Canadian Group Makes Developing Green Curriculum Easier

From the Children and Nature Network:

Environmental education – learning how ecosystems are connected and how our actions impact the environment – is evolving to become more sophisticated and innovative than ever before.

And what’s changing most dramatically is the method of delivery. “Because it is so interconnected to everything, green education has to take a more holistic approach with less formal mechanisms in place. We are changing the way we teach everything into a much more integrated method,” says Katie Altoft, a professor of environmental management at Niagara College in southern Ontario.

Green education in some form or another has been in primary schools since the 1980s, but quality has often been uneven. Most curricula have some form of environmental studies, but often the topic is handled as a supplementary subject isolated from everything else.

In order to be effective, studies suggest, environmental education needs to be more hands-on. There is abundant research proving individuals’ connection to the environment is directly effected by the amount of time spent in nature.

The average North American child spends on average between 5 to 6.5 hours per day playing video games or watching television but very little time outside.

This disconnect has been labelled “nature deficit disorder” – a term coined by U.S. author Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods.

Louv writes that “a kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon rain forest – but not about the last time he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move.”

It is human nature to protect what is important to us and with 90 per cent of peoples’ time spent indoors, nature is not going to be high on any priority list.

“It’s more and more difficult for people to see the link between the natural world and their lives, as we become more and more attached to technology. We need to expose our children to nature at an early age. Outdoor education is crucial,” says Altoft.

In order to become more effective in educating the future green generation, many schools are extending the classroom outdoors – such as by introducing gardens on school grounds.

It’s an idea just starting to catch on in Canada where only 0.5 per cent of schools have any kind of garden as opposed to 30 per cent in California and 10 per cent in the U.K. The gardening programs are particularly successful because they also encourage children to eat healthier.

“Growing food covers science, health, physical education – not to mention the possibilities of mathematics. If every school had a food garden where every child learned about the relationship between plants, water, bees, and the sun, that would create a radical shift ” says Rosie Emery, a green activist and educator.

The Canadian Environmental Education Curriculum Assessment Program is making planning a relevant green curriculum easier, even when resources are limited. Created by Green Street, a group of 12 environmental education organizations (EEOs), this database connects teachers to a variety of environmental programs from grades 1 to 12 that have been judged on their green content.

Green Street also connects Canadian schools to reputable environmental and sustainability organizations for further help in developing a green curriculum.

“There seems to be a new breed of teacher emerging wanting to give children more opportunities to feel a direct connection with the earth. They are willing to combine classroom learning with field trips and seek resources that inspire pupils to learn and to feed their curiosity. Children learn best when they feel safe and are having fun,” says JC Little, a Montreal-based animator who has recently released Little Earth Charter, an educational CD for children teaching them about the UN Earth Charter.

Post-secondary education is undergoing changes prompted by a workforce needing to upgrade skills to stay current in the emerging green economy.

Students are demanding green programs targeted and flexible enough to deliver learning quickly and fit into a work schedule.

Niagara College recently went through a curriculum update and made the decision to put technology and the environment together into one program. “Both systems are better because of it,” says Altoft.

“Universities are slow to rise to the need to a more integrated education since it doesn’t quite fit into the academic situation,”says Altoft. “But, this is a transitional period with new green technologies and methodologies emerging and we need to look at everything being taught through a new lens. I think we may have some painful moments with this current generation that is caught between having to learn two dualities simultaneously.”

She believes the solution lies with cross-generational learning – having the people who understand the current systems sitting side-by-side with those learning the emerging technologies.

“While I may be the facilitator of a program, I may not be an expert in a particular field,” she says. “Bringing in experts from a not-for-profit to teach a particular module provides on-the-job training that is simply more realistic.”