{"id":3889,"date":"2010-08-18T10:55:02","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T14:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=3889"},"modified":"2010-08-18T10:55:02","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T14:55:02","slug":"putting-ecology-back-in-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2010\/08\/18\/putting-ecology-back-in-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting ecology back in school"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post contributed by Lina Oliveros, ESA Urban Education Programs Coordinator <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Currently, U.S. students can graduate high school without taking a course that covers ecological science or that encourages ecological literacy<\/a>\u2014the ability to understand the interconnectedness of life on Earth. By not being exposed to this material, students\u2019 career paths can be dramatically impacted. On a basic level,\u00a0 they may not consider the advantages of exploring ecology as an option for post-secondary education. But sometimes, they may never understand the complex dynamics of natural and built environments, including the role of humans in an ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although schools are increasingly\u00a0 incorporating ecological literacy in their curricula, there is still room for improvement in a society that values science and technology. Each year, the Ecological Society America offers High School Educators\u2019 Ecological Literacy and Research Day as a way for educators to come together and advance the field, exchange notes and present lesson plans. The goal is, not only encourage educators to include ecological science and to support ecological literacy in their curricula, but to provide teachers with the tools and inspiration to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Ecological Literacy and Research Day was on August 2 at ESA\u2019s 95th<\/sup> Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh. The event facilitated interactions between teachers and ecologists in small group discussions, symposia and a poster session. It was offered free of charge to educators and jointly funded by ESA and the Nature Conservancy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Melissa Kjelvik presents \u201cYou\u2019re not you when you are hungry: introverts and extroverts on the presence or absence of food\u201d in the above video.<\/em><\/p>\n

Educators like Adam Schwartz from the Academy of Urban Planning in New York City found the workshops\u2014such as, \u201cYou\u2019re not you when you are hungry: introverts and extroverts on the presence or absence of food\u201d by Melissa Kjelvik and \u201cCarbon Cycling: connecting knowledge and practice\u201d by Jennifer Doherty\u2014to be helpful in lesson planning. \u201cThe ESA Educator Session created a useful bridge between ecological theory and real classroom practice,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other educators found the lesson plans to be informative, incorporating fun activities for students that would be easy and affordable for educators to replicate and adapt for their classrooms. For example, Steve Gruber from City High Charter School in downtown Pittsburgh found the lesson plans to be helpful: \u201cI have gotten enough labs and activities to fill up twenty percent of my first [semester] ecology labs,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, attendees took home a teacher packet book full of useful educational resources and tools, as well as educational CDs. High school educators shared ideas about science education and engagement throughout the event, which also included the ESA Science Plenary Talk, \u201cInnocence lost: Will ecologists become the future global carbon cops?\u201d by Steve Running from the University of Montana.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the year, ESA plans to continue efforts in bringing together high school educators and ecological scientists for the exchange of best practices in ecological literacy. Specifically, the third annual High School Educators\u2019 Ecological Literacy and Research Day should integrate ESA members with local Austin, Texas educators. Hopefully, these opportunities can directly impact the education of our younger generations by providing a necessary change in their education, a change that should prepare them for a workforce that increasingly demands a higher knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo and Video Credit: Charlee Glenn<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Urban Education Programs Coordinator <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Currently, U.S. students can graduate high school without taking a course that covers ecological science or that encourages ecological literacy\u2014the ability to understand the interconnectedness of life on Earth. By not being exposed to this material, students\u2019 career paths can be dramatically impacted. On a basic level, they may not consider the advantages of exploring ecology as an option for post-secondary education. But sometimes, they may never understand the complex dynamics of natural and built environments, including the role of humans in an ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,87,48],"tags":[913,914,538,96,473,301,915,107,916],"class_list":["post-3889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology-education","category-news-events","category-ecology-and-society","tag-ecological-literacy","tag-ecological-science","tag-ecology","tag-education","tag-esa","tag-esa-annual-meeting","tag-high-school","tag-k-12-education","tag-post-secondary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}