by editor | May 12, 2021 | Interviews with Educators & Leaders, Schoolyard Classroom
Jane Tesner Kleiner is a Registered Landscape Architect (RLA), ecologist and environmental educator with over 25 years of experience in design, project management and program coordination. She loves working with schools and communitiy partners to create spaces and programs to get kids outside, connecting with nature.
Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get started in this field?
I found of a love of working with school kids as a volunteer naturalist for the Ann Arbor Public School’s Environmental Education program. We took kids out on fields trips for all 1st – 5th graders. We were so lucky to have lots of natural areas, including Metro Parks, wetlands, streams and gravel pits. Then I met the amazing Rick Plecha (elementary science teacher) at Field Elementary School in Canton, MI and we started designing green schoolyards in his district. My work in Michigan focused on watershed improvements. When I moved to Washington in 2006, I started volunteering at my son’s school when they wanted to build a garden. The district, knowing my professional background, asked for a master plan to make sure they had a guiding tool for the garden improvements. Over 9 years, we have built 7 phases of projects at that school, including sensory, butterfly, accessible play, nature play, imagination play and outdoor classrooms.
Do you recall anything from your childhood that may have played a role in your becoming an environmental educator? What was your earliest connection to nature?
I was so lucky as a kid to grow up in a huge subdivision that had creeks and forests. My brother and I would roam the forests and floodplains all the time, especially winter in Michigan with snow and ice. We also had a huge hill in the backyard for sledding. We didn’t take many vacations as a kid, but I spent most of my childhood roaming Bell Creek, the forests and floodplains.
What has been a particularly memorable moment in your career?
By combining my landscape architecture skills with my love for ecology, I have been very fortunate to have worked on some great projects! Most of my work has been urban/suburban so there has always be a “people” connection that allowed for interpretive signage, places to explore and sit and observe the wildlife. While the bigger projects, like the Rouge River Oxbox restoration at The Henry Ford museum and the visitor improvements at Salmon-Morgan Creeks nature area are great, it is working with schools on their small gardens, habitats and projects where the kids take ownership and pride that make such a huge difference.
What challenges (professionally) have you had to overcome?
Great question…..as every job has its challenges. I have worked for large and small design firms, as well as local governmental agencies. One of the challenges is educating the budget folks that adding public amenities to some projects make a huge difference for folks visiting the areas. Also, finding a balance with the wonderful grounds and maintenance crews who have a lot on their plate with limited resources, while we add more gardens and natural areas. One great outcome of COVID is that people are really understanding the need and value for nature. Before COVID, green schoolyards could be seen as “Oh, that is nice and all but not mandatory.” We now know that having all types of gardens really make a difference well beyond academics.
What have been your greatest rewards?
Introducing kids to nature! So many kids I have worked with have lots of fears about nature and don’t have a lot of understanding about plants, animals, habitats, etc. My greatest rewards are when they get to see the result of their hard work, flowers blooming, vegetables are ripe enough to harvest, seed collecting, etc. When kids know that I can trust them with tools and then they can go get the job down, they are so excited. When they bring their families on the weekends because they are so excited, that is the added bonus.
What are some of the best resources you’ve found for the work you do?
We are lucky in southwest Washington to have lots of great partners working with schools. We have formed a coalition called the Clark County Nature Network where we meet to understand what the organizations or agencies are doing and how we can partner to make a difference with schools. Some organizations are great for plantings, trees and stewardship so kids get lots of hands on project based learning. Then they get to watch their projects grow. Other partners help with the planning and design of Green Schoolyards and can help get projects in the ground. A local arborist can help salvage trees to be repurposed for nature playgrounds. Our urban forestry can help add shade trees to playgrounds which are usually lacking any nature. We are starting to look at project opportunities to connect high school CTE partners to get gardens in at elementary schools, as they have the green houses and wood shops.
What project(s) are you currently working on?
It has been exciting for our two largest local school districts, Evergreen and Vancouver,which passed capital bonds several years ago. Those funds have provided for lots of improvements at existing schools and over a dozen new and/or replacement schools. I have been incredibly fortunate to work either as the owner’s representative on the projects or lead landscape architect on a few. This has allowed me to bring my knowledge of Green Schoolyards to the table and work with all of the staff and design teams to rethink school campus design. Most of the new schools have working gardens, increased native habitat for lots of species, including birds and butterflies, outdoor classrooms, accessible pathways, nature play areas, rock cycle gardens, meadows and interpretive signage. The projects include lots of natural colors, textures, plant types and features that haven’t been done at local schools. And the response has been great! If teachers want to teach about parts of the plant, they now have lots of different kinds to choose from on campus. There is now a diversity of colors and patterns to study art or writing. And lots of paths to go for walks to support social-emotional learning through the natural areas.
I am also the lead coordinator for the Clark County Nature Network working with local partners to connect our community to nature. Our partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Refuge has stepped up to provide funding to expand our service to the community to reach more families and partners.
How has COVID-19 impacted your work?
As we know, there have been lots of pros and cons to COVID impacts. As a mom with two school age kids, my time has been more limited for work during the day as I help with school. While I have loved all of the time with my kids, there are also been other opportunities. I have been on some great Zoom calls with partners from around the world, like the BioBlitz program that covers ALL schools in England….so cool. There have been so many great collaborations with Green Schoolyard partnerships. I supported the Green Schoolyard America COVID 19 response to create on-line resources [https://www.greenschoolyards.org/covid-learn-outside]. Many of the resources are now available to schools who want to create and use outdoor classrooms as part of their solutions to getting kids safely back into school.
What inspires you now? What people have inspired you?
The research is so abundant now on the benefits of nature for our overall health, it isn’t hard to make the case to add nature back into our communities. I am inspired by the teachers who can’t wait to add more features, the kids who can’t wait to show you the caterpillar they discovered and the families that spend more time outside now that they know where to go and what to do with their kids. My colleagues are definitely my current inspirations as they have retooled how they deliver their work, due to COVID, to still reach kids with on-line learning and inspire kids to explore their own yards, schools and neighborhoods.
Who are your environmental heroes?
I have always been inspired by Rachel Kaplan, professor from the University of Michigan, who helped guide my graduate school work with schoolyards and her book Design with People in Mind. The writings of Rachel Carson, walking the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and Mardy Murie about her time in Alaska, are my go to readings. I was also inspired by Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods. And then there are the biggies, like David Attenborough and Jane Goodall……what can I say….they are amazing.
What books are currently on your nightstand?
I am currently reading David Attenborough’s A Life on Our Planet and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. It feels so imperative to get kids to know their local landscapes, to understand what birds, insects and plants are here and why they are important. As a parent, I want my kids to know and understand what we see everyday.
Do you have favorite places to go when you need to connect with nature?
Oh yes! I am a big fan of those little known places, like the back trails along the Salmon Creek, the long trails at Vancouver Lake and Lacamas Lake here in Vancouver. My ideal adventures are to the Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier trails, especially up in the alpine meadows. They take your breath away…..I could just sit up there for days!
Are you hopeful about the future?
Oh yes! There are so many talented people working on the Greening of Schoolyard front, that I know we are making a difference and this work matters! So many partners are rethinking their approach for diversity, equity and inclusion, I have faith in their ability to connect with even more families. And our local schools have put their efforts behind sustainable landscapes that are more natural. Growing up in nature, I had the joy of wandering the woods for hours and sitting in meadows in the fall opening milkweed seed pods, just to watch the seeds float away. Robert Michael Pyle said at the UERC conference last March, that kids are facing the extinction of experience. This really stuck with me. My job is to help recreate spaces to allow kids the experiences that I had everyday. At one local school, we were able to create a 1-acre meadow…..a first for the district. I can’t wait for students to have the opportunity to just sit in the middle and listen to the wind blowing through the grasses and the endless parade of cirtters calling that space home.
by editor | May 12, 2021 | Conservation & Sustainability
by Jon Biemer
Zoos and aquariums help heal our planet. In addition to wonderful experiential and educational activities, many zoos and aquariums have committed themselves to species rescue and recovery.
I am a student of strategies that can create a healthier future – Handprints. (See my Clearing article about Handprints.) My research has shown me that zoos and aquariums now represent a beautiful, perhaps essential, collective Handprint.
Wildlife Conservation
Of the ten thousand zoos and aquariums worldwide, 239 (in 2019) meet the standards of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which requires support of wildlife conservation.
The Toledo Zoo in Ohio is engaged in the Mariana Avifauna Conservation program. Invasive egg-eating brown tree snakes have devastated native bird populations in the Pacific Mariana Islands. While relocation efforts continue for the threatened species, the Toledo Zoo hosts a reserve population of the white-throated ground dove, the golden white-eye dove, the bridled white-eye dove, and the Mariana fruit dove.
The Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, and New York Aquarium all host the World Conservation Society. This is a collaboration between a leading wildlife conservation organization and New York City’s aquarium and zoos. The World Conservation Society focuses on at-risk birds, amphibians, and mammals in fifteen regions, including temperate Asian mountains and grasslands, Patagonia in South America, and Madagascar and the western Indian Ocean.
The Monterey Aquarium and the Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach, CA) cooperate to recover the endangered sea otter. Between 2002 and 2016 staff released 37 otters that were nursed by surrogate mother otters. Their survival rates matched those born in the wild. The Monterey Aquarium also teaches the teachers. Their teacher development programs support climate action summits, help instructors get students excited about protecting coastal ecosystems, develop awareness about ocean plastics, and connect conservation and technology.
SAFE
Each year, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) program spotlights ten endangered species. SAFE engages some 180 million annual visitors and obtains corporate sponsorship to help protect habitats, mitigate threats, and restore threatened populations. Below is a list of specific SAFE projects from their website. They last from a few months to ongoing.
| Species |
Program leadership |
Species |
Program leadership |
| African Lion |
Denver Zoo |
Eastern Indigo Snake |
Central Florida Zoo & Gardens |
| African Penguin |
Not identified (South African project) |
Giraffe |
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (Colorado Springs, CO); Cleveland Metroparks Zoo |
| African Vulture |
North Carolina Zoo; Denver Zoo |
Gorilla |
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo; Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Society (NY) |
| American Red Wolf |
North Carolina Zoo; Endangered Wolf Center (Saint Louis, MO) |
Jaguar |
Albuquerque BioPark |
| Andean Bear |
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo |
North America Monarch (butterfly) |
Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment; San Diego Zoo Global |
| American Turtle |
Tennessee Aquarium |
Orangutan |
Henry Vilas Zoo (Madison, WI); Kansas City Zoo |
| Asian Elephant |
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium |
Radiated Tortoise |
Zoo Knoxville |
| Asian Hornbill |
North Carolina Zoo |
North American Songbird (various species) |
Smithsonian National Zoological Park (Washington, DC); Columbus Zoo and Aquarium |
| Andean Highland Flamingo |
Zoo Conservation Outreach Group; Reid Park Zoo (Tucson, AZ) |
Shark and Ray (various species) |
Seeking participants |
| Black-footed Ferret |
Louisville Zoological Garden; Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago) |
Sea Turtle |
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center |
| Atlantic Acropora Coral |
Steinhart Aquarium (San Francisco) |
Tree Kangaroo of Papua New Guinea |
Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle, WA) |
| Black Rhinoceros |
Buffalo Zoo |
Whooping Crane |
San Diego Zoo Global; Houston Zoo |
| Cheetah |
Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium (Omaha, NE) |
Vaquita (of the porpoise family) |
The Living Desert Zoo (Palm Desert, CA) |
| Chimpanzee |
Lion Country Safari (West Palm Beach, FL) |
Western Pond Turtle |
San Francisco Zoo |
Vaquita (Phocoena sinus). Only about ten of these small porpoises remain living in the Gulf of California, near the Colorado River delta. Conservation efforts have been frustrated by corruption within the Mexican government. (Wikipedia/Creative Commons)
SAFE is the tip of the iceberg of AZA conservation efforts. The AZA operates about 500 Animal Programs, many with Species Survival Plans which are managed by Taxon Advisory Groups. These TAG’s develop action plans and goals for animals both in the wild and in zoos and aquariums.
Pacific Northwest Zoos and Aquariums
What are our Northwest members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums doing for species preservation? Here’s a hint.
| Facility |
Species and Programs Supported |
| Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium,
Tacoma WA |
· Programs to recover Red Wolves, Tigers, and Sharks
· Dr. Holly Reed Conservation Fund (includes support for above programs)
· Wildlife Trafficking Alliance
· Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (rainforest protection)
· Plastic reduction campaign |
| Oregon Coast Aquarium,
Newport, OR |
· “The Oregon Coast Aquarium [provides] critical care to endangered marine wildlife like sea turtles, northern fur seals, and snowy plovers. The goal is to provide triage and care for the animals until they are deemed eligible for release or transport to another facility for prolonged care and rehabilitation,” according to spokesperson Courtney Pace.
· Awareness-raising about endangered species, including Vaquita campaign in cooperation with WhaleTimes.
· Plans include building a state-of-the-art Marine Rehabilitation Center. |
| Oregon Zoo,
Portland, OR |
· Polar Bears International
· Kasese Wildlife Conservation Awareness Organization (Uganda)
· Hutan’s Kinabatangan Oran-utan Conservation Programme (Borneo and Sumatra)
· Action for Chetahs in Kenya
· Painted Dog Conservation (Zimbabwe)
· International Elephant Foundation
· International Rhino Foundations
· Tiger Conservation Campaign
· SaveNature.org (habitat protection in 11 countries worldwide) |
| Seattle Aquarium |
· Sea Otter Conservation
· Sea Turtle Rehabilitation
· Octopus Survey (specific to Puget Sound)
· Seattle Aquarium Conservation Research Award
· Seattle Aquarium Sylvia Earle Medal (for “inspiring conservation of our marine environment”)
· Seattle Aquarium Ocean Conservation Honors (two honorees per year) |
| Wildlife Safari, Winston, OR |
· Cheetah Conservation Botswana (Wildlife Safari is the top cheetah breeding center in the western hemisphere.)
· International Elephant Foundation
· Giraffe Conservation Foundation |
| Woodland Park,
Seattle, WA |
· Living Northwest (projects focused on native raptors, turtles, butterflies and carnivores and their habitats)
· Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (Papua New Guinea)
· Conservation Partner Program (including Cranes of Asia’s work with the people and avian fauna of Russia’s Amur River basin)
· Wildlife Survival Program (activities which support AZA Species Survival Plans) |
| Zoo Boise,
Boise, Idaho |
· “Part of every admission and proceeds from our most popular attractions go to the Zoo Boise Conservation Fund.” 2019 Fund grantees included Garongosa Restoration (Mozambique), AZA SAFE (see above), Giraffe Conservation Fund, Paso Pacific (sustainable solutions for people and wildlife in Nicaragua), Red Panda Network, Snow Leopard Trust, Wildlife SOS, and…
· Table Rock restoration (part of five-year commitment to restore the Boise Foothills which were devastated by fire) |
| ZooMontana,
Billings, MT |
· “A good majority of the animals that call ZooMontana home are rescues. These include animals that have been permanently injured to animals kept illegally as pets. ZooMontana takes pride in giving animals a second chance. Those that are not rescues are a part of crucial breeding programs designed for species survival and genetic purity.”
|
Something happened beneath the radar of popular media. As Zoo Boise says, the purpose of a zoo visit has shifted “to help save the very creatures they [are] seeing.” Zoo Boise instituted its conservation fee on admissions and events which goes beyond meeting operating expenses. Since 2007 they have raised more than $3 million. Other institutions have picked up on this practice. That’s an impressive Handprint in its own right. Writ large, the quantity and diversity of AZA programs testify to the maturity of a vision of species preservation.
While researching this article, I came to the conclude that zoos and aquariums are analogous to a keystone species. When the keystone species is healthy, most species within its biom thrive. We now have a powerful network, a system with infrastructure, expertise, experience, and constituents. Not only are iconic species protected. The synergy of young people, teachers, scientists, tourists, accountants, volunteers, and donors nurtures the entire global ecosystem.
Bio
Jon Biemer has more than forty years of experience working on sustainability-creating initiatives. Biemer is a mechanical engineer and holds a certificate in Process-oriented Psychology. He started Creating Sustainability as a sole-proprietor Organizational Development consulting practice in 2008. Hi lives in Portland, Oregon.
This article is adapted from Jon Biemer’s book, Our Environmental Handprints: Recover the Land, Reverse Global Warming, Reclaim the Future, published by Rowman & Littlefield, May 5, 2012.
by editor | May 12, 2021 | Equity and Inclusion
by Sprinavasa Brown
I often hear White educators ask “What should I do?” expressing an earnest desire to move beyond talking about equity and inclusion to wanting action steps toward meaningful change.
I will offer you my advice as a fellow educator. It is both a command and a powerful tool for individual and organizational change for those willing to shift their mindset to understand it, invest the time to practice it and hold fast to witness its potential.
The work of this moment is all about environmental justice centered in social justice, led by the communities most impacted by the outcomes of our collective action. It’s time to leverage your platform as a White person to make space for the voice of a person of color. It’s time to connect your resources and wealth to leaders from underrepresented communities so they can make decisions that place their community’s needs first.
If you have participated in any diversity trainings, you are likely familiar with the common process of establishing group agreements. Early on, set the foundation for how you engage colleagues, a circumspect reminder that meaningful interpersonal and intrapersonal discourse has protocols in order to be effective. I appreciate these agreements and the principles they represent because they remind us that this work is not easy. If you are doing it right, you will and should be uncomfortable, challenged and ready to work toward a transformational process that ends in visible change.
I want you to recall one such agreement: step up, step back, step aside.
That last part is where I want to focus. It’s a radical call to action: Step aside! There are leaders of color full of potential and solutions who no doubt hold crucial advice and wisdom that organizations are missing. Think about the ways you can step back and step aside to share power. Step back from a decision, step down from a position or simply step aside. If you currently work for or serve on the board of an organization whose primary stakeholders are from communities of color, then this advice is especially for you.
Stepping aside draws to attention arguably the most important and effective way White people can advance racial equity, especially when working in institutions that serve marginalized communities. To leverage your privilege for marginalized communities means removing yourself from your position and making space for Black and Brown leaders to leave the margins and be brought into the fold of power.
You may find yourself with the opportunity to retire or take another job. Before you depart, commit to making strides to position your organization to hire a person of color to fill the vacancy. Be outspoken, agitate and question the status quo. This requires advocating for equitable hiring policies, addressing bias in the interview process and diversifying the pool with applicants with transferable skills. Recruit applicants from a pipeline supported and led by culturally specific organizations with ties to the communities you want to attract, and perhaps invite those community members to serve on interview panels with direct access to hiring managers.
As an organizational leader responsible for decisions related to hiring, partnerships and board recruitment, I have made uncomfortable, hard choices in the name of racial equity, but these choices yield fruitful outcomes for leaders willing to stay the course. I’ve found myself at crossroads where the best course forward wasn’t always clear. This I have come to accept is part of my equity journey. Be encouraged: Effective change can be made through staying engaged in your personal equity journey. Across our region we have much work ahead at the institutional level, and even more courage is required for hard work at the interpersonal level.
In stepping aside you create an opportunity for a member of a marginalized community who may be your colleague, fellow board member or staff member to access power that you have held.
White people alone will not provide all of the solutions to fix institutional systems of oppression and to shift organizational culture from exclusion to inclusion. These solutions must come from those whose voices have not been heard. Your participation is integral to evolving systems and organizations and carrying out change, but your leadership as a White person in the change process is not.
The best investment we can make for marginalized communities is to actively create and hold space for leaders of color at every level from executives to interns. Invest time and energy into continuous self-reflection and selfevaluation. This is not the path for everyone, but I hope you can see that there are a variety of actions that can shift the paradigm of the environmental movement. If you find yourself unsure of what action steps best align with where you or your organization are at on your equity journey, then reach out to organizations led by people of color, consultants, and leaders and hire them for their leadership and expertise. By placing yourself in the passenger seat, with a person of color as the driver, you can identify areas to leverage your privilege to benefit marginalized communities.
Finally, share an act of gratitude. Be cognizant of opportunities to step back and step aside and actively pursue ways to listen, understand and practice empathy with your colleagues, community members, neighbors and friends.
Camp ELSO is an example of the outcomes of this advice. Our achievements are most notable because it is within the context of an organization led 100 percent by people of color from our Board of Directors to our seasonal staff. This in the context of a city and state with a history of racial oppression and in a field that is historically exclusively White.
We began as a community-supported project and are growing into a thriving community-based organization successfully providing a vital service for Black and Brown youths across the Portland metro area. The support we have received has crossed cultures, bridged the racial divide and united partners around our vision. It is built from the financial investments of allies – public agencies, foundations, corporations and individuals. I see this as an act of solidarity with our work and our mission, and more importantly, an act of solidarity and support for our unwavering commitment to racial equity.
Sprinavasa Brown is the co-founder and executive director of Camp ELSO. She also serves on Metro’s Public Engagement Review Committee and the Parks and Nature Equity Advisory Committee.
by editor | Apr 1, 2021 | K-12 Activities
EE Activities F17EE Activities F17
K-12 Environmental Education Activities
Here are some ideas, separated into grade levels and subject areas, that you can use to instill environmental learning when you are looking for something to fill a gap in your activity plan.
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 Studies
Careers Notebook
Make a “Careers Notebook” of environmentally-related careers. You can start with a fisherperson, mechanic, newpaper reporter, and a fish and game officer. Keep going from there.
Seafood Survey
Many cultures depend heavily on food from the sea for their sustenance. Have students survey family members and friends about the types of seafood they like to eat. This can be graphed on the chalkboard as well. Follow up survey with a visit to a local fish market or grocery to look at varieties of fish and shell fish up close.
Mathematics
How Many Legs?
Post pictures of an octopus, a seastar, a crab, and a gull. Review as a class the number of legs each animal has, and discuss the ways each animal’s legs help it to survive. Next challenge students with addition problems, such as: How many legs would there be if we had added the legs of the octopus and the gull? The seastar and the crab?
Geometric Shapes in Nature
Geometric shapes can be found in twigs, rocks, leaves, insects, and feathers. Look for cubes, cylinders, pyramids, cones, ovals, spheres, spirals, etc. have students put specimens in like piles. Variation: Human-made shapes. Triangles, squares, dcircles, rectangles, etc., can be found at school in sidewalks, buildings, clothing.
Language Arts
Appropriate Stories About Nature
Storytelling about nature, the outdoors, and the environment is fun. School and public libraries can be of great help in selecting books. Build a story repertoire as you would with songs.
Finding Adjectives
Give each child a small piece of paper with one or more adjectives that describe something in nature (e.g., smooth, slimy, triangular, expanded, cool, soft and green, round and gooey). Have students explore a natural area to find items that meet these descriptions. Let students take turns sharing what they found. —JOD
Fine Arts
Be a Tree
Have students identify characteristics of trees. Visit trees in a back yard, in an orchard, in a park, or in the school year.
Have the students do tree dramatizations, using their arms as the branches and their legs as the trunk. How does the tree look during a storm? How does a fruit tree look in the spring? How does a young tree look in comparison with an old tree? What would happen to change the tree in different kinds of weather or during the different seasons?
After feeling what it might be like to be a tree, have the students paint pictures of them. — EGO
Make a Refracting Telescope
Use two small convext lenses, a toilet paper tube, cardboard, rubber cember, and paper.
1. Find the focal length of one of the lenses.
2. Cut a lens-size hole in the cardboard
3. Glue the lens over the hole.
4. Trace around the toilet paper tube with a pencil over the spot in the cardboard where the lens is located.
5. Cut on this line, and glue the cardboard-mounted lens in the end of the tube.
6. Wrap a sheet of paper around the tube.
7. Tape it in place.
8. Mount the other lens in the end of the paper tube.
9. Slide the tubes back and forth.
Natural Balance
Collect natural materials, or have students collect them. Suspend them with string under a crossbar of two sticks. Driftwood, acorns, and pine cones are among materials that are effectively used. Hang these in the classroom to brighten the scenery.
GRADES 3-5
Science
Evaluating Growth
Growing plants in crowded and uncrowded situations will show the effects of overpopulation. Fill milk cartons about three-fourths full of soil. Plant several cartons with seeds — some with two or three seeds, several cartons with a small handful and several cartons with a large handful. Varying the amounts of seed in the different cartons creates different conditions under which the plants will grow. After the seeds have become seedlings, measure and record their heights on a piece of paper and draw a line graph on graph paper to represent each group of seedlings. Evaluate the plants’ growth periods in terms of the number of plants under the different conditions. —CTE
Forest Community
Discuss as a group the items a city has and make a list. Suggestions include people, factories, subways, cemetery, apartments, treffic, plumbing, stores, garbage collectors, streets, etc.
Divide the group into smaller ones of 3 to 4 each. Send each group out in a forest or wooded area and have them try and identify the natural item that corresponds to the ones on the list. —ECO
Social Studies
Non-Pointing the Finger
Take a walking tour of the neighborhood. List possible examples of non-point source pollution, both natural and human-caused. Back in the classroom, compile a class list to see how many sources were pin- “pointed.” Use magazine or newspaper pictures to make an informational display of possible sources of non-point water pollution. — FSS
Water, Water Everywhere…NOT!
Point out that last year water was rationed in parts of California. It was shut off altogether in parts of Rhode Island when a leaking gas station tank polluted it. Our carelessness can hurt the water supply. Also, it is important not to waste water if we want to be sure of having enough for our needs. Have students name some ways each of us can help protect our water supply. (Ideas include using less water, not running water needlessly, not littering near bodies of water. Also some environmentalists suggest eating less meat to save water. A vegetarian diet requires much less water in its production than is used in the raising of cattle, for example.) —KT
Mathematics
Shoot the Moon
Knowing that the moon returns to a given position every 29 1/2 days, have students figure out the dates that will have full moons for the coming calendar year. From this they can make their own calendars and check up on themselves. —JOD
Language Arts
Get Your Story Straight!
Invent or find a story that conveys an environmental message you wish to have your students think about. Divide the story into individual events that have ideas or words that allow the student to sequence them in a particular order.
As a group, or individually, have the students read the passages. Have the students number the passages so that the story can be read in the correct order. Read the story aloud in the correct sequential order.
Use discussion and questioning to strengthen the story’s message. —IEEIC
Wet Words
How important is water to our society? Just think how many different words we have to express it. Have students brainstorm words that mean water or a form of water (e.g., splash, drip, etc.) while the teacher lists them on a large sheet of butcher paper. Can your class reach one hundred? Save the list and use it later for creative writing activities.
Fine Arts
Water Drop Necklaces
Give each student a sheet of paper onto which a large water drop has already been drawn on both sides. On one side of the paper, printed inside the water drop are the words, “I’M TOXIC, DON’T FLUSH ME.” On the reverse side of the paper, inside the water drop are written the words, “WATER IS PRECIOUS, AS PRECIOUS AS…” Instruct students to draw one or several toxic items that should not be flushed down the toilet (e.g., paint, oil, chemicals) inside the water drop on the “toxic” side of the paper. On the other side instruct them to draw pictures of one or more persons or items that are precious to them (e.g., grandma, grandpa, a pet, a bicycle).
Once the drawings are completed, have the students cut out the water drop, then punch a hold near the top of the drop using a paper punch and finally thread a string of yarn through the hole to create a necklace. The necklace has a positive “precious” side and a negative “toxic” side depicted by the students’ drawings. — CON
Torn Paper Art
To help the students understand the fibrous make up of paper, tear a scrap of paper and hold one of the torn edges up to the light. Along that edge will appear a slight fuzz. Here and there tiny strands will project separately, like fine hairs. These strands are cellulose fibers.
Discuss with the children all the different materials from which fibers can be harvested to make paper. Show them fibers from a small piece of cloth to illustrate the point.
Using scraps of construction paper, tear and glue different colors to represent the forest and creatures who depend on the forest for survival. Display these pictures throughout the school to heighten awareness of the need to conserve and protect natural resources. – CON
GRADES 6-8
Science
Rainforest Pyramid
Use artistic talents to create blocks symbolizing rainforest creatures. Build a pyramid, putting the prey species such as insects at the bottom – building up until the top predators like the jaguar and harpy eagle are at the top. Show what happens when prey species are taken away – such as if insects are killed by pesticides, or small rodents are killed as pests. The same activity can be done for temperate forests of the Northwest as well, or any other particular ecosystem. —RC
Adopt a Part of Nature
Adopt part of a stream, creek, river, lake or ocean. Clean up the beaches or shores and spend time there as a class enjoying these special places.
Shorebird Safari
After introducing the class to common shorebirds and the field marks used to identify them, take your class to a beach. Shorebirds are visible year round, especially as the tide goes out. Students should try to identify special adaptations the birds have and predict the type of food they are seeking.
Social Studies
How Did They Do It?
Have students investigate the lifestyles of Native Americans on the prairie or along the coasts or in your local area. How were their needs met by these different environments?
Nature’s Tool Box
Pass out to individuals or small groups of students an assortment of simple tools: paper clips, sewing needle, letter opener, hair brush, straight pin, comb, and so on. Have students examine the tools carefully and decide what kinds of natural objects could be used or modified to make them. After students hike through an outdoor setting and collect materials, have them use the materials to make specific tools. —EGO
Mathematics
Graph the Tide
Purchase a tide table wherever fishing supplies are sold. Enlarge and photocopy each month’s chart on a separate page. Make enough copies so that each student will have one month to chart on graph paper. Post the papers in a line along the wall to see the rise and fall of the tide for the year. Teacher may want to designate a place on the paper for the base point (0.0).
Language Arts
Opposites Attract
Here is a thought-provoking idea: Collect photographs, illustrations and/or paintings from magazines — some that graphically portray a healthy, balanced environment and others that depict a damaged, unhealthy Earth. Hang these on opposite walls in the classroom to stimulate discussion and inspire writing. How does each set of images make students feel? Encourage them to think about how the healthy can be changed into the damaged and how they can help to change the damaged back into the healthy. As students learn about environmental problems and the solutions, they may go to the appropriate sides of the room to record their thoughts and ideas in two separate notebooks. For example, if a student is studying about an extinct animal, that student may record his/her concerns in a notebook located next to the unhealthy Earth artwork. If he/she knows of possible solutions and actions that can be done to help, they may be recorded on the other side of the room next to the healthy Earth artwork. Eventually, your class will have two useful notebooks filled with concerns and solutions to many environmental problems. Prioritize these and use your computer to record the top ten items that can be posted in the room for reference and distributed to family members. – TPE
Expectations
Students can write a paper that expresses their feelings about going to outdoor schooll. By knowing their anxieties, fears, and excitement, you may be able to better understand their individual needs. It is always fun for students to reread their own papers upon returning home. —JOD
Fine Arts
Touch of Color
While visiting a wooded area, pass out paper to the class and have each student, using natural materials (soil, berries, flowers, leaves, moss), draw a picture of the forest setting. Give the class an opportunity to display their work and describe their feelings about the surroundings. Encourage the students to discuss what materials were used to add color. —EGO
GRADES 9-12
Science
Symbiosis
Working with a partner, students research symbiotic relationships amongst intertidal and ocean organisms and choose one to report on. One example would be the anemone and the clownfish.
Human-created Habitats
Assign one water-dwelling animal to each student or team. Students then must design (on paper) an artificial habitat which would suite the living requirements of the animal. To do so, they must investigate and establish the characteristics of the animal’s natural habitat, including food, water, shelter, space, climate, etc. This assignment could be followed by creating models of artificial habitats.
Social Studies
Move Over!
To begin this activity, tell your class they are going to try an experiment dealing with classroom arrangements. Don’t mention the idea of overpopulation or limited resources. These concepts will surface as the outcome of the activity.
Select an area of the classroom to be used in this overpopulation experiment. an area approximately 10’x10’ should be marked with masking tape on the floor and two desks should be placed inside the area. Also provide a “Resources Box” with 4 pencils, 2 pens, 6 sheets of paper and 1 pair of scissors.
Select two volunteers to work in the square. They should take with them only the books they will need. One half hour later, select two more students to work in the square and add their desks to the other two. (Make sure to remove all “resource” from the desks first).
Continue to add students to the area in shorter intervals of time similar to the way population grows rapidly. When the area can no longer hold additional desks, add students and have them share desks. Make sure the tasks the children are involved in will require the use of resources in the “Resources Box.”
When the limited resources and overcrowded conditions lead to bedlam, bring the class together for discussion. How is this like the real world? What “resources” are in short supply? —LLC
Environmental Careers
Plan an Environmental Careers Day. Research various careers associated with the environment and invite people in to speak about their jobs. Try to get a variety of speakers to reflect the diversity of careers and educational requirements. Prepare an outline for the speakers to they will address the questions you are most interested in.
Both Sides Now
A forest management specialist, touring a watershed area, notes that in one part of the forest many diseased trees have fallen and are covering the ground. This is a serious fire hazard for the forest. The specialist recommends logging this area and replanting with young, healthy seedlings. A concerned citizen’s group protests the logging, saying that clearcutting the area will erode the soil, which will make our drinking water unclean.
Your group has been asked to list the pros and cons of logging that area of the watershed. Consider the environmental, economic and social arguments. Can you find a compromise to the problem? How do personal opinions affect your decision? —FSS
Litter Lifelines
Students collect litter in an outdoor setting — school parking lot, playground, camp, or business district. Then each student selects a piece of trash – soda can, chewing gum wrapper, potato chip bag —and makes a life line of the litter, from the origin of its natural materials to its present state. — TGP
Mathematics
Food Chain Figuring
Use the following information to create math problems. A medium-sized whale needs four hundred billion diatoms to sustain it for a few hours! The whale eats a ton of herring, about 5,000 of them. Each herring may have about 6,500 small crustaceans in its stomach, and each crustacean may contain 130,000 diatoms…
Language Arts
Forest Essay
Have students write an imaginary story using one of the following titles: a) The Life of a Pencil; b)An Autobiography of a Tree from Seed to Lumber.
Legends of the Sea
Many cultures have legends about the way the ocean and its life forms were created. Read some of these to the class, then encourage them to create their own legends about how somethings came to be. It would be helpful to have some pictures of marine life forms for the students to view. Some ideas: How the Eel Became Electric; Why Octopi Have Only Eight Arms; Before Whales could Swim; How the Hermit Crab Lost His Shell.
Fine Arts
Mother Earth
Students begin by brainstorming a list of all the ways they are dependent on the Earth. From that list should come some ideas for presenting that information to others. They may decide to have teams of students work on representing different items on the list. They may want to expres their relationship to the land written in story format, in poetry, verbally on tape, through photographs, drawings, paintings, or soft sculpture. They should come up with a theme uch as Native American philosophy, or a celebration of life-giving qualities of the Earth, or getting involved with conservation, and work from there. Ask for volunteers to write letters to local organizations requesting space to set up their display for others to view.
Encourage your students to express their feelings about our responsibility to live in harmony with the land. Is it our responsibility? Can the actions of one person make a difference? What kinds of actions does living in harmony with the Earth require? —LLC
Sources of activities:
CCN — Carrying Capacity Network Clearinghouse Bulletin, June 1992.
KT — Kind Teacher, Natl. Association for Humane and Environmental Education
IEEIC — Inegrating Environmental Education Into the Curriculum… Painlessly. National Educational Service, 1992.
RC — Rainforest Conservation, Rainforest Awareness Info. Network, 1992.
ECO — Eco-Acts: A Manual of Ecological Activities, Phyllis Ford, ed.
JOD — Just Open the Door, by Rich Gerston, Interstate Printers and Publishers, 1983.
LLC — Living Lightly in the City, Schlitz Audubon Center, 1984.
EGO- Education Goes Outdoors, Addison-Wesley 1986.
CON – Connections: Life Cycle Kinesthetic Learning. The Energy Office, Grand Junction, CO 1993.
CTE – Consider the Earth by Julie M. Gates, Teacher Ideas Press, 1989.
FSS – From Source to Sea, Greater Vancouver Regional District 1993.
GGC – Growing Greener Cities and Environmental Education Guide
American Forests, Washington DC 1992
LCA – Let’s Clean the Air, Greater Vancouver Regional District 1993.
NTW – No Time to Waste, Greater Vancouver Regional District 1993.
TPE – The Private Eye, Kerry Ruef, The Private Eye Project, Seattle, 1992.
by editor | Mar 31, 2021 | Interviews with Educators & Leaders
Robert Steelquist: Coastal Explorer
Robert Steelquist is a native Pacific Northwest writer, photographer, naturalist, and environmental educator with a 40-year career introducing learners to the nature of the Northwest. He has led hundreds on nature walks, backpacking trips, tall ship trainings, river floats, teacher workshops, archaeology field schools, and other outdoor adventures. His public service includes work with the National Park Service, Washington Department of Wildlife, Puget Sound Water Quality Authority, NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries, Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve and as a volunteer wilderness ranger with the US Forest Service. He is author of 13 books, including The Northwest Coastal Explorer, Timber Press, 2016. He lives in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains, near Blyn, Washington.
Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get started in EE?
I began my natural resources career on the business end of a Pulaski, working trails in the North Cascades, Pasayten Wilderness and Olympic National Park. After a serious back injury I had to find a job that connected my love of wild places to an income in a way that didn’t involve rain gear 10 days at a time. Journalism and environmental sciences came together for me naturally. Writing, interpretation and environmental education followed. Between writing books and public service I was lucky and found the right livelihood.
Do you recall anything from your childhood that may have played a role in your becoming an environmental educator?
As a kid I lived on the ragged edge of suburbia outside of Portland. West and north and south of us were orchards, woodlots, farm fields, oak groves, slow creeks, farm ponds and hills with views to the distant Cascades. My mother neglected us in just the right ways and my childhood span of personal geography was broad. Anywhere I could go on foot or on a bike and be back by dinner was on my mental map. That included a good chunk of Washington County. That sense of discovery, the curiosity it provoked and the feeling of belonging to a place, I later realized, is the essence of environmental education. Being able to communicate that and engender the same excitement in learners was as addictive as experiencing it myself as a child.
Where has your career path taken you?
Not surprisingly, full circle. During my first summers after retirement I volunteered for the Forest Service as a Wilderness Ranger in the Pasayten Wilderness, where I worked trails in 1975. The isolation, exertion, importance of the cause—all the things that inspired me in my 20s—have held their attraction into my 60s. Whether it’s a sentimental re-enactment of a formative experience, or the aspirational far end of that experience’s influence, I’m not sure. Actually, I’d cop to either.
In several of your jobs, you administered grants for EE. Looking back, do you think they made a difference?
I never looked at the money itself as what made a difference. The Puget Sound Water Quality Authority PIE grants and the NOAA B-WET funds took the risk away from innovation and novel partnerships and sharpened methods and priorities among environmental educators. The success of those programs begat more success, ultimately enabling local EE organizations to successfully grow and own that success. I think the money improved the practices of educators and was a catalyst to new and perhaps unlikely partnerships but the credit really belongs to the EE community, not the money itself.
What was a particularly memorable moment in your career?
Diving the Deepworker one-person submersible in a NOAA/National Geographic project in 1999 was pretty cool. Dr. Sylvia Earle insisted that NOAA train and dive marine educators in every National Marine Sanctuary. Being alone and untethered at 300 feet off the Olympic Coast, then turning the lights off and experiencing full darkness was beautiful. When the lights came back up, I was surrounded by rockfish that quickly fled the brightness.
You are semi-retired. What projects are you currently working on?
Although I’ve had to take a break from traveling, in my free time I am working on a multi-year photographic journey with sandhill cranes of the Pacific Flyway. Their range extends from California’s Central Valley to the Kenai and Alaska peninsulas. Our west coast birds don’t get the attention or ink of Central Flyway cranes. Their breeding areas are remote. Aside from a few well-known staging and feeding areas used in migration and winter, they slip by us largely unseen. Little tracking data exist. They raise interesting questions of past population bottlenecks and glacial refugia. Besides, they are spectacular birds, big, loud, social and beautiful.
How has COVID-19 impacted your work?
Covid-restlessness has pushed me back into service. I am currently working on a communication and interpretive planning process for Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve. It’s short-term and I work remotely. Best of all, it has helped me focus my days and skills usefully to society. Mastering digital workarounds has also tickled some gray cells that might otherwise atrophy from too many naps.
How have you seen EE change over your career?
I think that between my childhood, when EE was viewed as “Conservation Education” and now, EE has been responsive to the need for more diverse and better STEM education. Geospacial Data Visualization didn’t exist then. Today’s second-grade girl on an EE outing is more likely to find a technical career if she’s inspired enough. And the challenge we’ve always faced—and still face—is inclusion and social equity. Consumers of mainstream outdoor experiences were predominantly White when I started, as were the faces of the educators. As issues of environmental justice became visible, the environmental movement as a whole had to reckon with racial and social exclusivity. Obviously we are not there yet. Cultures have always had their own ways of connecting with Nature—we’ve just been stuck on culturally constructed relationships comfortable in a White-dominated society. I believe there’s a mutually-beneficial relationship not merely “translating” White cultural views for non-Whites, but in looking for, learning from and honoring other traditions without falling back into the habit of appropriating them.
What’s the future of EE?
I don’t have a crystal ball. I think of the “future” of EE in the literal sense of the “future” that we educators project and how that has changed. On Earth Day ’70 environmentalists and soon-to-be environmental educators owned “The Future.” DDT was banned so that our children’s future included songbirds, NEPA was created so that future effects of growth and development would be understood and minimized, The Clean Water Act promised safe and abundant water. In other words, we could promise a better world because of our work. Somewhere in the project, things changed. When we discovered how out of whack things were truly getting, the news we delivered wasn’t as pretty. In 1982 I wrote a piece for the local daily newspaper on greenhouse gases and climate change and shrinking glaciers. Since then the messages just seem to have gotten worse and, frankly, we’ve scared people to death. We lost the rhetorical claim to the future. And we are seeing, daily, the consequences in our society’s state of denial. Worse, ideas aren’t the only things being denied, evidence-based Truth is at stake. The balance we, as environmental educators have to strike is to find in every learner or listener the creative moment when they connect with personal inspiration and their personal power. We can do that.
What inspires you now? What people have inspired you?
Ok, back to the bright side. I still chase experiences in the wild, among wild things. Being distracted by something purely beautiful in nature purges the cortisol buildup in my brain. Wildlife and landscape photography adds a much deeper dimension. You look for, and honor by that sustained glance, the world around you. As a visual narrator, you teach by showing—in this case a picture. But the artistic side of photography lets you also reveal something deeper than information. A fall of clouds pouring over a coastal ridge line, the wet hair on startled elk or the muscular strain of a jumping salmon carry power in a picture and, to me, force an emotional connection. I get to experience it and I get to pass it on.
Who are your environmental heroes?
It’s easy to list the famous people I was privileged to work with. Dr. Sylvia Earle; Jean-Michel Cousteau. They were examples that I learned from and tried to follow. From here on out though, my heroes have to be the ones stepping into this work at such a critical time. In my mind I see the faces of young people who participated in our programs, or who I chaperoned as a parent on field trips with my kids. Many of them are into their careers now—archaeologists, wildlife biologists, policy makers, artists, outdoor adventure leaders and environmental educators. I am as proud to have influenced them as to admit that I was influenced by those before me—none of us do this alone.
What books are currently on your nightstand?
On the level of pure intellectual exercise, I’m reading critical theory of photography—Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag. In a more practical realm, I am re-reading Richard White’s Land Use, Environment and Social Change—the landmark environmental history of Whidbey Island. At the most practical level, I’m studying a PDF manual to my new Fitbit. It’s confusing as hell.
Do you have favorite places to go when you need to connect with nature?
Covid has restricted my movements quite a bit. Over the last few years I’ve enjoyed photographing wildlife and landscapes in the North America West and in Scandinavia. Recently, I connect with the homescape of my place. In March, I’ll visit a trillium that has made its appearance for me every year since 1973 when I first noticed it.
Are you hopeful about the future?
Being aware of seasons, especially with lengthening days, always makes me hopeful. Thanks for not asking last October.
