Curricula are like tools: in the right hands magic happens, learning is made relevant, and learners are inspired. Deploying diverse instructional resources so students can build upon their own interests, life knowledge, and place in the world is especially important in serving 21st century learners. The task before us with the new science standards (NGSS) […]
We humans have a big problem facing our fragile species: our climate is changing more quickly than we can adapt. The only time the climate has changed as fast as it is changing now is when an asteroid hit the earth 60 million years ago—the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event—causing a mass extinction of some three-quarters of […]
The first time I visited America was when I was just out of high school and I spent the summer in Mt. Kisco, New York. Until then, I’d lived in two villages—Chirnside in the Scottish Borders and Rosedale Abbey in the North Yorkshire Moors—both with a population of less than 1,300 people. My trip was […]
I have always loved kids. There is something about them that grounds me whenever I am around them. Sometimes we adults get caught up in the stress of life—we’ve got bills to pay, people to see and there is always work to be done. But when I play with my new baby niece, my focus […]
It’s January. The holidays are over. A new year has begun. It’s the time when people who love the cold or snow are relishing winter while folks like myself are pining for the light and warmth of spring. It’s no coincidence the first month of the new year is named January. Janus was the Roman […]
My college roommate, a brilliant and utterly decent guy, became a top geologist for the petroleum industry. I became an environmental activist. We’re still friends. I’ll call him Rick. His job is to help clients make money by finding and figuring out how to extract new sources of oil and gas. He is very good […]
Learning is a life-long activity, and we want to instill that drive in all students. If you can engage students by making learning relevant and fun—as environment-based learning does—then they will not only perform better in school, but they will want to become learners for their whole life. In thinking about this holiday season, I […]
UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science recently released “A Field at Risk: The Impact of COVID-19 on Environmental and Outdoor Science Education.”