Interactions Newsletter
The Ontario Journal of Environmental Education
The mission of OSEE is to support and inspire educators teaching
environmental education in Ontario
Volume 27, Number 4 www.osee.ca May 2015
CONTENTS
Ellen Murray
Media and the Environment
– A list of amazing resources
Astrid Steele
Revisiting the Nature-Nuture Debate
– Do we control our own choices, or does our genetic complement make those choices for us?
Media and the Environment
Looking for inspiration and new ways to engage your students in environmental stewardship? Check out the amazing resources below for ideas, free programs, PD opportunities, and more!
Greening your School Inside and Out
Congratulations to Dave Gordon, a science teacher at Durham Region’s Dunbarton High School and former winner of the OSEE Teaching Award. Last year Dunbarton became a Platinum EcoSchool and won the Canada Green Building Council’s greenest school award. And the week before their strike started in April, Dave, his colleagues, students and community supporters at Dunbarton received the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenest School on Earth award. They will use the $1000 prize to install more bee condos in their pollinator garden. There are excellent resources to inspire actions to be a greener school at the U.S. Green Building Council page.
Experiencing Amazing Migrations
Last year Valleys 2000 coordinated the hand lifting of over 500 fish, mostly Chinook, over the Goodyear Dam on Bowmanville Creek. This year students, families and scout groups are standing on the bridge watching the fish migrate. If you can get students to a local stream with migrating fish you can participate in a citizen science project by mobile phone app or online using the Central Lake Ontario’s (CLOCA) Fish on the Run Migratory Survey. Remember taking students near water is considered a high-risk activity in many boards and you might need to complete more paperwork. Completing the short fish spotting form and sending a photo or a GPS location helps them collect migration data. CLOCA runs many superb outdoor education programs for K-12 social studies, geography, physical education, or science and you can book half days excursions fall, winter or spring. If you have a pond, forest or park nearby they will bring the program to you and save the cost of bussing.
Getting Outdoors to Experience Spring
Last weekend I celebrated spring by hiking part of the Kolapure Uplands section of the Bruce Trail. Under sunny skies, and with brisk winds off Georgian Bay we meandered through a glorious mix of Ontario ecosystems. How do you and your students connect with spring? Check out the Suzuki Foundations 30×30 Challenge. Can you or your students spend 30 minutes outdoors in nature, for the next 30 days? I signed up to get the school toolkit and you might want to as well. The infographic about being in the outdoors is an excellent tool to connect math and the environment for grade 6-10, with Tim Gill stating that “Humans are disappearing from the outdoors at a rate that would make them top any conservationists list of endangered species.”
Celebrating Biodiversity
We are half way through the United Nations decade of biodiversity and May 22 is the International Day for Biodiversity. They have a fact sheet useful for Grade 12 geography about the importance of biodiversity for supporting development, it is also available in french.
Looking Upstream and Downstream
Another encouraging way to engage students with nature is to use Rivers to Oceans week (June 8-14) as a class theme in May/June. The Canadian Wildlife Federation Rivers to Oceans site has excellent resources for members. Joining is free and the depth and breadth of resources is astounding. I just ordered a watersheds of Canada poster. However, I found the dozen characters in the Water Challenge overly stereotypical.
Building New Skills for Educating about our Local Environment
GTA teachers looking to get some environmental education professional development should check out EcoSpark’s new Nature Academy. They offer courses on Urban Pollinators, The Air We Breathe and the Geography of the Greenbelt. EcoSpark is also working with other community groups to promote the 2015 review of the Oak Ridges Moraine. We all need to speak up to maintain and save this wonderful natural resource for the future. Issues include boundary changes, tree cutting, water extraction from aquifers and infrastructure development.
Finding Funding for Green Dreams
Looking for funding for a project? Check the EcoSchools funders list. Did you wish for a little extra for an Earth Day project? Copernicus Educational Products are already taking orders for free saplings for schools in southern Ontario for Earth Day 2016!
Being Inspired by Positive Change
Finally, I want to leave you with a story about destruction to rebirth. The documentary Salt of the Earth tracks the life of photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado and you will recognize many of the award winning photos. But if you can’t get to see this try his 16 min TED talk summary of the subtheme about restoring the jungle ecosystem of his grandparents ranch in Brazil. The stunning photography reminds all of us that we can restore damage done to the environment. There is also a 6 minute video with better footage of the amazing transformation of the Terra Institute back to jungle although it is subtitled in English.
Revisiting the Nature-Nurture Debate
What if we as a species are hard wired to self-destruct? What if all our altruistic efforts at environmental sustainability are pointless? What if our nature, the DNA at our very core, the “selfish gene”[1], predestines humans to make bad choices? It might explain why, despite decades of research and warnings, we continue to rampage through our natural environments, squander precious natural resources and foul our own nests. The idea begs a revisit of the nature-nurture debate. Essentially we might ask “Do we control our own choices, or does our genetic complement make those choices for us?”
It’s actually a very valid question, and one that presents a somewhat troubling perspective on future environmental sustainability, at least for humans on the planet. Consider evolutionary theory, which suggests that life on earth took hold and evolved by competing for and taking advantage of resource niches. There were hot swirling tropical swamps for reptiles to invade; grassy plains for ungulates to munch on; boundless oceans to inhabit. The nature of life on earth is to take advantage of resources and to exploit them for individual survival and species gain. Lynx prey on hares and hares forage on green plants; geese migrate to summer breeding grounds, caribou feed on lichens, hummingbirds sip nectar, and white pines take root and thrive in the rocky landscapes of the Canadian Shield. It’s fair to say that life on earth is genetically programmed to exploit the resources each needs to survive; living things are programmed to be opportunists!
Homo sapiens are no exception…we have grown to 7 billion on the planet, a few of those billion living enviable lifestyles, as a result of our tremendous ability to exploit and compete for our resources. Arguably, our shared genetic inheritance has brought us to this point in our history.
Still, we perceive ourselves as separate and different from other living things; our frontal lobes give us extraordinary abilities in the realm of sophisticated thinking, and our opposable thumbs enable us to turn our thinking into technological realities. It might have begun with a fire hardened wooden spear, but even as I sit here typing on my iPad, the full measure of human ingenuity in using Earth’s resources has yet to be defined. Our very nature is exploitative just like that of our close and distant relatives with whom we co-inhabit our natural environments. Which begs the question, “Why has no other critter on earth done as much environmental damage as humans?” Their DNA predisposes them to resource exploitation in the same way that ours does.
I suppose that the difference lies in the built-in checks and balances of ecosystems. A healthy ecosystem is one in which populations that depend on each other also respond to each other’s fluctuations in numbers and behaviours. A healthy ecosystem will not allow overpopulation or over-exploitation to continue unchecked because shortages of food, space and shelter would be imminent. However, humans have managed, with the aid of their super brains and super thumbs, to step outside of the limits of a balanced ecosystem. We’ve created a world to inhabit that doesn’t follow the old rules, the one for which we were genetically programmed. We have lived for centuries outside the natural checks and balances of sustainability. Our genetic nature has run amok.
Is it possible for us to assert control over our very determined genetic make-up that continues to advocate for consumption and growth? Can we decide to change behaviours? Can we teach others the importance of doing so? Can we put our sustainable ideas into action? In the absence of natural limits, can we determine our necessary limits and then adhere to them? Canada’s current national ability to do so is minimal, as evidenced by our dismal record of carbon emission control on the global stage. What about our individual ability to control the competitive and exploitative nature within?
I’ve asked you to consider the environmental education-into-action dilemma in a different light, one that casts us as environmental resource opportunists under the control of a gene sequence intended for competition and survival. I think that we need to take very deliberate control of that out-of-date genetic programming, and insert some new sustainability programming, and we need to support our students and colleagues to do consider that path as well.
Surely our super brains and super thumbs can take us there.
[1] Dawkins, Richard. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press.
Upcoming Events
- May 22 – International Biodiversity Day
- May 23 – World Turtle Day
- June 5 – World Environment Day
- June 8 – World Oceans Day
- June 8 to 14 – Rivers to Oceans Week
Summer Teacher PD Opportunities
Learn new skills for engaging your students in environmental learning through these hands-on PD opportunities:
4-day Teachers’ Forestry Tour offered by the Canadian Institute of Forestry
Learn the facts about Forest Science and Forest Management during this unique PD experience for teachers and educators of all kinds. This fully sponsored tour includes hands-on sessions coupled with field trips, curriculum based activities, forestry tours, evening workshops and socials. This opportunity is open to teachers and educators of all kinds. A learning opportunity you can’t miss! Participation is free and space is limited.
Date: Tuesday August 4th to Friday August 7th, 2015
Location: Canadian Ecology Centre, Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, Mattawa, Ontario
Learn more and register at http://www.canadianecology.ca/professional-development/cif-teachers-forestry-tour-free/
Three engaging PD opportunities from the Monarch Teacher Network of Canada:
1. Teaching & Learning with Monarch Butterflies is a two-day, fully immersive workshop focused on giving educators the knowledge and skills to teach multi-disciplinary lessons that will strike awe and wonder in students of all ages. Educators learn about the Monarch’s life cycle, migration, and habitat requirements by participating in experiential activities, including indoor simulations, outdoor wide games, and a variety of visual and performing arts. Participants will leave the workshop with the knowledge, skills, and tools to bring the magical story of this iconic creature to life for their students.
Locations all across Ontario at various dates
Learn more and register at http://monarchteacher.ca/workshops/teaching-and-learning-with-monarch-butterflies.dot
2. Voices from the Land is an interactive workshop that brings educators, naturalists and other adults together to explore the natural world through visual art and language. Expert educators will take participants through the Voices process, a creative and collaborative exploration of art, photography, language and performance.
In a Voices workshop, participants will:
- Make ephemeral art in a local landscape using natural materials
- Write and perform poetry that reflects and represents art, language and culture
- Use photography to capture artwork and performance
- Learn best practices for designing and publishing artwork
Locations in Richmond Hill and Peterborough at various dates
Learn more and register at http://monarchteacher.ca/workshops/voices.dot
3. Creating Monarch Friendly Habitat is a one day workshop that will teach you how to nurture butterfly populations by growing your own easy-to-maintain butterfly garden. Workshops will take participants through issues and threats to pollinators, how to choose plants appropriately for your zone, what it means to bring native versus non-native versus invasive species into your habitat, and how to create monarch friendly habitat from the ground up. Learn tips and gain advice from local experts in horticultural practices and conservation.
Date: May 28, 2015
Location: MacGregor Point Provincial Park, Port Elgin
Learn more at http://monarchteacher.ca/workshops/creating-monarch-habitat.dot
Register at http://friendsofmacgregor.org/page/schedule-of-events
Teacher Resources
International Biodiversity Day resources:
- http://resources4rethinking.ca/en/theme/biodiversity-2015
- http://www.cbd.int/idb/
- http://biodiversityeducation.ca/biodiversity-day/
- http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/species.asp
- http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/turtletally.asp
Oceans & Rivers resources