Curriculum: “Connecting Students to the World”, Lessons for Literacy, Science, and Social Studies
To all residential environmental educators: You are invited!
Straight Talk, Sound Ideas
IslandWood is convening a conference for residential environmental educators in the Pacific Northwest!
Meet new colleagues, make new connections and friends, get fresh ideas – get inspired!
You can look forward to workshops, explorations and courageous conversations.
To date we are planning sessions on cattail weaving, bat/owl “hunting,” storytelling, linking learning in nature to urban ecosystems. We also have guest speakers who will address working outdoors with children who have attention deficit issues and teaching to diverse learning styles.
OFFER IDEAS! Session topics are still being accepted. Offer an idea from your center!
COST: $100/person, including shared (quad) accommodations, Monday breakfast through Tuesday lunch, and all programming.
For more information and to register, go to: http://straittalksoundideas.eventbrite.com/
The Failure of Environmental Education: And What We Can Do to Fix It
by Charles Saylan and Daniel Blumstein
(excerpt from the book)
nvironmental education has failed to bring about the changes in attitude and behavior necessary to stave off the detrimental effects of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation that our planet is experiencing at an alarmingly accelerating rate.
For decades, scientists have warned of the potentially devastating consequences of climate change, and although it has become a highly politicized issue, serious problems still loom in earth’s near future. A conservative approach would dictate that our societies act expediently to mitigate these potential threats. But that is not happening. Instead, we are all paralyzed by indecision, argument, misplaced politicization of the issues, and a widespread lack of commitment to change. The pace of environmental degradation, however, is not slowing. (more…)
Dam Removal as a Teaching Tool
by Derek Jones
We erect dams assuming they are eternal, as if they’ll never topple over or be dismantled or fill with sediment or lose their financial rationale. Yet all dams will die. . . They’ll be reminders of an ancient time when humans believed they could vanquish nature, and found themselves vanquished instead.
— Jacques Leslie, from “Deep Water, the Epic Struggle over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment”
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY if I asked if you knew that the nation’s second largest ecological restoration project was happening right now only a 2 ½ hour drive from Seattle? Would you be able to name the project? If given a map of the Puget Sound Region, would you be able to point out where the Elwha River is? How many of your students could do the same? The removal of two dams on the Elwha River provides students with a fascinating case study that contains elements of a wide swath of topics covered in, and out of, the classroom; engineering, social studies, ecology, mathematics, history, and geology among others. It is up to educators to make sure that such an enormous and complex project with such far-reaching implications does not go by without being appropriately utilized as a teaching tool. (more…)