer programming.

Where do you find inspiration for the work you do?

I find my inspiration from the beautiful places I work, and from the people teaching by my side. To see my fellow educators teaching to their passions about this place inspires me.

What is your favorite resource or tool for teaching about the environment?

My favorite tools for teaching about the environment are current issues. Here on the Olympic peninsula logging and land management are a great resource to get students thinking about land as a resource, and how it is cared for and managed. Frequent field trips to various sites around the peninsula give students great access to seeing clear cuts and other managed lands, which can lead to phenomenal discussions.

Where do you go when you want to recharge your batteries?

Moving water and big mountains recharge my batteries. By either playing or exploring in them, going for a run near them, or just taking them in, I feel myself being recharged.

What is your favorite place to visit in the Pacific Northwest?

The Northwest is way too spectacular to pick one favorite place! Unfair question! I do find myself drawn to rivers, with the Solduc being closest to my house.

What is your favorite nature/environment book?

My current favorite book is Gary Larson’s ‘There’s a hair in my Dirt’. I like that students often miss some of his adult humor, but are still able to take home his message.

Who do you consider your environmental hero?

I can’t pick one name to represent my environmental hero, but I consistently look toward my students as heros. They have the power to make informed, positive decisions, and are the sponges which soak up information and experiences and can help make a positive impact.

Share on Facebook

By Mark Costigan
reprinted from The Oregon Daily Emerald

Andrew Nyman, Associate Professor Wetland Wildlife ... Andrew Nyman, Associate Professor Wetland Wildlife Management & Ecology of LSU AgCenter, takes samples of beach sand beside oil booms at the coast of South Pass, south of Venice, Louisiana, where oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead continues to spread in the Gulf of Mexico, May 2, 2010. A huge wind-driven oil slick bore down on the U.S. Gulf coast on Sunday, threatening an environmental catastrophe, and the Obama administration heaped pressure on BP Plc to halt the uncontrolled spill from its ruptured Gulf of Mexico well. Since the explosion and sinking last week of the Deepwater Horizon rig, a disaster scenario has emerged with hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil spewing unchecked into the Gulf and moving inexorably northward to the coast. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

It’s sad that it takes a threat of crude oil reaching American beachfront property for people to wake up.

It seems the only way people unite around fighting environmental degradation is when the effects become visible and personal. If only there were some way to make the color of carbon dioxide highlighter yellow or jet black. Then perhaps people would wake up to the havoc they’re wreaking on my playground.

That’s right. My personal playground, the outdoors, continues to get pushed around like a new kid being picked on by a 12-year-old bully — except nature is a little older than the humans who bully it.

It took 24 days in the wilderness with the National Outdoor Leadership School for me to wake up to the effects of climate change. A month before moving to Eugene, I embarked on an outdoor educator expedition in the Absaroka wilderness in Wyoming. Between eating a third of the amount of food I normally eat, nearly dying on a glacier, and conquering 13,000-foot peaks, the expedition not only gave me a new appreciation for wild places, but it humbled me to something similar to my original human form. …..Click here to read more

Share on Facebook

by Julie Lancaster

Last year, I left the OE world that I love so much and went back to school to get my teaching credential/MA Education. I felt that loving education as much as I do, it would be extremely beneficial to study it! Finding myself headed toward student teaching in the classroom, I kept reaffirming my commitment to OE, and vowed that I would reenter that world once I was finished with my program.

Well, I survived learning and teaching in a traditional classroom setting, and I still have a love of teaching and learning outdoors (of course). After finishing my program this past July, I jumped into a new direction that bridged OE and the school system. I have become the Special Programs Director at an elementary school, where as one of my primary jobs is creating and teaching K-6 in a school garden (AKA Life Lab or Garden Classroom). It is absolutely wonderful. …..Click here to read more

Share on Facebook

If you’re starting from scratch, use these steps as a guide to create an environmental group in your school or community. If you’re already part of a high school class or club that addresses environmental issues, consider joining National Wildlife Federation’s Earth Tomorrow network to share ideas and successes with groups nationwide. …..Click here to read more

Share on Facebook

by Kenny Ausubel

For all the chatter about the Age of Information, we really seem to be entering the Age of Biology. We didn’t invent nature. Nature invented us. Nature bats last, as the saying goes and, more importantly, it’s her playing field. We would do well to learn at least some of the ground rules.

The great ecological play takes place in a food web that makes no waste, powered by a solar economy that neither mines the past nor mortgages the future. Some of its guiding principles are diversity, kinship, symbiosis, reciprocity and community. It’s alive. It’s intelligent. It’s connected. It’s all relatives. …..Click here to read more

Share on Facebook

Warren Marchioni, Frances Vandervoort, Frank Hinerman, Ann Stocker, and Judy Kemlitz – 1991 Woodrow Wilson Biology Institute

Classroom Ideas

*  Try to germinate tropical plant seeds in the classroom and have students determine the best conditions for plant growth (high humidity and warm temperatures.) Either order seeds (see Resources) or have students save seeds from tropical fruits they eat.

*   Visit a local botanical garden or conservatory so students can see the variety of tropical plants in the world.

*   Many large zoos have tropical rainforest exhibits. Before you take your class to the zoo, find out what materials are available from the zoo’s education department. Use them to prepare your students for a meaningful visit.

*  Examine a variety of tropical fruits and seeds and have students determine the seeds’ means of dispersal. (Students will find a variety of dispersal methods, reflecting the variety of the rainforest’s flora and fauna.) …..Click here to read more

Share on Facebook

By Greg Fizzell, Tiffany Cooper, and Aly Bean

The education program at the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI) gives local school groups and community members an opportunity to learn about the natural world while participating in community service. PCEI programs are unique in nature because of their ability to connect state-of-the-art watershed restoration projects with community education. Through a multitude of programs from pond and stream ecology to the Complete Kinder Series, PCEI serves over 1,500 K-university students, teachers, and citizens annually. …..Click here to read more

Share on Facebook

Our inherent perspectives color the world we share with our students.

by Victor Elderton

Many of us in environmental education strive to create lessons and activities which we hope will facilitate greater understanding and stimulate higher levels of environmental inquiry among our students. The number of positive programs and initiatives which have been started is not vast compared to Language, Social Studies or Mathematics curriculum materials, but at the same time there are enough representative samples around to say there is significant interest in the field.

The very fact that Clearing can publish articles about different points of view as to the most effective ways of teaching and learning about the environment is testament to how interested a number of us are in how we teach and how students should be instructed about the environment. I have found this a very healthy debate, which has led me to question my own teaching and methodology. How often in our teaching zeal do we question what we are actually teaching, though? We often discuss at length and with passion how we teach, but do we really ask the question: what are we teaching? What are the biases we inherently teach as environmental educators?

ALERT: You need to be a CLEARING subscriber to read the rest of this article.
(enter password then hit return button on your keyboard for best results)

Share on Facebook