Teachers

Hands-On Learning Activates Student Projects

The California Global Education Project encourages teachers to design environmental literacy programs. In these programs, students addressed diverse environmental issues, ranging from researching carcinogens, reducing waste and saving marine mammals. These replicable examples show the impact of engaging younger generations to make meaningful change and promote sustainability in their communities.

Why Does Teaching Science Beyond the Classroom Matter?

As Erika Remedios explains in this essay, teaching science can be so much more than reading a textbook. Students derive more meaning from hands-on activities in nature because they bring concepts to life, making them easier to understand and less distant. What Remedios calls “transactions with nature” are ways to promote collaboration and inspire engagement from students who may otherwise have problems in a traditional classroom setting.

How Environmental Literacy and Land Stewardship Could Help Save California for Future Generations

After searching for ways to protect California from wildfires like the one that nearly engulfed her hometown, author Lucia Garay advocates environmental literacy. In order to protect nature, we have to be knowledgeable on how natural fires contribute to the California landscape. Garay demonstrates how much we have to learn from the land stewardship practices of indigenous Californian, and the art of coexisting with—rather than controlling— fire.

County Offices of Education Present Environmental Literacy Programs at CISC Leadership Symposium

Dr. Faris Sabbah reflects on his participation in a panel discussion about implementing environmental literacy programs across four California counties. By engaging stakeholders to compare strategies, they can learn from and incorporate each other’s approaches to support students’ environmental learning. Continue reading to learn more about Santa Cruz County’s commitment to equity, San Mateo’s environmental youth leadership network, San Joaquin’s watershed and environmental stewardship, and Orange County’s Inside the Outdoors program!

Connecting Curriculum and Standards to Teach About Healthy Habitats

Rebecca Fox is a science teacher who wanted to improve her school’s curriculum to meet new content standards for K-12 science classes. But when the new standards were implemented, she found that students weren’t engaged in two fundamental approaches: scientific inquiry or the experimental process. Her passion for experiential learning drove her to find something new. Continue reading to learn how she utilized field trips and projects to get her students involved in their community.

This Is Environmental Literacy: Rialto

The history of this place, and the story of what Ms. Chan and the district are doing to provide effective student-centered learning are inexorably intertwined, and illustrate another instance of how district-level support, committed educators, and community partnerships—working in concert with a place itself—enhance student engagement and support student success. Environmental literacy is woven throughout their innovative strategy to serve their students.