Attention PNW Environmental Educators

A CALL FOR PAPERS

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Scroll through recent articles from CLEARING

Using Stations to Increase Student Independence: Overview and Lesson Plan

by Allison Breeze s an educator, I believe that learning happens when students are applying their knowledge in practice. To this end, I am always looking for activities that engage students in hands-on ways with whatever topic they are learning about. Exploration and...

Maybe the problem wasn’t WHAT we were learning but WHERE we were learning?

At-risk students are exposed to their local environment to gain an appreciation for their community, developing environmental awareness built on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors applied through actions.   Lindsay Casper and Brant G. Miller University of Idaho...

Exploring the Classroom Beyond: A Beginner’s Guide to Implementing Place-based Educatiom

by Lucy Clothier eing a new teacher in this contemporary era of education can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. The demands placed upon teachers are extensive, often lacking clear pathways to achieving these substantial goals. Within the...

Finding Dragons

by Erin Banks Rusby rerinted from the Idaho Press n the summer of 2023, a group of high school students and adults converged over their shared interest in science and dragonflies. Known as the Finding Dragons program, the effort aimed to provide hands-on, publishable...

Leaning into Content with Lesson Sequencing

by Zachary Zimmerman Bainbridge Island, WA s an outdoor educator, I often get sucked into the false binary that lessons are either fun or informative, that content must be sweetened with games, stories, and activities like applesauce for children’s medicine. But...

Bird by Bird We Come to Know the Earth

by Emma Belanger As someone who comes from a low-income background and grew up in a semi-urban environment, birds were one of the first aspects of the more-than-human world that I felt truly connected to without having to obtain expensive gear, resources, or and a way...

Asking Questions

Key Considerations for Asking Questions as a Field-Based Science Instruction By Amos Pomp Introduction We do not ask [questions] in a vacuum; what we ask, how, and when are all related. – Bang et al., 2018 How can field-based science instructors be intentional with...

ADHD in the Outdoors

Five 5th-grade students sit or stand facing a sunny pond surrounded by lush greenery, working on a writing task or exploring quietly. Photographed by Greyson Lee Background Music and Birdsong: ADHD in the Outdoors by Greyson Lee After several hours of watching my dad...

River Newe: Creating New Narratives

River Newe: Creating New Narratives On Historic Landscapes In this article we present our work that directly addresses Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) for our tribal youth of the Shoshone-Bannock people. We have reimagined what JEDI means for us...

The Judgment of the Barnacles

There’s a song in the sea for those who listen, and messages in the sand for those with far reaching eyes.   By Dr. Gloria Snively and Doug Wonnacott The morning silently creeps in upon the gray, green waves. Smooth flat rocks that tumbled together for a thousand...

Ear to the Ground: Interviews with PNW Environmental Educators

  Robert Steelquist, Coastal Explorer, Environmental Educator (2021) Jane Tesner Kleiner (2021) Greening the Schoolgrounds Gary Dorr (Standing Red Bear) (2018) Reclaiming a Culture through the Traditional Canoe Monica Nissen (2015) 2015 Environmental Educator of the...

Mind the Gap: How Environmental Education Can Step Forward to Address the STEM Achievement Gap

Environmental Education is a broad field encompassing nature centers, school forests, outdoor education facilities, state and national parks among others. This diversity of organization type allows for wide engagement by the public and holds great potential for...

Inside the Spring 2019 Issue

Inside the Spring 2019 issue https://clearingmagazine.org/archives/15269 https://clearingmagazine.org/archives/16855 https://clearingmagazine.org/archives/14324 https://clearingmagazine.org/archives/14370

Justice and Equity in Environmental Education – Special Issue Winter 2022

CLEARING Special Focus Issue: Justice, Equity and Diversity in Environmental Education Guest Editor: R. Justin Hougham, Ph.D. Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison Special Advisor: Derek Hoshiko, Community Organizer and Educator on Climate Change and...

Fall 2018 EE Resources

https://clearingmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/F18Resources.pdf  

Thoughts of an Outdoor Education “Elder”

by Daniel Kreisberg During college I was a waterfront director at a sleepaway camp and absolutely loved it. When my post college job search led me to residential outdoor education centers I was thrilled. It was summer camp all year round and it allowed me to follow my...

Bringing Nature Back to the Schoolyard

by Jane Tesner Kleiner, RLA     Imagine walking out the back door of your school, surrounded by the songs of spring time birds, the soft scents of flowers in bloom, the wind billowing through nearby trees, and (if you are lucky) the croaking of Pacific tree...

Learning in an authentic, meaningful, interdisciplinary environment

A Year in the Watershed There is no doubt that if you want to get students truly excited about what they are learning, ask them to tackle a real-world question or problem — ask them to solve something that is relevant to their lives. by Jean M. Wallace It is no...

Making Outdoor Education More Accessible

Effective Practices For Night Hike By: Grace Werner The mainstream outdoor industry, as it exists today, is a blanket of whiteness that ignores sacred stories, crucial histories, and traditional knowledge of black and brown people (Brown, 2019). This truth is...

Land Acknowledgement Resource Cards

A New Tool: Land Acknowledgment Resource Cards (LARC) by Grace Crowley-Thomas Throughout Canada, New Zealand, and parts of the United States, educators and leaders are engaging in a practice called “land acknowledgment.” Generally, this is a practice that is meant to...

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Highlights from past issues
CLEARING is published in support of state/regional E.E. associations
and organizations in the Pacific Northwest.

Alaska Natural Resources and Outdoor Education

Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network

Environmental Education Provincial Specialist Association (British Columbia)

Idaho Environmental Education Association