Editorial Issue 119, Winter 2019


General Editor Ian Shanahan


Editorial Assistant Sofía Vargas Nessi


Editing this issue Ian Shanahan Ezeekyal Trepanier


Proofing this issue Ezeekyal Trepanier


Publisher Tim Grant


Regional Editors


Canada Gareth Thomson Laurelei Primeau Bob Adamson Raissa Marks Craig White Janet Barlow


Barbara Hanbidge Remy Rodden


United States Karen Schedler Helen de la Maza Mary Lou Smith Dean Goodwin Cathy Meyer


Shelene Codner


Laura Downey-Skochdopole Jeanine Huss Christine Voyer


Sandra Ryack-Bell John Guyton Bob Coulter


Lauren Madden Kary Schumpert Lois Nixon Sara Ivey


Anne DiMonti Tim Brown Jen Cirillo


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the entire month of April as Earth Month. It is also common to hear some variation of “every day is Earth Day.” I was curious, then, to see a recent headline suggesting that Earth Day’s time had come and gone. Was this satire? Yet another example of the “click-bait” that is polluting our news searches at an alarming rate? Regardless, I read the accompa- nying article and found that it contained honest and relevant commentary about the role of Earth Day at a time when so many of us carry deep con- cerns about ecological health. Given that the challenges are so daunting, even the enormous impacts of the Earth Day movement can seem like they’re just not enough. It can be an anxiety-provoking consideration, which at times may lead to increased motivation. Yet, it is clear in read- ing the following pieces that there is so much more than worry motivat- ing the innovative work of many Environmental Educators. Leroy Jones sought to improve the efficacy of field trips by integrat-


S


ing citizen science into them. With a collective goal and a higher pur- pose in mind, students began to have much richer and more meaningful experiences in-field. For some, graduation was not the end of their engagement with a particular project. Tara Laidlaw wanted to ensure that


learning was not based on a series of iso- lated topics. Using a garden as the unifying thread, her students have been experienc- ing an active project that requires integra- tion of knowledge and skills from multiple subject areas. Earth Partnership’s Indigenous Arts


and Sciences program was designed to provide a means by which First Nations, university, and K–12 partners could more effectively engage Indigenous youths in STEM fields. As Cheryl Bauer-Armstrong and Michelle Cloud write, there is a great deal of overlap between Western and Traditional approaches to science, especially in the practice of place- based learning. A fine example of this is detailed in Christine Heinrichs’ story about the Greenspace Environmental Education Field Program in California’s Central Coast region. Gerald Banting applied an extremely place-based approach to an art installation that was born from fifty-plus visits to a beloved hometown stream. In our cover story, Trish Tablan and Lisa Hoyos describe the various


reasons why administrators could be motivated to re-power their schools with clean energy. Beyond the environmental benefits, students would have more opportunities for hands-on learning and schools could experi- ence massive cost savings. While Earth Day/Week/Month is a time to galvanize people to help reverse alarming ecological trends, the work detailed in our 119th


issue


shows the myriad additional reasons why we do what we do. — Ian Shanahan


INCE EARTH DAY was first recognized in 1970, various organi- zations have expanded it to become Earth Week — typically the week preceding or following the day itself — or have recognized


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