CLEARING: PNW Journal of Environmental Education in the Pacific Northwest | A Nonprofit Journal for Environmental Education in the Pacific Northwest

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Attention PNW Environmental Educators

A CALL FOR PAPERS

Share your teaching ideas, success stories, or perspectives in CLEARING!

Scroll through recent articles from CLEARING

Landscape and Language

by editor | September 12, 2024 | Environmental Literacy | 0 Comments

Landscape and Language Going outside can enhance language arts skills and open childrens’ eyes to the wonder of nature. By Lorraine Ferra When the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke admitted to his sculptor friend Rodin that he had come to a standstill in his writing, the...

Integrating Place-based EE, Literacy, and the Performing Arts

by editor | August 22, 2024 | Arts and Humanities, Environmental Literacy, Language Arts, Place-based Education | 0 Comments

Staging Nature Integrating Place-based Environmental Education, Literacy, and the Performing Arts by Regine Randall, Rebecca Edmondson, and MaryAnne Young "Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher!” Such a cry is likely to get any educator’s attention—and...

Focusing on local environmental issues

by editor | August 9, 2024 | Data Collection, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Place-based Education | 0 Comments

Building Environmental Education from Community Resources Sophie Diliberti, Justin Hougham, Brad Bessler, and Brooke Bellmar ocusing on specific aspects of learners’ local context can increase their engagement in environmental education. One way for educators to...

Field-based Research

by editor | June 19, 2024 | Critical Thinking, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Features on Outstanding Programs, Marine/Aquatic Education, Outdoor education and Outdoor School, Outstanding Programs in EE, Place-based Education, Teaching Science | 0 Comments

How to Design Field-based Research Experiences By Molly L. Sultany, msultany@nwacademy.org High School Teacher, Northwest Academy, Portland, Oregon Navigating Unchartered Waters How can educators help students feel more connected to the outdoors while engaging with...

Idaho Environmental Education Teacher Award

by editor | June 2, 2024 | Environmental Education News, Outstanding EE Teachers | 0 Comments

Idaho teacher awarded for environmental education instruction Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on June 26, 2023 Misha Smith, a sixth grade teacher at Hawthorne Elementary in Boise, earned two recognitions for her work as an environmental science and geography...

Experiential Learning to Create Authentic Learning

by editor | June 1, 2024 | Experiential Learning | 0 Comments

Experiential Learning to Create Authentic Learning by Haley Korcz hen in your academic career did you question why you were learning something or how it would benefit you in real life? Did real-life connections from your academic learning impact your career choice?...

Equity in a Time of Socio-Environmental Justice

by editor | April 18, 2024 | Environmental Literacy | 0 Comments

Equity in a Time of Socio-Environmental Justice by Max Jimenez Environmental Literacy, Policy This article was republished with permission and originally appeared in California Classroom Science (CCS), an e-newsletter produced by the California Science Teachers...

by editor | April 18, 2024 | Environmental Literacy | 0 Comments

“We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate, and lack. We should not long to return, my friends....

Special Issue: Justice, Equity and Diversity in Environmental Education

by editor | April 18, 2024 | Equity and Inclusion, Indigenous Peoples & Traditional Ecological Knowledge | 0 Comments

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 Environmental Equity e are excited to bring our readers this special edition of CLEARING...

Using Stations to Increase Student Independence: Overview and Lesson Plan

by editor | March 18, 2024 | Environmental Literacy, K-12 Activities, Learning Theory | 0 Comments

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?

by editor | March 17, 2024 | At-risk Youth, Critical Thinking, Data Collection, Environmental Literacy, Equity and Inclusion, IslandWood, Learning Theory, Outdoor education and Outdoor School, Place-based Education, Questioning strategies, Schoolyard Classroom, Teaching Science | 0 Comments

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 Education

by editor | March 16, 2024 | Environmental Literacy, Place-based Education | 0 Comments

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 editor | March 2, 2024 | Environmental Literacy, Place-based Education, Schoolyard Classroom, Teaching Science | 0 Comments

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 editor | January 16, 2024 | Environmental Literacy, IslandWood, K-12 Activities, K-12 Classroom Resources, Learning Theory | 0 Comments

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 editor | January 16, 2024 | Environmental Literacy, IslandWood, Language Arts, Outdoor education and Outdoor School, Schoolyard Classroom | 0 Comments

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

by editor | October 17, 2023 | Critical Thinking, IslandWood, Learning Theory, Outdoor education and Outdoor School, Place-based Education, Questioning strategies | 0 Comments

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

by editor | October 17, 2023 | Environmental Literacy, Equity and Inclusion, IslandWood, Learning Theory | 0 Comments

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

by editor | May 27, 2022 | Equity and Inclusion, Indigenous Peoples & Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Tribes & Traditional Ecological Knowledge | 0 Comments

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

by editor | May 27, 2022 | Marine/Aquatic Education | 0 Comments

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

by editor | May 25, 2022 | Interviews with Educators & Leaders | 0 Comments

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...