A two part interview with Little Green Pen's Michelle Schaub with views on environmental education: http://www.littlegreenpen.blogspot.com/
And Sarah Davies of Unplug your Kids, wrote a review of one of the books I had mailed to her a few months ago:
http://unplugyourkids.com/2010/11/16/environmental-guide-from-a-to-z/
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Education System: creating cars or teaching kids?
I crashed the ISACS (Independent Schools Association of the Central States) conference the other day. Yes, I'm getting too old to sneak into events. I didn't do it for the rubber chicken served at lunch, but to listen to Sir Ken Robinson.
A world-renowned expert in creativity, Sir Ken entertains. After the lunch and a follow up session with him, my cheeks hurt.
Google him and watch one of his videos at the TED conference. Or visit his website: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com/
If you need more information on his thoughts, here are a few pieces I take from Ken:
Things are changing fast and the pace of change is accelerating. In the next 50 years everything must and will change, i.e. from technology to energy use. If the entire world lived like the USA, the earth could support 1.2B people. At issue is the education system in the USA. It's not set up to enable kids to flourish, to follow their passions and to become leaders of the revolution we're in.
Our politicians mean well with programs like Leave No Child Behind and Race to the Top. Rightly, they claim "our businesses need kids that can read and write." Talk with business leaders and, yes, reading and writing is nice, but they also need people that can work on teams, think critically and innovate.
Our school system is based on an industrial model. Like an assembly line, we fill up the brains of children (mostly just one side of the brain) with information as efficiently as possible and move them on. Yet, kids are not cars, but individuals. Why not celebrate diversity and encourage them to find and follow their passions? Kids are restless and curious by nature. The goal is to set up conditions that keep them restless and curious, Why not work to foster creativity, rather than penalize it?
Ken offers ideas to teach creatively and reward creativity, often found happening at schools he visits. In fact, there is a growing backlash against this industrial system. More and more people (in and out of the system) understand rote memorization is over-rated and school can and should be relevant. Additionally, Ken doesn't blame teachers and schools, but does claim they have more leeway than they think. Best of all, Ken's wit keeps it all far lighter than I'm able in a blog posting :)
A world-renowned expert in creativity, Sir Ken entertains. After the lunch and a follow up session with him, my cheeks hurt.
Google him and watch one of his videos at the TED conference. Or visit his website: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com/
If you need more information on his thoughts, here are a few pieces I take from Ken:
Things are changing fast and the pace of change is accelerating. In the next 50 years everything must and will change, i.e. from technology to energy use. If the entire world lived like the USA, the earth could support 1.2B people. At issue is the education system in the USA. It's not set up to enable kids to flourish, to follow their passions and to become leaders of the revolution we're in.
Our politicians mean well with programs like Leave No Child Behind and Race to the Top. Rightly, they claim "our businesses need kids that can read and write." Talk with business leaders and, yes, reading and writing is nice, but they also need people that can work on teams, think critically and innovate.
Our school system is based on an industrial model. Like an assembly line, we fill up the brains of children (mostly just one side of the brain) with information as efficiently as possible and move them on. Yet, kids are not cars, but individuals. Why not celebrate diversity and encourage them to find and follow their passions? Kids are restless and curious by nature. The goal is to set up conditions that keep them restless and curious, Why not work to foster creativity, rather than penalize it?
Ken offers ideas to teach creatively and reward creativity, often found happening at schools he visits. In fact, there is a growing backlash against this industrial system. More and more people (in and out of the system) understand rote memorization is over-rated and school can and should be relevant. Additionally, Ken doesn't blame teachers and schools, but does claim they have more leeway than they think. Best of all, Ken's wit keeps it all far lighter than I'm able in a blog posting :)
Monday, November 1, 2010
Boston College Alumni Profile: A Conversation with Environmental Educator and Children's Author, Tim Magner
Here's the unedited and full-length version of last month's interview in a Boston College newsletter for graduates.
Boston College Alumni Profile: A Conversation with Environmental Educator and Children's Author, Tim Magner
By Timothy Sullivan
BCEEAN Newsletter Editor and executive committee member, Tim Sullivan, posed the following questions to environmental educator and children's author Tim Magner to discuss his views on environmental education today.
What drew you to the field?
First and foremost, it’s about spending time with children. I discovered the joy of being with kids while tutoring in high school. After graduating BC as a history major, teaching kids was my full time gig for a few years- from camp counselor, to golf coach to ski instructor. After a stint with EMC Corporation and bored with the rat race, I spent a couple years studying the environment and education. Writing for kids is an opportunity to fill a need and an excuse to be with more kids, more often.
What do you see as the major needs for environmental education?
My motto is growing green minds. The first part is about giving kids the opportunity to be kids. That means unstructured outdoor activity- time to get their feet wet and their hands dirty. It means giving kids a chance to fall- and to fall in love with, to bond with, the natural world.
So, I work to inspire kids of all ages to play. Opportunities to wander and to wonder, to explore and investigate ought to remain a part of childhood. Not only for their health and the skills it develops, but also for their happiness. No matter the technology, electronics will never engage the senses in a way nature does.
And the second part of growing green minds?
Is about kids growing up understanding how nature works. And I don’t necessarily mean the scientific stuff like the regulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or memorizing the periodic table of elements. Rather, I refer to the concepts behind nature’s successful evolution over the last billion years or so, e.g. nature cycles all its own nutrients, runs on current sun energy, rewards cooperation over competition, thrives on diversity. Nature teaches us everything we need to know. It’s already solved all the problems we face. For example, it’s easy to have a conversation with nine-year olds about worms and composting while demonstrating how waste for one is food for another. In nature there is no such thing as worthless waste, so when we recycle or compost, we mimic nature.
What is the best approach to Environmental Education?
I’ve been lucky enough to see programs across the country and they run the gamut, from head-in-the-sand tactics to the scare-the-hell-out-of ‘em approach. I argue- even if you claim to care nothing about the air, water or soil- education ought to start hands-on, local and relevant to every day life. Our first Parent and Teacher Guides contain nothing but activities that engage nature nearby, offering ways to learn where we live, who lives with us and how it works.
Environmental education isn’t just for science, just for Earth Day or only when we have time to squeeze it in. Learning about the place we live can be woven throughout the curriculum and used to teach reading, writing, math and social studies.
Kids can care about the bog down the street or a grove of trees in the schoolyard, but can a child really know a jaguar in the rainforest? Generally, we go abstract too early. Put away the cookie-cutter rainforest lessons and engage the nearby. Why not do projects that are relevant to their lives and the communities they live? Start with exploring the landscape on school grounds, make maps, measure, graph, document, record, read. It’s not necessarily always teaching about the environment, but teaching through the environment. It takes creativity and demands getting out of the classroom, but the best education provokes thought, goes deep and covers more than one subject at a time. And for those that live and die by test scores, check out results: www.SEER.org
John Dewey said it well: “Give students something to do, not learn: and when the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking, learning naturally results.“
Do you believe that we, as parents and community members, ought to advocate for more than recycling programs?
Sure, teaching “environmental manners” like turning off lights and separating trash into “reuse/compostable/recycling facility/landfill” bins makes sense, but we can’t process why we do it and what the impact is unless we have a baseline understanding of the connections.
Education ought to be relevant for the time in which we live. Industrialists designed the formal public school system. The result: our “take-make-waste’ system is productive making stuff we consume. But forty years after the first Earth Day, every living system on the earth is in decline. And that decline is accelerating. Sure, we’re the half that live comfortably, and are disconnected from our needs like never before, but that doesn’t change reality. If it were just the destruction of tropical forests, or just the loss of topsoil (& desertification), or just the loss of biodiversity, or just the toxins we produce, or just the collapse of the fisheries or the acidification of the ocean, we’d be OK. But it’s all of them, plus more (like adding another two billion of us) and they are all connected. These issues are just symptoms of a failing system and applying band-aids doesn’t constitute a solution. Linear growth on a finite planet only works for so long.
So, start local and hands-on, but is teaching about the environment in education is for more than just elementary kids?
First of all, I agree with David Sobel: “No tragedies before 4th grade.”
With ten-year-olds, I’d rather discuss how acting like a local detective improves observation skills and aids writing skills.
But for sure, there are universities waking up to the fact that continuing to teach as if we’re in the beginning of the industrial revolution no longer makes sense. Why teach subjects in silos if the world doesn’t work in silos?
If you’re going to have a conversation on food policy, it ought to include fossil fuels, subsidies, defense spending and healthcare. Unfortunately, most universities are structured in silos and change is notoriously slow and painful.
David Orr at Oberlin College believes we don’t have a problem in education, but a problem of education. Consider: those that have created the most damage to the planet are those with the most formal education. So, if more of the same type of education produces more bad, what should we do?
Orr created a 60,000’ university building that produces more energy than it consumes. Oberlin uses it as a teaching tool. He brings in disciplines from across the curricula, from history to econ and they learn how the building works with its surroundings. Sure, the science students may focus on material cycles and energy flows, while econ students cover cost versus price on construction and energy, but they all learn to become ecologically literate.
Another interesting Orr point worth debating is how we rate schools. Rather than base rankings on factors like SAT scores and graduates starting salaries, let’s use factors like ‘waste per student’, ‘how the school benefits the community’ or ‘how much positive work the graduates do.’
Do kids of all ages “get it”? What is their reaction to environmental teachings?
We don’t give kids enough credit. Children blow me away every day. They are brilliant. In a lot of ways, they can be systems thinkers easier than adults. Every six-year-old I’ve met is perfect. Creative and curious, they are natural learners that go through trial and error daily. We only need to make sure they remain curious at 16 and at 26. “To educate,” the Latin root, I believe, means “to draw out.” Too often, however, school kills creativity, rewards passive memorization and dulls our senses.
Empowering kids needn’t be difficult. A middle school class can learn critical thinking skills studying a local topical issue like, for example water. Through exploration, interviews, research, documentation, reading, journaling and debating, they learn deep and wide. Perhaps by working with the local water department, or redesigning the school’s landscape, do something to impact water quality. I don’t mean to ignore, say, the history of Jamestown and Haitian colonialism, but maybe while on water you tie in a comparison on the history of Haiti and the effects of water use and deforestation with local history.
The environmental movement shouldn’t be about the end of the world. It’s about all the good being done creating a new, better world. I tell kids every day, this is the greatest time in the history of the world to be alive. For creative thinkers and problem solvers, it’s a world full of possibilities and opportunities.
Finally, any advice to parents?
Playing outdoors, with little or no agenda, is not wasted time. It’s productive on a lot of levels. On the environmental education part, here’s another Sobel quote: “Give kids a chance to love the earth before we ask them to save it.” And, even if you care nothing about the “environmental movement” consider what qualities your children need to thrive. Kids entering 1st grade this year will reach retiring age in 2070. What kind of changes will they see in next sixty years? How do you develop adults who can think on their own, assess risk and problem solve? Can you nurture their curiosity?
Lastly, my sister has this Eleanor Roosevelt quote posted in her kitchen:
“If you want your kids to turn out well, spend half as much money on them and twice as much time.”
Boston College Alumni Profile: A Conversation with Environmental Educator and Children's Author, Tim Magner
By Timothy Sullivan
BCEEAN Newsletter Editor and executive committee member, Tim Sullivan, posed the following questions to environmental educator and children's author Tim Magner to discuss his views on environmental education today.
What drew you to the field?
First and foremost, it’s about spending time with children. I discovered the joy of being with kids while tutoring in high school. After graduating BC as a history major, teaching kids was my full time gig for a few years- from camp counselor, to golf coach to ski instructor. After a stint with EMC Corporation and bored with the rat race, I spent a couple years studying the environment and education. Writing for kids is an opportunity to fill a need and an excuse to be with more kids, more often.
What do you see as the major needs for environmental education?
My motto is growing green minds. The first part is about giving kids the opportunity to be kids. That means unstructured outdoor activity- time to get their feet wet and their hands dirty. It means giving kids a chance to fall- and to fall in love with, to bond with, the natural world.
So, I work to inspire kids of all ages to play. Opportunities to wander and to wonder, to explore and investigate ought to remain a part of childhood. Not only for their health and the skills it develops, but also for their happiness. No matter the technology, electronics will never engage the senses in a way nature does.
And the second part of growing green minds?
Is about kids growing up understanding how nature works. And I don’t necessarily mean the scientific stuff like the regulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or memorizing the periodic table of elements. Rather, I refer to the concepts behind nature’s successful evolution over the last billion years or so, e.g. nature cycles all its own nutrients, runs on current sun energy, rewards cooperation over competition, thrives on diversity. Nature teaches us everything we need to know. It’s already solved all the problems we face. For example, it’s easy to have a conversation with nine-year olds about worms and composting while demonstrating how waste for one is food for another. In nature there is no such thing as worthless waste, so when we recycle or compost, we mimic nature.
What is the best approach to Environmental Education?
I’ve been lucky enough to see programs across the country and they run the gamut, from head-in-the-sand tactics to the scare-the-hell-out-of ‘em approach. I argue- even if you claim to care nothing about the air, water or soil- education ought to start hands-on, local and relevant to every day life. Our first Parent and Teacher Guides contain nothing but activities that engage nature nearby, offering ways to learn where we live, who lives with us and how it works.
Environmental education isn’t just for science, just for Earth Day or only when we have time to squeeze it in. Learning about the place we live can be woven throughout the curriculum and used to teach reading, writing, math and social studies.
Kids can care about the bog down the street or a grove of trees in the schoolyard, but can a child really know a jaguar in the rainforest? Generally, we go abstract too early. Put away the cookie-cutter rainforest lessons and engage the nearby. Why not do projects that are relevant to their lives and the communities they live? Start with exploring the landscape on school grounds, make maps, measure, graph, document, record, read. It’s not necessarily always teaching about the environment, but teaching through the environment. It takes creativity and demands getting out of the classroom, but the best education provokes thought, goes deep and covers more than one subject at a time. And for those that live and die by test scores, check out results: www.SEER.org
John Dewey said it well: “Give students something to do, not learn: and when the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking, learning naturally results.“
Do you believe that we, as parents and community members, ought to advocate for more than recycling programs?
Sure, teaching “environmental manners” like turning off lights and separating trash into “reuse/compostable/recycling facility/landfill” bins makes sense, but we can’t process why we do it and what the impact is unless we have a baseline understanding of the connections.
Education ought to be relevant for the time in which we live. Industrialists designed the formal public school system. The result: our “take-make-waste’ system is productive making stuff we consume. But forty years after the first Earth Day, every living system on the earth is in decline. And that decline is accelerating. Sure, we’re the half that live comfortably, and are disconnected from our needs like never before, but that doesn’t change reality. If it were just the destruction of tropical forests, or just the loss of topsoil (& desertification), or just the loss of biodiversity, or just the toxins we produce, or just the collapse of the fisheries or the acidification of the ocean, we’d be OK. But it’s all of them, plus more (like adding another two billion of us) and they are all connected. These issues are just symptoms of a failing system and applying band-aids doesn’t constitute a solution. Linear growth on a finite planet only works for so long.
So, start local and hands-on, but is teaching about the environment in education is for more than just elementary kids?
First of all, I agree with David Sobel: “No tragedies before 4th grade.”
With ten-year-olds, I’d rather discuss how acting like a local detective improves observation skills and aids writing skills.
But for sure, there are universities waking up to the fact that continuing to teach as if we’re in the beginning of the industrial revolution no longer makes sense. Why teach subjects in silos if the world doesn’t work in silos?
If you’re going to have a conversation on food policy, it ought to include fossil fuels, subsidies, defense spending and healthcare. Unfortunately, most universities are structured in silos and change is notoriously slow and painful.
David Orr at Oberlin College believes we don’t have a problem in education, but a problem of education. Consider: those that have created the most damage to the planet are those with the most formal education. So, if more of the same type of education produces more bad, what should we do?
Orr created a 60,000’ university building that produces more energy than it consumes. Oberlin uses it as a teaching tool. He brings in disciplines from across the curricula, from history to econ and they learn how the building works with its surroundings. Sure, the science students may focus on material cycles and energy flows, while econ students cover cost versus price on construction and energy, but they all learn to become ecologically literate.
Another interesting Orr point worth debating is how we rate schools. Rather than base rankings on factors like SAT scores and graduates starting salaries, let’s use factors like ‘waste per student’, ‘how the school benefits the community’ or ‘how much positive work the graduates do.’
Do kids of all ages “get it”? What is their reaction to environmental teachings?
We don’t give kids enough credit. Children blow me away every day. They are brilliant. In a lot of ways, they can be systems thinkers easier than adults. Every six-year-old I’ve met is perfect. Creative and curious, they are natural learners that go through trial and error daily. We only need to make sure they remain curious at 16 and at 26. “To educate,” the Latin root, I believe, means “to draw out.” Too often, however, school kills creativity, rewards passive memorization and dulls our senses.
Empowering kids needn’t be difficult. A middle school class can learn critical thinking skills studying a local topical issue like, for example water. Through exploration, interviews, research, documentation, reading, journaling and debating, they learn deep and wide. Perhaps by working with the local water department, or redesigning the school’s landscape, do something to impact water quality. I don’t mean to ignore, say, the history of Jamestown and Haitian colonialism, but maybe while on water you tie in a comparison on the history of Haiti and the effects of water use and deforestation with local history.
The environmental movement shouldn’t be about the end of the world. It’s about all the good being done creating a new, better world. I tell kids every day, this is the greatest time in the history of the world to be alive. For creative thinkers and problem solvers, it’s a world full of possibilities and opportunities.
Finally, any advice to parents?
Playing outdoors, with little or no agenda, is not wasted time. It’s productive on a lot of levels. On the environmental education part, here’s another Sobel quote: “Give kids a chance to love the earth before we ask them to save it.” And, even if you care nothing about the “environmental movement” consider what qualities your children need to thrive. Kids entering 1st grade this year will reach retiring age in 2070. What kind of changes will they see in next sixty years? How do you develop adults who can think on their own, assess risk and problem solve? Can you nurture their curiosity?
Lastly, my sister has this Eleanor Roosevelt quote posted in her kitchen:
“If you want your kids to turn out well, spend half as much money on them and twice as much time.”
Monday, October 25, 2010
How can your kids learn it all? Teacher Opportunity
So much to cover, so little time...
Being a kid today is different than a generation ago. Between an increase in the amount of enrichment activities, organized sports, "screen" options (TV, video games, computers, phones) and homework, some kids suffer from increased pressure. The only thing there isn't more of is time.
A lot of teachers I've spoken with feel the same way. They're expected to cover a growing amount of material in a limited amount of class time. Yes, kids have to perform well on tests, but the best teachers understand if they can keep their kids engaged and curious while developing critical thinkers that can problem solve, test scores will take care of themselves.
How do they do it?
Choose lessons they can cover in depth, where students learn multiple subjects simultaneously and tie into life outside of the four walls of the classroom.
To that end, please consider getting your schools involved with local organizations that offer cross-curricula lesson planning. If we're going to raise kids smarter than us, they will understand connections, i.e. we can't have a conversation about healthcare unless we also talk about exercise, agriculture and fossil fuels. The only way to more deeply understand nature around us is if we get in it, eat it, read about it, experiment with it and write about.
BRINGING UP BOOKWORMS:
USING CHILDREN’S LITERATURE TO TEACH PLANT BIOLOGY
Nov. 13 & 20 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Fee: $150 ($140 for Educator Members)
Grade level: K-8
CPDU credit: 15, Lane credit: 1, Graduate credit: 1
The Garden brings you the latest techniques for fostering literacy through science and science through literacy. Learn how to develop practical lesson plans that inspire kids to read, write about, and discover science and nature. Toby Rajput, Children’s and Youth Literature Librarian at National-Louis University will introduce you to the best new books in a variety of genres and suggest learning activities to enhance teaching and learning about the natural world. You’ll take home a bibliography so you can plan your own lessons to engage students with these extraordinary and beautiful books.
We will look at some of our favorite books and learn a number of bookmaking techniques, including pop-ups. Local author, Cheryl Bardoe will be talking about her book Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas and making science content and literacy connections for the classroom.
Being a kid today is different than a generation ago. Between an increase in the amount of enrichment activities, organized sports, "screen" options (TV, video games, computers, phones) and homework, some kids suffer from increased pressure. The only thing there isn't more of is time.
A lot of teachers I've spoken with feel the same way. They're expected to cover a growing amount of material in a limited amount of class time. Yes, kids have to perform well on tests, but the best teachers understand if they can keep their kids engaged and curious while developing critical thinkers that can problem solve, test scores will take care of themselves.
How do they do it?
Choose lessons they can cover in depth, where students learn multiple subjects simultaneously and tie into life outside of the four walls of the classroom.
To that end, please consider getting your schools involved with local organizations that offer cross-curricula lesson planning. If we're going to raise kids smarter than us, they will understand connections, i.e. we can't have a conversation about healthcare unless we also talk about exercise, agriculture and fossil fuels. The only way to more deeply understand nature around us is if we get in it, eat it, read about it, experiment with it and write about.
BRINGING UP BOOKWORMS:
USING CHILDREN’S LITERATURE TO TEACH PLANT BIOLOGY
Nov. 13 & 20 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Fee: $150 ($140 for Educator Members)
Grade level: K-8
CPDU credit: 15, Lane credit: 1, Graduate credit: 1
The Garden brings you the latest techniques for fostering literacy through science and science through literacy. Learn how to develop practical lesson plans that inspire kids to read, write about, and discover science and nature. Toby Rajput, Children’s and Youth Literature Librarian at National-Louis University will introduce you to the best new books in a variety of genres and suggest learning activities to enhance teaching and learning about the natural world. You’ll take home a bibliography so you can plan your own lessons to engage students with these extraordinary and beautiful books.
We will look at some of our favorite books and learn a number of bookmaking techniques, including pop-ups. Local author, Cheryl Bardoe will be talking about her book Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas and making science content and literacy connections for the classroom.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Creativity in our Kids. Why we need it. How to get it.
Here's a recap on the disturbing article from Newsweek, titled, "Creativity in America."
While the tests it references confirm enriched environments are allowing our children to test higher on IQ exams, the reverse is happening with creativity scores. This is troubling because creativity and curiosity are a better measure of long term success. It's especially troubling in 2010 b/c:
The short answer for more creative kids:
1. Limit screen time and increase play time. Consider reading "Free-Range Kids" or at least a blog posting.
2. Meet with school admins and teachers to discuss developing kids who can think critically. Ask for lessons that have to do with problems in and around the school. Ask about project based learning that teaches across the curriculum. Consider using the Environment as an Integrating Context at www.seer.org or the Teacher's Guide to my "An Environmental Guide from A to Z" found on the Green Sugar Press website.
For kids to thrive in the 21st century, they'll need more than the left side of the brain. Creativity happens when both sides are engaged. And to ensure both sides are working well, the part of the body below the neck needs to get exercise too!
While the tests it references confirm enriched environments are allowing our children to test higher on IQ exams, the reverse is happening with creativity scores. This is troubling because creativity and curiosity are a better measure of long term success. It's especially troubling in 2010 b/c:
- Current trends at home and at school decrease, rather than nurture, our capacity for creativity
- The 21st century needs the original and useful ideas which flow from creativity now more than ever.
The short answer for more creative kids:
1. Limit screen time and increase play time. Consider reading "Free-Range Kids" or at least a blog posting.
2. Meet with school admins and teachers to discuss developing kids who can think critically. Ask for lessons that have to do with problems in and around the school. Ask about project based learning that teaches across the curriculum. Consider using the Environment as an Integrating Context at www.seer.org or the Teacher's Guide to my "An Environmental Guide from A to Z" found on the Green Sugar Press website.
For kids to thrive in the 21st century, they'll need more than the left side of the brain. Creativity happens when both sides are engaged. And to ensure both sides are working well, the part of the body below the neck needs to get exercise too!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
For Chicago Area Teachers (and for parents that have kids that have teachers)
REGISTRATION is now open for FALL TEACHER PROGRAMS at the CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN!
HTTP://WWW.CHICAGOBOTANIC.ORG/TEACHERPROGRAMS
2010 NATIONAL CONFERENCE: IN OUR NATURE
Oct. 13 – 16 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Begin your Conference experience by joining fellow attendees for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at new Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Science Center. Tour the science center, sip a cocktail, and take a tram ride around the 2.6 perimeter of the Garden. Trams are wheelchair accessible.
To register: visit www.ahta.org
Chicago educators are eligible to register for Saturday only and receive CPDUs.
Grade level: PreK-12
CPDU credit: 1 per hour, CPS Lane credit: 1, Graduate credit: 1
Recent research on psychological development and education has demonstrated the positive influence of exposing individuals of all ages and abilities to the natural world and plant rich environments. The Chicago Botanic Garden and the American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) will address the programs and benefits of interaction with nature at the 2010 AHTA Annual Conference / Chicago Botanic Garden 13th Annual School Garden Conference. Specifically, the conference program will focus on how nature, horticulture, and environmental studies are integrated in a variety of contexts to support educational, vocational, social, and therapeutic goals. Individuals with special challenges are recognized as an increasing segment of the general population, particularly as early diagnoses, medical technologies, and “mainstreaming” or “inclusion” programs improve. Welcoming individuals of all abilities, particularly those with special challenges – physical, cognitive, and behavioral – to a plant rich environment poses particular challenges to educators, therapists, and human services workers alike.
BRINGING UP BOOKWORMS: USING CHILDREN’S LITERATURE TO TEACH PLANT BIOLOGY
Nov. 13 & 20 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Fee: $150 ($140 for Educator Members)
Grade level: K-8
CPDU credit: 15, Lane credit: 1, Graduate credit: 1
The Garden brings you the latest techniques for fostering literacy through science and science through literacy. Learn how to develop practical lesson plans that inspire kids to read, write about, and discover science and nature. We will look at some of our favorite books and learn a number of bookmaking techniques.
EXPLORING DESERT ECOSYSTEMS
Dec. 4 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Dec. 11 at the Brookfield Zoo
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Fee: $150 ($140 for Educator Members)
Grade level: PreK-12
CPDU credit: 15, Lane credit: 1, Graduate credit: 1
Why are deserts important? Why are some spreading? Why should we protect them? Join educators in the Garden’s greenhouses to explore desert plants. Then, seek out desert animals at the Brookfield Zoo. At both locations you will learn about the importance of deserts through hands-on activities that support interdisciplinary instruction.
NEW! WANDER THROUGH WONDERLAND: AN EVENING FOR EDUCATORS
Dec. 8 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
5 – 7:30 p.m.
Fee: $25
Grade level: PreK-12
CPDU credit: 1 per hour, CPS Lane credit: NA, Graduate credit: NA
Enjoy wine and cheese while you wander through the greenhouses, and experience a behind-the-scenes tour of Wonderland Express and the Lenhardt Library. See what the Garden has to offer schools, students, and teachers by participating in some of our most popular programs at hands-on activity stations. New this year, we will raffle special prizes including a free guided field trip ($115 value), a Sleuthmobile tram tour for a class ($75 value), Garden Shop and Garden Café gift certificates ($20 value), and more!
HTTP://WWW.CHICAGOBOTANIC.ORG/TEACHERPROGRAMS
2010 NATIONAL CONFERENCE: IN OUR NATURE
Oct. 13 – 16 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Begin your Conference experience by joining fellow attendees for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at new Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Science Center. Tour the science center, sip a cocktail, and take a tram ride around the 2.6 perimeter of the Garden. Trams are wheelchair accessible.
To register: visit www.ahta.org
Chicago educators are eligible to register for Saturday only and receive CPDUs.
Grade level: PreK-12
CPDU credit: 1 per hour, CPS Lane credit: 1, Graduate credit: 1
Recent research on psychological development and education has demonstrated the positive influence of exposing individuals of all ages and abilities to the natural world and plant rich environments. The Chicago Botanic Garden and the American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) will address the programs and benefits of interaction with nature at the 2010 AHTA Annual Conference / Chicago Botanic Garden 13th Annual School Garden Conference. Specifically, the conference program will focus on how nature, horticulture, and environmental studies are integrated in a variety of contexts to support educational, vocational, social, and therapeutic goals. Individuals with special challenges are recognized as an increasing segment of the general population, particularly as early diagnoses, medical technologies, and “mainstreaming” or “inclusion” programs improve. Welcoming individuals of all abilities, particularly those with special challenges – physical, cognitive, and behavioral – to a plant rich environment poses particular challenges to educators, therapists, and human services workers alike.
BRINGING UP BOOKWORMS: USING CHILDREN’S LITERATURE TO TEACH PLANT BIOLOGY
Nov. 13 & 20 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Fee: $150 ($140 for Educator Members)
Grade level: K-8
CPDU credit: 15, Lane credit: 1, Graduate credit: 1
The Garden brings you the latest techniques for fostering literacy through science and science through literacy. Learn how to develop practical lesson plans that inspire kids to read, write about, and discover science and nature. We will look at some of our favorite books and learn a number of bookmaking techniques.
EXPLORING DESERT ECOSYSTEMS
Dec. 4 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Dec. 11 at the Brookfield Zoo
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Fee: $150 ($140 for Educator Members)
Grade level: PreK-12
CPDU credit: 15, Lane credit: 1, Graduate credit: 1
Why are deserts important? Why are some spreading? Why should we protect them? Join educators in the Garden’s greenhouses to explore desert plants. Then, seek out desert animals at the Brookfield Zoo. At both locations you will learn about the importance of deserts through hands-on activities that support interdisciplinary instruction.
NEW! WANDER THROUGH WONDERLAND: AN EVENING FOR EDUCATORS
Dec. 8 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
5 – 7:30 p.m.
Fee: $25
Grade level: PreK-12
CPDU credit: 1 per hour, CPS Lane credit: NA, Graduate credit: NA
Enjoy wine and cheese while you wander through the greenhouses, and experience a behind-the-scenes tour of Wonderland Express and the Lenhardt Library. See what the Garden has to offer schools, students, and teachers by participating in some of our most popular programs at hands-on activity stations. New this year, we will raffle special prizes including a free guided field trip ($115 value), a Sleuthmobile tram tour for a class ($75 value), Garden Shop and Garden Café gift certificates ($20 value), and more!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Last night I attended the world premiere of the documentary "Carbon Nation" at Millennium Park. It's a feel-good 90 minutes worth of solutions to our carbon intense industrial aged culture. It's not about limitations to our lifestyles, or going backwards, but, rather, about radically reducing the use of fossil fuels and creating a cleaner world, based largely on efficiency, solar, wind and geothermal. It's as inspirational as much as Gore's "Inconvient Truth" was depressing. We don't need buzz kills, we need a price to be placed on pollution to allow for our creativity and innovation to flourish.
I scanned the audience. There were a number of grade school aged kids at the show (in addition to the college-aged set and their 350.org t-shirts) and the movie did offer hope, e.g. highlighting business people involved in growing industries. It showed teenagers installing rooftop solar panels and recommended kids become engineers. It mentioned how a decrease in the use of fossil fuels will mean a more human labor intensive world.
That being said, a movie can cover only so much. So, while I enjoyed the parts of "Carbon Nation" which draw the connections between the health of our local air, water and soil with the use of subsidized fossil fuels, it wasn't about kids or for kids. There's another documentary I'd like to see and its appears to be more about getting kids outside, to give them a chance to bond with, and fall in love with, the earth, rather than stuck in front of electronic screens. It's called "Play Again." If you'd like to be involved in hosting a screening, let me know. Here's the link: http://www.playagainfilm.com
And, oh, here's the link on information for Carbon Nation: http://www.carbonnation.tv/
I scanned the audience. There were a number of grade school aged kids at the show (in addition to the college-aged set and their 350.org t-shirts) and the movie did offer hope, e.g. highlighting business people involved in growing industries. It showed teenagers installing rooftop solar panels and recommended kids become engineers. It mentioned how a decrease in the use of fossil fuels will mean a more human labor intensive world.
That being said, a movie can cover only so much. So, while I enjoyed the parts of "Carbon Nation" which draw the connections between the health of our local air, water and soil with the use of subsidized fossil fuels, it wasn't about kids or for kids. There's another documentary I'd like to see and its appears to be more about getting kids outside, to give them a chance to bond with, and fall in love with, the earth, rather than stuck in front of electronic screens. It's called "Play Again." If you'd like to be involved in hosting a screening, let me know. Here's the link: http://www.playagainfilm.com
And, oh, here's the link on information for Carbon Nation: http://www.carbonnation.tv/
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