In a letter to Ten Strands’ community, CEO Karen Cowe reflects on the challenges and accomplishments of 2020 and expresses appreciation for all partners and supporters who have been part of this journey towards statewide K–12 environmental literacy.
“Research shows that weaving together science and language development can increase students’ academic performance in reading, writing, and science simultaneously.” ~ Sarah Feldman and Verónica Flores Malagon, “Unlocking Learning: Science as a Lever for English Learner Equity” The path that led me to environmental literacy education was less than direct, more of a meandering road. […]
This interview between California Association of Science Educators (CASE) and Karen Cowe, Ten Strands CEO and California Environmental Literacy Initiative project director, originally appeared on the CASE website and was republished with permission. Tell us about Ten Strands and the work of the California Environmental Literacy Initiative. Ten Strands was founded eight years ago by […]
Environmental issues lend themselves to cross-disciplinary integrative learning and science teachers are central to the effort to bring environmental literacy to every California child. . . . At the heart of this broader integrative effort is three-dimensional science learning (NGSS) that emerges from the facilitation of rich environmental learning experiences. […]
For the last 15 years, we have collaborated to create standards-aligned integrated learning models for environmental literacy and the arts in order to support issues of justice. Using these models in the classroom has ignited our students’ imaginations. In early August 2020, as we approached an uncertain school year, we sat down to reflect on […]
Environmental justice IS community building. They go hand in hand. And when we include all people and perspectives, we bring creativity and learning to our practice and world. ~Our Changing Planet teacher At 22, our first US Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, has given us wisdom to live by: We don’t burst into a new […]
On October 17, 2019, over 100 educators from across California gathered to kick off the annual California Association of Science Educators (CASE) California Science Education Conference in San Jose with the Climate Summit Pre-Conference Day. This event was brought back by popular demand after being first held at the 2018 CASE conference in Pasadena. As […]
Looking at the seventh-grade standards for history–social science (HSS), it is easy to have a panic attack. How is it possible to teach almost 1,500 years of history over five continents in ten months? This has been an ongoing struggle for many seventh-grade HSS teachers, and the result has usually been the same: a survey […]
UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science recently released “A Field at Risk: The Impact of COVID-19 on Environmental and Outdoor Science Education.”