Environmental Literacy
From Alaska to Oregon: Students Experience the 2025 NAME Conference
From Alaska to Oregon: Students Experience the 2025 NAME Conference reprinted from NW Compass, the newsletter of the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME) The Ketchikan National Ocean Sciences Bowl team, also known as the Saber-Toothed Salmon, is a competition...
Digital Environmental Literacy: Student Generated Data and Inquiry
How do we train educators to successfully interface technologies with the outdoor experiences that they provide their students? by R. Justin Hougham, Marc Nutter, Megan Gilbertson, Quinn Bukouricz University of Wisconsin - Extension Originally published January 2020...
Fun With Soil Health: Engaging Communities in Agriculture Education
It’s hard to imagine a more attention-getting activity for students of all ages than the Soil Your Undies Challenge. The name alone evokes questions, and the process is a memorable way for students to understand the multiple factors impacting soil health, as 21 K-12...
Pairing Autoethnography with Biocultural Diversity in Botanical Gardens
Dr. David Zandvliet, Ph.D., Simon Fraser University Professor and UNESCO Chair Chantal Martin Director, Education & Research Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association Poh Tan PhD (UBC, Exp. Medicine), PhD (SFU, Education) Scientist, Researcher, Educator, Author,...
A linguistic “ecosystem”: Word study methods for outdoor education
A linguistic "ecosystem": Word study methods for outdoor education by Sam Rubin samrubin19@gmail.com Once the students had settled on the benches of the Pond Shelter on IslandWood’s campus, I unfolded my large butcher paper with the word "macroinvertebrate"...
Integrating Place-based EE, Literacy, and the Performing Arts
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...
Field-based Inquiry: Developing Comprehension and Memory
Field-based Inquiry: Developing Comprehension and Memory Preparing teachers to introduce their students to field-based research in local or regional environments means that these teachers have an inherent need to actually be able to do the kinds of work they plan for...
Building a Community: The Value of a Diack Teacher Workshop
Building a Community: The Value of a Diack Teacher Workshop Teachers are being asked to do more than ever before. We are inundated with meetings, grading, analyzing data and curriculum development. The idea of taking kids outside to do field-based research can be...
Instilling a culture of caring and fieldwork in a Montessori adolescent program
Instilling a culture of caring and fieldwork in a Montessori adolescent program by Jonathan Erickson Metro Montessori School Portland Oregon One thing that drives most educators is the hope that we are guiding students who will ultimately care about the work that they...
Expeditionary Learning: Exploring Healthy Forests
Expeditionary Learning: Exploring Healthy Forests By Val McKern and Greg Goodnight What is a healthy forest? That is the question that Kettle Falls Elementary School fourth graders have been grappling with all winter. In order to examine this question, fourth grade...
Making Science Engaging at Camp
Making Science Engaging at Camp Connecting art and science helps students find STEM classes more engaging and enjoyable By Elli Korthuis 4-H is a youth development organization that focuses on helping members, ages 5-19 years, grow as individuals through their mastery...
Bringing the Ocean into the Schools…and Schools to the Ocean
Bringing the Ocean into the Schools...and Schools to the Ocean By Catherine and Joachim Carolsfeld “I like the discoveries of the sea tank each time I look at it.” (10 year old Elementary School Student) “Some specimens in our tank that are local I didn’t even know...
Living Soil and Composting: Life’s Lessons in Learning Gardens
Living Soil and Composting: Life's Lessons in Learning Gardens by Dilafruz Williams and Jonathan Brown, Portland State University After we spread the chicken poop, we covered it with hay… the poop was the fertilizer and the hay was the stuff that kept the plants warm....
Homeschooling and the Establishment of a Research Forest
A Natural Fit: Homeschooling and the Establishment of a Research Forest by Jess Lambright For those open to an alternative educational path, a classroom with no walls or desks but instead trees, meadows, and streams, offers abundant opportunities for scientific...
Thoughts on teaching environmental realism at an early age
The wild turkeys on my street don’t wear booties in the winter and the mouse in my house doesn’t wear bonnets from a closet! Should environmental education start with realism in the early years? by Suzanne Major Ph.D. Anthropology of Early Childhood Education Books...
Cultivating Identity: The power of identity development in the environmental education field
Cultivating Identity: The power of identity development in the environmental education by Morgan Malley For some time now Rupi Kaurís words "fall in love with your solitude" have been delicately swirling in my head. As a child I struggled to formulate an understanding...
Integration Can Help You Teach More Science and Environmental Education
by Jim McDonald The demands on classroom teachers to address a variety of different subjects during the day means that some things just get left out of the curriculum. Many schools have adopted an instructional approach with supports for students that teach reading...
Lessons of Feed Security, Sustainable Farming, and Systems Biology
Student perspective By Kayla Tran, University of Washington Student, Renton High School Graduate, 2018-2019 Project Feed 1010 Ambassador Crawfish, bean sprouts, and models of the water cycle and land erosion have lived on as my happiest memories of elementary school....
Cultivating Environmental Literacy and Sustainable Food through a Community Ambassador Program
Cultivating Environmental Literacy and Sustainable Food through a Community Ambassador Program by Jessica Day, Claudia Ludwig, and Nitin S. Baliga, Institute for Systems Biology Project Feed 1010 (PF1010) was founded in 2015 in response to a need identified by...
Empowering Elementary Students through Environmental Service-Learning
Empowering Elementary Students through Environmental Service-Learning by Eileen Merritt, Tracy Harkins and Sara Rimm-Kaufman “We use electricity when we don’t need to.” “When we use electricity we use fossil fuels and fossil fuels pollute the air and fossil fuels are...
Discovering Careers in Natural Resources through Outdoor Adventures
Discovering Careers in Natural Resources through Outdoor Adventures by Emily J. Anderson Oregon State University Career education and opportunities to explore diverse options in higher education are often limited for many high school students. New college students...
Environment, Literacy, and the Common Core
Environment, Literacy, and the Common Core by Nancy Skerritt and Margaret Tudor, Ph.D. ABSTRACT: This article describes how Common Core ELA standards provide an important opportunity to build background knowledge on environmental topics in preparation for a deeper...
Integrating Watershed Science in High School Classrooms
Integrating Watershed Science in High School Classrooms The Confluence Project Approach High school students in northern Idaho learn about watersheds and the impacts of climate change through an intensive field science program that aligns with the Next Generation...
Tend, Gather and Grow
A Teaching Toolkit Connecting Students with Plants, Places, and Cultural Traditions By Kim Gaffi, Mariana Harvey (Yakama) and Elise Krohn Educating younger generations on the gifts of the land has always been a cornerstone of Indigenous teachings to strengthen mind,...
Beyond Environmental Literacy
Developing the “Whole Person” By Emily J. Anderson Photos by Emily McDonald-Williams Practitioners in the field of environmental education have a variety of personal reasons for pursuing this work. Many cite their desire to connect youth with nature, introduce youth...
Jim Martin: Education a Race to the Top?
Or, can we slow down enough to use inquiry to build effective conceptual learnings? Education is not a Race to the Top. I have to state that up front. In a Race to the Top are we allowed the time it takes to contemplate what we are learning? Time to dig into the...
K-12 Environmental Education Activity Ideas
GRADES K-2 Science Animal Ingenuity Explore how animal use materials from the environment in building homes. Start by looking at a bird’s nest. Examine the nest carefully. Use a hand lens. List all the materials you find in the nest. How is it held together? Social...
Reading the Landscape: Early Literacy in the Outdoor Classroom
by Joanna Wright Will my child be ready for Kindergarten?” As nature-based early childhood programs spring up across the country, this is a common query from interested families. While parents want to offer their children a chance to play outside, some also wonder if...
EE Research: Memories from Residential Outdoor Education Have Long-term Impact
THE RESEARCH: Liddicoat, K. R., & Krasny, M. E. (2014). Memories as useful outcomes of residential outdoor environmental education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 45(3), 178–193. For students, spending several days at a residential outdoor environmental...
Tangible Connections
Tangible Connections The Value of Community Agreements by Alyssa Caplan and Summer Swallow ABSTRACT Student-generated community agreements serve to create a positive learning community in residential outdoor environmental programs. This activity is essential and...
Indigenous Perspectives: Supporting Non-native Educators
Supporting Non-Native Educators with Since Time Immemorial: The Hummingbird Story by Jenni Conrad Summary: Based on research partnering with three Coast Salish nations, I offer five considerations to support K-12 non-Native educators who (like me) seek to build...
Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School: 25 Years of Field-based Research
by Mike Weddle The Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School (JGEMS) is a public charter school in Salem, Oregon focused on conservation biology and technology. We have been doing field-based research with students for 25 years, working at sites located just outside...
Why Field-based Inquiry?
by Willow Myrland Prior to teaching I worked for the USGS conducting amphibian and reptile surveys. I remember being struck by the fact that very little of my theoretical knowledge of science prepared me for the practical application of actually doing science. The...
Poetry and Science: Pathways to Presence
By Emilie Lygren I am a poet and outdoor science educator.” This is what I say when asked what I do for work. For me, poetry and outdoor science are complementary ways of looking at the world. They’re both rooted in common attitudes of attention, curiosity, and...
Summer 2022 – Intro
Indigenous Perspectives and Environmental Education: Connecting Youth with Plants, Places, and Cultural Traditions INTRODUCTION These are exciting times in our region. We are fortunate to live at the confluence of two currents: the growing integration of Indigenous...
Green Schoolyards – Garden Enrichment
Activating Schoolyards through Garden Enrichment by Bekah Marten, WSU Clark County Extension School Garden Coordinator In my current role as a School Garden Coordinator in SW Washington state, I have been able to work alongside school staff to help develop garden...
Landscape and Language
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...
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 pinpoint a community's specific environmental circumstances...
Field-based Research
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...
Equity in a Time of Socio-Environmental Justice
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...
Racial Equity in Outdoor Science Education
“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....
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 Education
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. Reprinted 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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Food Waste and Climate Change
PEI Offers Food Waste and Climate Change Storyline Workshop for Teachers Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the United States is also one of the most wasteful. America holds the dubious distinction of throwing away more food than every other...
Integration Can Help You Teach More Science and Environmental Education
Integration Can Help You Teach More Science and Environmental Education by Jim McDonald Central Michigan University The demands on classroom teachers to address a variety of different subjects during the day means that some things just get left out of the curriculum....
An Educator’s Guide to Stewardship
An Educator's Guide to Stewardship by Breanna Caruso Click on the title to view PDF version of article.
Why Environmental Educators Shouldn’t Give Up Hope
Photo by Jim Martin Why Environmental Educators Shouldn’t Give Up Hope by Jacob Rodenburg I’m trying hard not to get discouraged. Being an environmental educator in today’s world feels like you are asked to stop a rushing river armed only with a teaspoon. There are so...
EE Questions and Actions
Critical Questions 1. What kinds of support are available in your school, district and community for supporting environmental educational activities? 2. In what ways can environmental education activities enhance learning? 3. What are the most effective strategies for...
What is Good Environmental Education?
What is Good Environmental Education? Our students need to be ready to invest in building positive futures for the communities to which they belong - household to global. by Peter Hayes he choice to become an educator brings with it a career-long sentence to the...
Human/Natural Systems Interactions
Human/Natural Systems Interactions: A Framework A critical thinking tool for developing ecological literacy throughout the curriculum compares cultures and their relationship to the natural world. by Barbara Jackson n this era of relentless consumption of...
4-H Urban-Rural Exchange
By being on the land and walking in the shoes of their host families, students begin to understand more deeply how and why Oregonians manage the land the way they do. By Maureen Hosty With contributions from Gary Delaney, Deb Schreiber, John Williams, Jed Smith and...
Digging Deeper
by David A. Greenwood, Lakehead University, Canada As part of the 2009 North American Association of Environmental Education Research Symposium, this article addresses the cultural and theoretical frameworks that we bring to environmental education, the web of...
Bringing Home the Data: The Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School
Bringing Home the Data: The Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School by Mike Weddle The Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School (JGEMS) is a public charter school located within Waldo Middle School in Salem, Oregon. The ten-year old school has an enrollment of 90...
Earth Day
Although this article was written in 1996, and contains references to events and people from that era, much of Weilbacher's critique remains relevant today. -Ed. Every Day is NOT Earth Day Reflections on the True Meaning of Earth Day by Mike Weilbacher 'll...
Bird Language
Creating the Need to Pay Attention Field trips and adventures in the woods are tremendously important experiences for children, especially those students that don’t often get to spend time in a natural setting. Some of the most important, lasting results of good...
Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Geoscience Education
It Takes a Community to Raise a Scientist: A Case for Community-Inspired Research and Science Education in an Alaskan Native Community By Nievita Bueno Watts and Wendy F. Smythe The quote, "lt takes a village to raise a child," is attributed to African...
No Fooling: Exploring the Nature of Responsibility, Progress, Success, and Good Work
No Fooling: Exploring the Nature of Responsibility, Progress, Success, and Good Work How we answer a challenge raised over half a century ago regarding the way we handle the blessings of nature will go a long way towards determining our future. by Peter Hayes In the...
Bias and the Educator in the Mirror
Bias and the Educator in the Mirror 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...
Why Garden in School (Part 2)
Can School Gardening Help Save Civilization? (An Essay in Four Parts) by Carter D. Latendresse The Catlin Gabel School Portland, Oregon Abstract This paper is an argument for gardening in schools, focusing on two months of integrated English-history sixth grade...
Helping Teachers Gain Competencies in a Technological Age
Helping Teachers Gain Competencies in a Technological Age Is Active Learning, Learning? by Jim Martin Because active learning requires practice and feedback on thinking like an expert (a scientist), it demands considerably greater subject expertise by the teacher. . ....
EE Research: Writing Stories Builds Scientific Literacy
Writing Stories Builds Scientific Literacy From Environmental Research Bulletin Nicole Ardoin and Jason Morris, Project Leaders THE RESEARCH: Ritchie, S. M., Tomas, L., & Tones, M. (2011). Writing stories to enhance scientific literacy. International Journal of...
Teaching and Learning Ecologically
Cultivating Ecological Teachers and Learners Using Project Learning Tree by Jaclyn Stallard from The Branch, Project Learning Tree's E-newsletter Summer 2014 "Ecological teaching and learning is not just a matter of pedagogy, but also philosophy. Ecological...
Environmental Literacy: What have students learned that is not on the test?
Environmental Literacy: What have students learned that is not on the test? by Janell Simpson and Susan Meyers reprinted from the North American Association for Environmental Education he intent of this article is to provide tools to the classroom teacher to document...
Fueling the Fire: North Cascade Institute’s Path for Youth
Fueling the Fire: North Cascade Institute's Path for Youth by Mollie Behn t is no secret that today’s youth are increasingly disconnected from nature. As a result, youth are less aware of issues and threats facing the environment and how to address them. We need to...
Seeking Environmental Maturity…
...at Starker Forests Helping students climb the ladder to responsible citizenship by Dick Powell This past summer I attended the World Forestry Center's International Educator's Institute (IEI). As an environmental educator without any formal pedagogical or...
Teach the student who lives within the body
Photo credit: Sarah Sullivan, Abernethy School, Portland by Jim Martin Clearing Associate Editor he last time we met, students had planted seeds in parts of a garden plot they chose. So, where do they go now? They’ve made their decisions about where to plant each of...
Inquiry Learning: Asking Your Own Questions
When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it. -Carl Sagan by Jim Martin Science Educator and CLEARING guest writer oing out into the world beyond the classroom for science and other curricula...
Learning Eco-Literacy (Lessons from an Orca Grandmother) Pt. 3
by Sally Hodson, Ed.D. author of Granny's Clan, published by Dawn Publications See Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. Part 3: Tell a Story How do we prepare young people for the 21st century challenge of caring for our planet so that it can sustain future generations...
The Urban-Rural Exchange Bridges Oregon’s Greatest Divide
The Urban-Rural Exchange Bridges Oregon's Greatest Divide By Judy Scott From Oregon's Agricultural Progress Wallowa County in northeast Oregon was the destination for one of this year’s four exchanges. The young guests from the city arrived in the thick of calving...
Teachers discover authentic lessons in crayfish and caddis flies
Teachers discover authentic lessons in crayfish and caddis flies What is that bug? Teachers Kathryn Davis from Hood River High School, Molly Charnes from the Academy of International Studies in Woodburn and Thomas McGregor from The Phoenix School in Roseburg work at...
Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan: Building a Network
Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan: Building a Network by Traci Price In 2009, the Oregon Legislature passed the No Oregon Child Left Inside (NOCLI) Act that established an eleven-member task force charged with developing The Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan: Toward...
Do It Yourself First: Leading Student-Directed Inquiry
Do It Yourself First: Leading Student-Directed Inquiry by Jim Martin CLEARING guest writer f you’ve never taken your elementary, middle, or secondary students out of the classroom to learn, and can’t find a helpful mentor or workshop, it’s okay to learn to use the...
Learning Eco-Literacy (Lessons from an Orca Grandmother) Pt. 2
by Sally Hodson, Ed.D. author of Granny's Clan, published by Dawn Publications See Part 1 of this series. . Part 2: Asking Questions ow do we prepare young people for the 21st century challenge of caring for our planet so that it can sustain future generations of...
Learning Eco-Literacy (Lessons from an Orca Grandmother)
by Sally Hodson, Ed.D. author of Granny's Clan, published by Dawn Publications . Part 1: Thinking in Webs . lanet Earth is home whether you’re a plant, an animal or a human. Our Earth is the only place in the universe we know for sure that can support life. So how...
Discovering Place: A Place-based Education Video Series
urious about place-based education? Check out this free place-based education (PBE) video series, produced by University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint. The series was made possible through a $20,000 grant by the Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network...
Living Planet, Living Imaginations (.pdf)
Click on the image to read the article.
K-12 Oregon Forestry Literacy Program supports teaching about forests
Teachers and school administrators now can access Oregon Forest Resources Institute’s The Oregon Forest Literacy Program, a K-12 Conceptual Guide to Teaching and Learning about Oregon Forests. The new program provides a framework for educating Oregon’s K-12 students...
Partnering for Ocean Literacy
Along the Oregon coast, community partners are teaming up with the school district to encourage use of the ocean as a context for learning . by Rachel Bayor, School Liaison Partnership Coordinator hy do kids need to know about the ocean? It may take a moment to...
A Classroom Without Walls
A Classroom Without Walls Deepening Children's Connection with Nature by Seth Webb Free Horizon Montessori School e each have an incredible gift: the ability to engage children with the world - indeed, the universe - that surrounds them and, of which, they are...
Lessons for teaching in the environment and community – 12
"Lessons for Teaching in the Environment and Community" is a regular series that explores how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula. Part 12: Flirting with Danger What happens when...
Lessons for teaching in the environment and community – 10
"Lessons for Teaching in the Environment and Community" is a regular series that explores how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula. Part 10: Assimilation When the world outside...
Lessons for teaching in the environment and community – 7
"Lessons for Teaching in the Environment and Community" is a regular series that explores how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula. Part 7: From Hand to Mind Concrete experiences...
Environmental Literacy in Action: Abernethy Elementary’s Farm-to-School and School Garden Program
On a quiet, residential, inner southeast Portland, Oregon street, a little elementary school is breaking new ground for the farm-to-school and school garden movement. At Abernethy Elementary, students enjoy freshly cooked breakfasts and lunches prepared on site by a...
Lessons for teaching in the environment and community-4
"Lessons for Teaching in the Environment and Community" is a regular series that explores how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula. Part 4: Inquiry An Introduction to the World of...
Kettle Falls: Engaging in Real Work
by Val McKern Kettle Falls Elementary School believes that by engaging kids in authentic work, attitudes can change toward both work and community. As a second grader, Todd started the year with little interest in school, had a difficult time focusing on discussions...
CREST Farm to School
by Bob Carlson CREST is an environmental education center operated by the West Linn-Wilsonville School District which is located just south of Portland, Oregon. One of the key CREST programs is the CREST Farm . The farm is located on surplus district property....
How to Give Kids a Nature Experience to Remember
ne of my favorite nature quotations comes from the Japanese conservationist Tanaka Shozu who said, “The question of rivers is not a question of rivers, but of the human heart.” I wanted to touch the hearts of my middle school students with the beauty of nature as well...
Paying Attention: Being a Naturalist and Searching for Patterns
By Saul Weisberg Executive Director North Cascades Institute (reprinted from The Best of CLEARING) I love knowing the names of things. It makes them familiar, like old friends. I also love to look at patterns in nature. Veins on the back of a vine maple leaf. The...
From Screens to Streams: Using Technology as a “Bridge” to the Outdoors
Rather than viewing technology as an enemy of environmental literacy, technology-based learning can help cultivate an environmental sensibility by serving as a "bridge" to the outdoors. By Ryan Johnson When I was ten years old, I was absolutely obsessed with the...
Catlin Gabel School—a Focus on Food
By Eric Shawn The interdisciplinary study of food has emerged as a theme in sustainability education at Catlin Gabel School, an independent, co-educational school with 725 students in preschool through 12th grade in Portland, Oregon. The focus on food—a necessity for...
The Heart of Sustainability: Big Ideas from the Field of EE
Big Ideas from the field of Environmental Education and their Relationship to Sustainability Education — or — What’s love got to do with it? . . By Donald J. Burgess and Tracy Johannessen Introduction common raven suddenly begins to call from Cornwall Park. I rush to...
Top Ten List for Developing Environmental Literacy
from Callister, Jamogochian, Lemos, Weddle, & Yoder (2010) - Community-based Education: Model Programs. Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources. http://www.ncsr.org/materials/index.html This top-ten list of advice from Jon Yoder may be of assistance for...
Teaching the 3 R’s Through the 3 C’s: Connecting The Curriculum And Community
Teaching the 3 R's Through the 3 C's: Connecting the Curriculum and Community By Clifford E. Knapp The exploration of the educational potential of communities through direct experiences is not a new idea. In 1912 naturalist, John Burroughs, wrote: “. . . The way of...
Educating for Earth: Future Generations and All of Life
by Mike Seymour What we have called the "environmental crisis" is the most significant challenge humanity as a whole has faced in its recorded history. How we understand and frame this crisis—and how we summon the political courage to change—will determine the extent...
Works in Progress: Making the most of your environmental education opportunities
Works in Progress: Making the most of your environmental education opportunities Sneak up on them, and they’ll learn. On their own. By Jim Martin How do you take care of all the background capacity building students need to make the most of environmental education...
How to Start an Environmental Group in Your School or Community
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...
Top Five Ways to Use EE to Achieve Your Education Goals
By Judy Braus You’re a new teacher with a head full of ideas. You want to be innovative and effective — on the cutting edge of reform. You want your kids to be excited about learning. And you think the environment is an important, cross-cutting theme that will engage...
The Window into Green
by Mike Weilbacher With the new wave of interest in the environment, will we finally give students the tools they need to become environmentally literate citizens? In just a few weeks, high school seniors all around the United States will walk proudly across...
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