I have always loved science and the outdoors. Prior to becoming a classroom teacher, I worked as an outdoor educator and had the pleasure of hiking through the redwoods with groups of fifth and sixth grade students. I majored in science as an undergraduate and consider myself to be a scientist. When I joined my […]
I am a proud new member of the elite Teacher Ambassador team for the California Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI), a statewide program to make environmental literacy an integral part of K–12 instruction. A major part of the initiative is the model EEI Curriculum – a free curriculum resource which uses the environment as […]
As teachers dig deeper into the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and move past the newness of the three dimensions, there’s something beautiful that begins to illuminate. It becomes immediately apparent there are strong connections between the standards and science ideas surrounding the environment and, specifically, environmental issues. Considering the big shift in the NGSS […]
The unit that we are making and the units other teams are making are so rich. I love that they address real-world, local, environmental problems, and that they include elements of project-based learning. It makes me happy to think about children engaging in these lessons and addressing these issues. During the last week of June, […]
Introduction The San Fernando Valley Science Project (SFVSP) recently hosted a two-week summer institute for middle and high school science teachers focused on incorporating the California Environmental Principles & Concepts (EP&Cs) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into classroom lessons. This summer workshop is offered annually, with 2018 representing the third year of a four-year […]
Region 10 of the California Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC) Network is massive. It encompasses all of what is affectionately called RIMS: Riverside, Inyo, Mono, and San Bernardino counties, almost a quarter of the state’s geographic area. Expanding the work of environmental literacy in this region is made more difficult by the region’s far-flung boundaries, […]
It’s a dark November night as I drive through the western Sierras toward Quincy, CA (elevation 3,423 ft.). The narrow road twists through pine and rock as the elevation rises, edged by water spanned by erector-set bridges and intermittent power stations. Because it is so dark, because there are no streetlights, and because the stars […]
“This was a wonderful week—fun balanced with lots of things to take away and try with my kids … a much deeper appreciation of environmental literacy.” The first of three planned Elementary Environmental Literacy Summer Institutes was presented to K–5 teachers by the Alameda Unified School District (USD) in summer 2017. The Bay Area Science […]
UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science recently released “A Field at Risk: The Impact of COVID-19 on Environmental and Outdoor Science Education.”