Earth Education, Environmental Education and Experiential Ed. – A Blended Approach.

Here’s an article I wrote a while back for Massachusetts Environmental Education Society’s publication The Observer. While this article is aimed at professional educators, I think there are important take-aways here for parents and anyone else who works with children. Some of what I address here is what I’ll be presenting at the MEES 2012 Conference on March 14th.

I freely recognize that I’m a blender when it comes to teaching.  Working over the past decade in camps, environmental education and adventure education I have tried to adopt a variety of teaching methods, set programs or techniques as put forth by various authors and/or organizations.  What I have discovered (and I’m sure this is true for most educators) is that I do far better to take the components of the stronger programs/curricula, and blend it with my own teaching style.

That is why I have selected only a small bit from the Earth Education program below to share.  The Earth Education folks would much prefer that I completely integrate their program and run it as they’ve set forth in their various books. I have no problem with their programs – I like them quite a lot, in fact – but it just isn’t feasible with what I have to work with in my day-to-day structure.  But I believe that there are some really important messages in there that shouldn’t be lost, just because I (mostly)can’t use their programs as a whole and so I’ve condensed a few concepts that I try to utilize as often as possible.

One of the facets of these programming suggestions that I love is how it blends aspects of what we try to accomplish in challenge/adventure education with more fact-oriented environmental education.  Many of the Earth Education components that I’ve listed are easy to insert into almost any type of program, and I strongly urge you to give them a try. The excerpts below come directly from the Earth Education book by Steve Van Matre (see resources below).

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Earth Education

Concepts for Lesson Planning

Immersing participants in nature… we have to:

• get people out there
• help people take in more of what’s around them out there
• make sure people have a good time while they are there

Immersing Techniques:

• Change your vantage point to make the familiar unfamiliar
• Use all of your sense in exploring an area
• Simulate natural processes (flow like the water, leap like the wind)
• Crawl or roll or float instead of walk
• Take away your sense of sight or sound to heighten your other senses
• Role play other creatures and things
• Look at the world from the perspective of something else
• Get off the path, go cross-country (or bushwhack)
• Find dramatic places to perch
• Go out in unusual hours or conditions
• Play with a childhood toy, then go for a walk in a natural area
• Spend a whole day outside (dawn to dusk) and imagine that it is the last day of your life

• Use other ways to answer the “What is it?” Question (aka – “Coyote Teaching”)
  • Ask participants what they notice about it
  • How does it smell/feel/sound?
  • Use a one-line description of its process (system), place (community) or niche (It’s a decomposer, flying insect-eating mammal, a prairie flower, etc.)
  • Ask them what they think it should be called based on their observations

• Pulling, rather than pushing your learners:
  • Build in appropriate yet appealing rewards
  • Huddle a group together and in a hushed voice prepare them for what’s coming
  • Promote the next activity with a fast-paced skit during a meal
  • Arrange a special ceremony that engulfs the participants and sets them up for the task
  • Challenge the learners to do something different or out of the ordinary

• Use open-ended questions (as opposed to the 20-questions method):
  • “I wonder what causes it to look like that?”
  • What does it feel like when you (rub it against your cheek, between your fingers, etc.)?”
  • “How did it make you feel?”
  • “Can  you find an example of__?”
  • Do you think it’s possible to …?”

• Make it magical by:
  • Telling a story
  • Setting up a discovery
  • Sending a secret message
  • Using clues and riddles
  • Doing the unexpected
  • Forecasting events to build anticipation
  • Watching for special moments
  • Preparing a surprise
  • Creating an appealing atmosphere

• Add adventure:
  • Offer a challenge
  • Send/use a map
  • Introduce a mission
  • Ask for help
  • Present a mystery to be solved
  • Organize an expedition
  • Pretend it’s a bit risky
  • Make it multisensory
  • Bring in something exotic as a focal point
  • Include a break in the routine
  • Reverse the commonplace

Resources:

Earth Education, Steve Van Matre, The Institute for Earth Education, Greenville, WV, 1999

www.eartheducation.org