Environmental Education
Christina P. Cox
Gallaudet University
Part One: Introduction Environmental
Education
Environmental
education covers a wide spectrum. A simple Google search defines environmental
education as:
“Organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly,
how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live
sustainably. The term is often used to imply education within the school
system, from primary to post-secondary. However, it is sometimes used more
broadly to include all efforts to educate the public and other audiences,
including print materials, websites, media campaigns, etc. Related disciplines
include outdoor education and experiential education”. (Wikipedia, 2008)
As stated in the web definition, environmental education most
often refers to the school system. For the purposes of this paper, I will focus
on that aspect. More often than not, it is up to the teacher to incorporate
environmental education into the classroom. Sometimes schools will host special
speakers and events; however, limited class time and resources affect the
possibilities of such programs. After all, teachers are stressed out enough
just trying to keep up with rigorous curriculum content standards that will be
covered in the standardized testing with little room to devote to other
critical areas of a child’s development, such as the arts or environment
(thanks to the “NCLB” No Child Left Behind laws). However, hope is not lost;
many resources are available. In addition to the state environmental education
curriculum (covered under Science standards), teachers can use guide lessons
from Project Wild, Project Learning Tree, Eco-Inquiry, Project Adventure, just
to name a few resources available.
If teachers
are so pressed to cover curriculum content, why even bother to incorporate
environmental education into the classroom? Personally, I think David Sobel
said it best: “If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then
let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. Perhaps this
is what Thoreau had in mind when he said, “the more slowly trees grow at first,
the sounder they are at the core, and I think the same is true of human beings”
(http://natureforkids.net 2008). Too often, we demand our children to recycle
and be good stewards of the environment while preaching about global warming.
Without a respect and a love for the earth, there is no reason to expect
children to leave their video games and TV to fight for the cause of an
environment they have no understanding of. This negative phenomenon is
explained with this quote: “without continuous hands-on experience, it is
impossible for children to acquire a deep intuitive understanding of the
natural world that is the foundation of sustainable development…. A critical
aspect of the present-day crisis in education is that children are becoming
separated from daily experience of the natural world, especially in larger
cities” (Moore and Wong).
We are
facing an environmental crisis, because “as the Earth’s population has gotten
larger, the earth’s resources have gotten larger, the earth’s resources have
gotten scarcer (Investigating and Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions:
Skills Development Modules, 1992, preface). As educators and/or members of the
common community, it is our responsibility to teach children to in turn become
a “concerned and responsible citizen”. After all, “each one of us is part of
the environment. We are also a part of its problems” (Investigating and
Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions: Skills Development Modules, 1992,
page 1).
Part Two: Integrating
Environmental Education into the School Curriculum
The school
curriculum is both demanding and complicated. It is imperative to first
understand the psychological development of a child of their relation to their
environment, which can be explained using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory.
Young children’s world is self centered and focused. As children grow older,
their world grows to include the “microsystem”, the setting in which the child
lives. During this stage of development, children only know what they directly
interact with, such as their family, school, peers, neighborhood play area,
health services, church groups, etc. As children move into the next stages of
development, their world expands as their knowledge and comprehension of the
world around them expands and deepens. (Santrock, 49). An understanding of the psychological
development of children is imperative for educators for educators. For example,
teaching a unit on global warming for kindergarteners would not be as effective
as it would be for middle-schoolers. At the the kindergarten level, the child’s
world is self-centered; they are still incapable of understanding global
environmental impacts. Rather, at this stage, the environmental educator should
focus on discovering the environmental world around them, such as digging for
earthworms or watching a caterpillar become a butterfly.
The scope
and sequence of the school curriculum is based on the cognitive development of
children. According to the Virginia
Standard of Learning website,
“School divisions should use the Science
Curriculum Framework as a resource for developing sound curricular and
instructional programs. This framework should not limit the scope of
instructional programs. Additional knowledge and skills that can enrich
instruction and enhance students’ understanding of the content identified in
the Standards of Learning should be included as part of quality learning
experiences” ( Virginia Standards of Learning website, 2008).
When using additional resources, such as the ones mentioned
in the introduction, the teacher uses the Standards of Learning as a guideline
to make sure the content taught is grade appropriate. The Virginia State
Standards of Learning can be found at the above mentioned website, but a simple
Google search will show where to find the state specific standards to be
covered.
When picking
environmental education lessons, the educator can make sure the content follows
curriculum standards by writing clear objectives. A clear objective follows the
“ABCD” format. Your audience (A) is clearly defined. Are you teaching first
grade or middle school? Once the audience is determined (using the curriculum
standards as a guideline), the desired behavior (B) must be defined. What
exactly is expected of the students? The common pitfall for naïve educators
(environmental or not) is to say the students will understand something.
However, this is not measurable. Sure, it is great for students to understand
the role of earthworms but exactly do you want your students to come away with
from a unit of earthworms? Perhaps they will be able to sketch the cycle of an
earthworm’s role of recycling compost to dirt? The behavior must be explicitly
defined so it later can be assessed. Next, the environmental educator must
determine the condition (C) of the objective. Will the students be working with
real earthworms? Or, are they virtually exploring the recycling stage via
interactive websites? Finally, the environmental educator needs to keep in mind
the degree of mastery (D) desired. The usual average expected degree of mastery
is 80% but depending on the assignment, the students, and the content, the
expected degree of mastery can change.
An example of a well written objective is the following: (C) Given a
list of meteorological terms (A) the student (B) will be able to accurately
explain what each term means in one or two sentences (D) for all terms given.
(Objectives website, 2008).
Part Three: Example and
Analysis
In this
section, I will walk through and analyze an example of an environmental
education lesson provided by Project Learning Tree. First, please read the
attached lesson before proceeding with this paper. (Project Learning Tree Environmental Education
Activity Guide, 7-8)
The title of
this lesson is called the “Peppermint Beetle”. As an environmental educator,
this first clue leads me to think that this lesson is somehow related to an
animal study. The overview states that “students will explore their sense of
smell and discover why smell is important to animals, including themselves”.
Personally, I am intrigued and satisfied with this lesson so far. I like how
this will be a cross learning experience about their natural world in addition
to how they, as individuals, share something in common with the natural world.
Next, I
check for grade appropriateness. According to Project Learning Tree, this
lesson is appropriate for grades K-6. This rating does not mean the exact same
lesson will be used for all grade levels. Rather, using personal creativity and
using pressing curriculum content standards as a guideline, I can adapt this
lesson for a wide range of ages.
Next, I
notice the lesson subjects cover both Science and Social Studies. The latest
trend in teaching is to use thematic unit plans. In other words, using a single
topic, teachers can cover multiple academic disciplines. More on thematic
integration will be covered later.
The next
aspect of the guide lesson is the objective. The provided objective is rather
vague and does not follow the full extent of the ABCD format described in Part
Two of this paper. However, for the purposes of this lesson, that is fine since
Project Learning Tree’s Activity Guide is designed to be just that: a guide.
The lessons are designed to be flexible enough to be adapted for different
grade levels. Using the guide and the background information provided, as a
professional instructor, I can take this broad objective and fine tune it to
the specific needs of my students. For example, if I was teaching a third grade
class in Virginia, I would look up the SOL (Standards of Learning) for the
state of Virginia. Since this lesson involves living things, I look under the
category of “life processes” where I find this standard:
Life Processes 3.4 The student will investigate and understand
that behavioral and physical adaptations allow animals to respond to life
needs. Key concepts include
a) Methods of gathering and storing food, finding shelter, defending
themselves, and rearing young; and hibernation, migration camouflage, mimicry,
instinct, and learned behavior (Virginia SOL Science
website, 2008).
Using this standard, I can easily make it fit within Project
Learning Tree’s desired objectives of describing “various ways animals use
their sense of smell, explain why some animals use scent markings, and identify
the importance of the sense of smell in our daily lives”. I will focus on
animals using their sense of smell as a method as a method of gathering and
storing food to match with standard 3.4.
The social studies curriculum for third grade involves the development
of map skills. Using creativity, I can incorporate this standard into the
lesson by having the students create a map of a scent trail left by animals as
a means of gathering and storing food.
Using the
activity guide as a base and incorporating grade level appropriateness from the
Virginia State Standards, I revise the objective: The third grade students, upon completing the hands-on scent activity,
will work in small groups to create a complete trail map of the scents animals
left behind. Understand, this is only the objective for the first part of
the lesson. It is ok to have multiple objectives to follow the overall goal.
Depending on the classroom, I can expand this activity to incorporate whatever
material I want the students to study. Perhaps small groups or partners could
research a designated animal and how they use scent patterns. This would
require a second objective. Or, perhaps I want the students to study the
biological makeup of a particular animal and explain how they create scent trails.
Or perhaps I could incorporate technology in this unit and have the students
create maps of the global scent patterns of the salmon fish. The possibilities
are only limited by the extend of an environmental educator’s creativity!
Conclusion
The realm of
possibility for the environmental educator is unlimited. With creativity and
passion, amazing miracles can happen in the classroom. There are indeed many
resources available, but the environmental educator needs to have an open heart
and an open mind to let the words of William Wordsworth come true: “Let Nature
be your teacher”.
Works Cited
"Environmental Education." Environmental
Education. 2008 <www.wikipedia.com>.
"How to Write Clear
Objectives." Teaching and Learning with Technology. 30 Apr. 2009
<http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/research/Write_Objectives.shtml>.
Investigating and Evaluating
Environmental Issues and Actions: Skills Development Modules. Champaign: Stipes Co, IL.
Moore, Robin C., and Herb H. Wong. Natural
Learning - Creating Environments for Rediscovering Nature's Way of Teaching.
MIG Communications, 1997.
Nature For Kids. 2008. 30 Apr. 2009
<http://natureforkids.net>.
PreK-8 Environmental Education
Activity Guide. 3rd
ed. Project Learning Tree, 2008.
Santrock, John W. Child
Development. 11th ed. McGraw Hill College, 2003.
Virginia Standards of Learning
Currently in Effect for Virgnina Public Schools. 2008
<http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Superintendent/Sols/home.shtml>.
