Editorial Issue 121, Fall 2019


General Editor Ian Shanahan


Editorial Assistant Sofía Vargas Nessi


Editing this issue Ian Shanahan


Proofing this issue Ian Shanahan


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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New Zealand Patricia Hoffmann (South Island)


Nigeria Dauda Muideen Lanre


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Design and Production Layout by Sofía Vargas Nessi


Cover Picture: Cathy Law


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E’VE JUST REACHED THE HALFWAY point of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Especially at temperate latitudes, it’s a time when the bounty of summer fades, and many natural


processes retreat unto themselves as the fallow months of winter creep gradually yet relentlessly closer. Not to be forgotten, however, is that the reverse is concurrently happening in the temperate South — a fact I’ve known for who-knows-how-long, but one that still confounds me. To understand something academically is one thing, but to wholly grasp its manifestation in reality is quite another. Such has been the relationship with climate change for so many of us. Its looming threat has always been there — out of sight, not entirely out of mind, but rarely in the realm of the here and now. A shift, however, is afoot, admittedly for many dismay- ing reasons, but also for some positive ones. The Global Climate Strike marked the first week of fall, and according to the movement’s website (https://globalclimatestrike.net/), more than 7.6 million people from 185 countries partook in the mass mobilisation. Prominently situated on the website is a tab whose heading reads What’s next after the strikes? In response to that question, you may


turn to Seth Wynes’ article, a pithy distil- lation of his comprehensive Master’s the- sis that unpacks climate change education in Canada. The parallels across numerous national boundaries are many, and his rec- ommended high-impact actions are univer- sal. Perhaps most notably for Environmental Educators, Seth describes best (and worst) practices for in-class teaching of climate change science.


Kirsten Bartlett takes a deep dive into the impact climate change is


having on natural selection. By following a problem-based model, high school students develop an understanding of a complex evolutionary pro- cess, while simultaneously grasping the extent to which climate change can exert tremendous selection pressure on organisms. In reminding us that focusing too heavily on daunting global chal-


lenges can turn some students off from EE, Suzy Joor takes us back to the basics: getting kids outdoors and engaged in hands-on projects that have local significance. With a bit of scaffolding and some guiding prompts (not to mention, opportunities to collect live earthworms), first- grade students can meaningfully contribute to a fully-realized scientific investigation. Interacting with live invertebrates is a central focus in Aislinn Ben-


field’s piece about how nurturing a pollinator garden can be a school envi- ronmental club’s primary raison d'être. Cathy Law also addresses the power of a school garden — in her case,


a multi-faceted floral community bursting with native plants and featuring a “bug hotel” for beneficial insects. If fall seems an odd time to be think- ing of gardens, think again, as Cathy passionately illustrates in our cover piece. Depending on your home Hemisphere, October and November may


be about winding down or springing to life. Based on the rich work of the nine contributors to our fall issue, it sure feels a lot more like the latter than the former.


-Ian Shanahan Page 2 Green Teacher 121


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