Tumbling Down the Green

Interactions with natural surroundings provide young children with an opportunity to build knowledge, promote social skills, develop emotional dispositions, and can help them develop a caring and positive attitude toward themselves and the environment. This chapter focuses on the partnership between Towson University College of Education and the campus-based University Child Care Center and their concerted effort to bring nature-based experiences to children in spaces both outside and inside their classrooms. The authors also provide specific examples of how recycled waste is used to create instructional materials and games that help the classroom community to become more eco-conscious. The chapter also includes suggestions for future educational research into how children interact and gain knowledge from the environment and the impact this has on children's growth and development. Recommendations are provided for early childhood educators to advocate for green spaces and include environmental activities for children, families, schools, and communities.

An Integrated STEM Professional Development Initiative for Connecting Environmental Education Across Middle and Secondary Mathematics

This chapter reports features of a professional development (PD) initiative and results from its underpinning qualitative inquiry. The researchers designed this initiative using the integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education framework to help teachers adapt integrated teaching practices and to make connections. Middle and secondary teachers completed 50 hours of training to enhance their content knowledge, to gain understanding of integrated STEM education, to identify and use resources and manipulatives of integrate STEM lessons, and to create lessons for implementation with their students. Data were collected through interviews, audio-visual recordings, and documents from participants. The findings were (1) framing the PD with the integrated STEM education model supports changes to teaching practices; (2) tasks integrating mathematics with EE are compatible integrations that help teachers adapt integrative teaching approaches; and (3) teachers' EE dispositions towards integration improved after the PD, especially as a component of social justice.

Engaging Families in STEM Through Environmental Education

Family engagement in education refers to a partnership between schools and the community to support children's development and learning. Family engagement has been at the forefront of education initiatives in recent decades as research has shown positive effects on a variety of student outcomes. At the same time, there has been increased emphasis on integrating environmental education into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content areas. This chapter illustrates how engaging families in environmental education within STEM curricula can benefit schools, families, and the community. Existing literature on family engagement in environmental education will be explored, along with strategies to engage families. Specific strategies for engaging families who are culturally and linguistically diverse will also be discussed. The chapter concludes with recommendations taken from the literature for designing, implementing, and sustaining family engagement in environmental education.

Island Ecology for Educators

Island Ecology for Educators is an interdisciplinary course that is cross-listed between environmental studies and education students engaging both undergraduate and graduate students. This chapter aims to contribute to our understanding of environmental education practices by introducing the TTIP Teaching Model addressing (1) the importance of teaching about and in nature, (2) issues of teaching in the digital age, (3) benefits derived from interdisciplinary courses, and (4) building partnerships in your community. The TTIP model is the framework that the authors developed and adapted for creating an engaging platform for learning and teaching of environmental education and blends the aspects of teaching outdoors (T), technology inclusion (T), interdisciplinary courses (I), and partnering with experts (P). The discussion includes the outcomes of the course and recommendations for how to design similar environmental education courses using the TTIP Teaching model focusing on content application, pedagogical application, technology infusion, and partnership creation.

“I Want to Be a Herpetologist!”

The out-of-doors provides unique opportunities to engage youth in the natural environment and to teach STEM content in a more informal setting. In this chapter, the authors share findings from a study focused on elementary-aged students as they participated in a week-long herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians) program at an environmental education center. Informal science education centers provide a context for participants to use STEM to address local, place-based issues, exercise agency in how they practice autonomy within learning activities, and broaden their perceptions of what it means to “do science” through participation in normative scientific practices. However, there is a dearth of literature addressing the use and benefits of environmental education. Using a lens focused on agency and normative scientific practices, the authors examine the ways engagement in environmental education impact participants' perceptions of their abilities to engage in STEM-related practices.

Atmospheric Chemistry

The complex chemistry and basic physics of Earth's atmosphere will be reduced to three main sections within the context of the chemical reactivities of predominant chemical species and the additional role of photochemistry from solar radiation. The three areas of chemical interactions and photochemical reactions in the atmosphere discussed are (1) the reactivities and relationships between chemical species that can affect tropospheric and stratospheric ozone concentrations, (2) reactions between chemical species that create acid rain, and (3) the chemical species, sources, and reactions that are believed to be contributing to climate change. These three areas in atmospheric dynamics will comprise this chapter along with some of the documented effects on ecological systems, human health, and infrastructure.

An Investigation of the Effects of Integrating Computing and Project- or Problem-Based Learning in the Context of Environmental Sciences

The chapter reports the results of integrating computing, project or problem-based learning and engineering process to address the needs of preparing the STEM workforce in Punjab, Pakistan through transforming STEM teaching and learning processes. It also aimed to build the capacity of the University of Education, Lahore to improve the quality and relevancy of its STEM teacher education programs and its partnership schools. A collaborative team of STEM and STEM education faculty from two U.S. universities and University of Education (UE), Lahore designed, developed, implemented, and evaluated STEM learning units with a specific focus on water and management of natural resources to under-served 6-8 grade students in Pakistan through the integration of project-based and problem-based learning (PBL) and Squeak Etoys, modeling, and simulation tool.

The History and Philosophical Changes of the Environmental Reform Movement

This chapter is an account that provides a chronology of the philosophical evolution of the human viewpoint from the perspective of the apex species on the planet. The gradual change from unrelenting growth and production towards one that embraces conservation, resource management, and the protection of populations from the consequences of rapid technological development came to a inflection point in the mid-20th century that resulted in a revised outlook on mankind's obligations to current populations, including other species, future generations, and Earth as a whole. The chapter will highlight the effects of the Industrial Revolution, expansionism, and the exploitation and mismanagement of resources from overuse and overharvesting of Earth's ecosystems. These practices led to tragedies that shifted the paradigm to environmental responsibility and accountability in the 20th century.

Global Citizenship as a Means for Teaching Environmental Education to Gifted Learners

Increasingly, social issues are expanding at global proportions. Some of the biggest threats surround sustainability and environmental challenges. Global learning can prepare future global citizens to acknowledge and resolve social issues. Global citizenship can be used as a means for addressing awareness, knowledge, and action relative to sustainability and environmental education. For the purpose of teaching sustainability and environmental education via global citizenry to gifted learners, a curricular framework was developed to use across disciplines, grade levels, and service delivery options. In essence, the curriculum prepares advanced and gifted learners to raise their awareness of sustainability and environmental issues, teach the necessary tools for taking action, and to prepare them to inspire future citizens who engage in related global community change.