barriers between disciplines, stresses team building and individu- Environmental literacy is one race that education must win.
alized learning, and involves students in real-world community
issues.
What Every Student Should Know About
In suburban Philadelphia, for example, the pioneering
Watershed program at Radnor Middle School engages students
the Environment
in outdoor field studies all year, including stream testing, canoe-
There are scores of possible models of environmental educa-
ing, trout rearing and release, and more. Students in the program
tion programs, and most have many of the following large concepts
spend all day together, except for math and foreign language
in common. As students go from kindergarten through high school,
classes, in which they are integrated with the rest of the school.
they can work their way down the list.
Students hone their communication skills at conferences and
youth summits.
1. Earth overflows with life.
One analysis of 40 Environment as an Integrating Context
One of science’s biggest mysteries is how many species share
for Learning programs (Lieberman & Hoody, 1998) discovered
this planet— estimates range from 5 million to 100 million species.
that students in these programs outscored their peers on stan-
Many environmental education programs begin with the premise
dardized tests, had better grades, and acted more independently
that life is vanishing; young learners should first know that Earth
and responsibly. At one school using this approach, reports to
teems with a huge number of creatures.
the principal’s office declined 91 percent in the three-year study
2. Each creature is uniquely adapted to its environment.
period.
Every species evolved to possess a unique set of adaptations
that enables it to survive and thrive in its ecosystem. Students
Wood Kindergartens
should be on a first-name basis with many local creatures.
A rather radical movement has leapt across the pond from
Europe and, coupled with Richard Louv’s work, has begun
3. The web of life is interdependent.
making inroads in the United States. In the Wood School model,
Organisms evolve complex relationships, each depending on
child care workers and youngsters ages 3–6 spend the entire day
numerous other species for their survival.
outdoors in nature. The program is held outdoors in all seasons,
4. Materials flow through ecosystems in cycles.
although the group moves indoors in extreme weather. Propo-
All creatures need water, air, and nutrients to survive. These ma-
nents of this process assert that playing outside for prolonged
terials cycle and recycle through ecosystems. The water we drink
periods strengthens the students’ immune systems and improves (continued on next page)
development of manual dexterity, physical coordination, tactile
sensitivity, and depth perception.
Here in the United States, many nature centers, such as the
adventure
Chippewa Nature Center in Midland, Michigan, have begun
opening variants of Wood Kindergartens, versions that might
education
not strictly adhere to the European’s outdoor component but still
allow the students full and frequent access to natural areas and
discovery
nature-based play (Reynolds, 2007).
Field-based Natural History Courses
Greening of the Culture
In and About the Klamath-Siskiyous
U.S. schools teach what American culture considers impor-
tant. Once society decided that computer literacy was central to a
solid education, computer classes invaded schools at warp speed,
and the “digital divide” became an important and contentious
issue.
As environmental issues heat up (pardon the pun), the
culture is coming to consensus—again—on the importance of
the environment. Green cable channels, green Web sites, eco-
chic clothing, green roofs on green buildings, and innumerable
products made from recycled objects are beginning to infuse the
culture with a newfound interest in sustainability—an interest
that ideally will create a ground swell of support for environmen-
tal improvement.
But the four horsemen of the global apocalypse—warming,
species loss, water scarcity, and population growth—are bearing
down on us, and many environmentalists worry about a vanish-
ing window of opportunity for addressing these issues. Science
visit our
541/597-8530
fiction writer H. G. Wells was prophetic when he wrote in 1920
website or
P.O. Box 207, Selma, OR 97538
that “human history becomes more and more a race between
call for a
education and catastrophe.”
catalog. www.thesfi.org
Clearing - 2009 Compendium Edition http://www.clearingmagazine.org Page 53
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