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 […]
I am a science teacher first and foremost, and I view my world through this lens though usually I don’t even recognize it is there. It also means that I ask a lot of questions, but my questions have served me well and invited conversations that have led to places that I never thought I […]
As a kindergarten teacher, one of my goals at the beginning of each school year is to have my students reading and (hopefully!) writing by June. At the beginning of every year I realize what a monumental task it is as I gaze at my classroom on that first day of school. If you’ve ever […]
It’s a sunny May morning in the Imperial Valley; by 8:00am it’s already 90° and climbing. I arrived the afternoon before and decided to avoid the interstate by taking the 78, a winding two-lane road that at times looks like what I imagine the surface of the moon would. Extending south from the Salton Sea […]
“The students cleared a local pond that frequently gets clogged with natural or human-made pollution. On their return visit, they saw that a huge log had been thrown into the pond–but when they went to remove it, they found a thriving ecosystem of snails reclaiming the wood. So the students made the independent decision to […]
It has been almost a year since I first attended the San Mateo Environmental Learning Collaborative (SM ELC). Focused on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), SM ELC is a unique opportunity hosted by Ten Strands, SEER, and the San Mateo County Office of Education—STEM Center offered to K–8 teachers. As part of SM ELC, […]
At the beginning of the San Mateo Environmental Education Learning Collaborative (SM ELC) workshop, Dr. Gerald Lieberman asked us who didn’t feel comfortable or knowledgeable applying the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The majority of teachers in the room raised their hands. Before we joined the SM ELC, I would have raised my hand as […]