A TEACHING GUIDE FOR ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Today the interconnectedness of all life on earth is becoming obvious to everyone. As we enter the last decade of this millennium, humanity is facing unprecedented environmental challenges: a deteriorating atmosphere of depleted ozone and suffocating carbon dioxide, the rapid deforestation and desertification of vast areas of the globe, the widespread poisoning of water, soil, and food, the rapid rate of species extinction, the depletion of non-renewable resources, the exponential growth of human population. Yet few of our day-to-day actions, whether on the international, national, community or personal level, reflect these realities. We go on in our everyday lives, vaguely aware that our planet is ill, and yet feeling there is little we can do to help.
But of course, all of us can help. Millions of people around the world are actively working for change on behalf of our planet and all living beings. As the late French philosopher Rene Dubos said, it is time to “Think globally, act locally.”
Ecological education for children is especially important in this grand campaign to save our earth. Children are the future. The values, attitudes, and information they have about the world around them will inevitably shape that future. Fortunately, children are naturally predisposed to love the earth and to want to take care of it and its living beings. The more these feelings can be encouraged and enhanced by educational experiences and knowledge, the more harmonious a relationship our children are likely to have with the beautiful but endangered planet they are inheriting from us.
In the last 20 years, the field of ecological education for children has become firmly established in the United States. Teachers and naturalists have developed an approach to ecological education that is creative, effective, and fun for both adults and children. This approach has three basic aspects:
- It is EXPERIENTIAL. To see is better than to hear, but to DO is best of all!
- It is FLEXIBLE. As adult guides, we encourage children to ask questions, think for themselves and come up with their own answers, rather than “teaching” them the “correct” answer.
- It is FUN. Our relationships to the earth and to each other can be full of joy, caring, wonder, and laughter.
STRATEGIES IN ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Ecological educators use a number of different teaching strategies and games that elicit certain ideas, concepts and feelings from children. Rather than developing a strict lesson plan, ecological educators carry with them an imaginary bag full of effective strategies from which they can pull out the ones most effective for the setting, the age of the children, and the length of time available. These strategies fall into four basic categories:
- Sensory Awareness: The aim of these strategies is to encourage children to pay attention to things they may not have noticed before and to explore nature with all the senses fully awakened, including the sense of wonder.
- Interconnectedness: As the pioneering 19th-century American ecologist John Muir put it, “Everything is hitched to everything else.” These strategies illuminate cycles, relationships, and interdependences within the web of life.
- Values and Stewardship: What attitudes and beliefs do we hold about the earth and its living beings? How do our own actions affect the earth? How is our earth changing? What do we think is important? How could we take better care of each other and our planet?
- Cooperation and Nonviolence: These strategies and games help model new ways of human behavior, which can help us to meet our current global challenges and to develop a peaceful, sustainable, creative and enjoyable world in which to live.
Most of the following strategies are designed to be used by an adult guide working with a small group of children (between ages 5 and 12) in an outdoor setting. Many of them, however, can be adapted to larger groups, and also to indoor settings. Children from ages 6 to 16 (and adults, too!) will enjoy and benefit from these strategies, and children between ages 8 and 13 are particularly responsive.
Becoming a good ecological educator does not take any special training. A love for the natural world, a caring attitude toward children, a lively imagination, and a sense of spontaneity and humor are the most important ingredients. As you become more experienced you will learn which strategies work best in various circumstances, and you will learn how to move between high-energy games and more quiet, thoughtful strategies. Get ready to have your own senses and feelings opened—the children will teach you a great deal!
A few beginning tips:
- Become familiar with your site. It may be a forest, a meadow, a river or lake, a marsh, an ocean, a desert, a mountain or a combination of different habitats. It is not necessary to learn all the names of the plants and animals. But it helps to know which plants have strong smells, where flowers are likely to grow, what animals and you are likely to see, and other features of the landscape, so that you can design the flow of your strategies accordingly.
- Bring the right equipment. A sample list is given at the end of this guide, but don’t become so laden down with a heavy rucksack that you can’t walk comfortably!
SENSORY AWARENESS STRATEGIES
Purple Thurple
Penny Hike
Camera
Burma Shave
Colors/Shapes
Blindfold
Unnature Trail
Trail Tea
Thunderstorm
“First-Time” Roleplays
Deer Ears
Magic Circle
Alone Walk
Barefooting
Microhike
Wake Up Lichens
INTERCONNECTEDNESS
Decomposition Dance
Chocolate Factory
MMM
Create a Plant
Lunch strategies – Dinosaur, Applepeople
Garden strategies – Fingertip Test
Predator/Prey
Camouflaged Toothpicks
Rain Dance
Plant Eaters, Meat Eaters
Animal Adaptations
Plant Adaptations
Who’s the Most Important?
Water Journey
Webbing
Seedsock Hitchhikers
VALUES AND STEWARDSHIP
Value Card
Hug a Tree
Rock Strategy
Puppet strategies
Thank You Plant
Spring Flowers
Thanking Circle
Chief Seattle
Totems
Interview the Earth
Followthrough Actions
If It Was Up to Me…
GROUP ENERGY, COOPERATION AND NONVIOLENCE
Knots
LapSit
Trust Fall
Willow in the Wind
Tickle Test
Barrage
Energy Pass
People to People
Blob Tag
Elbow Tag
Shortest Trail
Sound Off (Mating Game)
Sharing Circle
Closing Circle
Gale Warner
Unpublished, 1984