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 […]
Students at Foulks Ranch Elementary School, with teacher and National Geographic Education Fellow Jim Bentley, completed the final phase of their Geo-Inquiry project to address the question, “How can we make water more accessible and reduce plastic waste in our parks and school?” The students helped Cosumnes Community Services District park administrators install a bottle-filling station […]
Outside the urban glare of Los Angeles, we found a night sky packed with stars and a still silence interrupted only by the wind’s whisper and the chatter of crickets and frogs. It was different, yet familiar. My father packed little more than a kerosene lamp, a small tent and some fishing gear for those […]
“The students of today will be the architects of future climate strategies and our champions for achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets.” ~State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson 2015 was a big year for environmental and sustainability education, and a critical pivot point. Superintendent Torlakson’s Environmental Literacy Task Force had spent all of 2014 putting […]
Let’s think about life and learning. Journals are perhaps the most grounded (literally and figuratively!) tool we have for relationship building in life and for learning. Elegant, simple by design and accessible, nature journals are adaptive, easily created, inclusive, and cross-cultural. Each addition is an enhancement to record observable interest, increase understanding, and reflect the […]
It is a beautiful Friday morning in May when Ten Strands team members Karen Cowe, Ariel Whitson, Mike Howe, and I arrive at Dixie Elementary School in San Rafael, California. After gathering in front of the school’s jungle gym playground, we head to the front office, where we are instructed to sign-in and choose one […]
We are excited to share our 2017 Annual Report. Learn more about the California Environmental Literacy Initiative—a multi-faceted movement focused on advancing efforts across the education landscape with the ultimate goal of achieving environmental literacy for all of California’s K–12 students. Through this work Ten Strands has embraced our role as a field catalyst and become the […]
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, […]