Education Commons^™

Curriculum Development, Courtney Knox

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project examined the process of developing curriculum and analyzed its efficacy. Initially there were two sets of curriculum involved, but only one is included here because I was unable to gain the permission to publicly publish the other. The curriculum that is included is the curriculum I developed the Math Club at Fairhaven Middle School in Bellingham, WA. This curriculum was developed and implemented independently of any official curriculum regulations. Thus, I was free to personalize and change the curriculum based on what I saw was most needed in the classroom setting. However, there were still challenges that needed …

Finding Wonder In The Everyday, Annabel Connelly

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

Good morning and welcome to my capstone presentation, Finding Wonder in the Everyday. Humans have lived, traveled through, and told stories here in the North Cascades for thousands of years, particularly those in the Sauk and Suiattle tribes. Today I hope to honor that tradition as I tell a few stories while exploring the possibilities inherent in storytelling.

The Red Pill: Environmental Education Wakes Up To The Real World, Elissa Kobrin

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

Growing up, I loved going to camp. My parents who are here today will attest to the fact that going to Camp Wilani was the center of universe around which I revolved. We were always one of the very first cars in line before they opened the gate. I couldnʼt wait to snag my bunk, and meet my new counselor and cabin mates. Camp Wilani had a particular smell: Oregon Coastal Mountain forest, the riparian foliage next to the lagoon, old wooden cabins and bunks. I loved that place, and my summers there fostered my deep love of nature and …

Interconnectedness: The Roots Of Inspiration, Katie Komorowski

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

This paper explores the question of: Why is nature so inspiring? Ultimately the answer is that we are connected to and a part of a greater system. It is through nurturing this relationship with the Earth that we can be inspired. Our western culture has created a dichotomy between human and nature. As problematic as this is, our humanity is reflected back at us and can be a source of inspiration. Our desire to explore the unknown comes from our humanity. When faced with nature we can be taken into a state of awe where preconceived mental frameworks need to …

Mudpies & Dragonflies: The Value Of Unstructured Play In Environmental Education, Tyler Chisholm

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

Hello everyone and thank you for coming to the very first open house of Mudpies & Dragonflies Nature Preschool where our kids spend everyday, rain or shine, wind or snow outside exploring the natural world! I’m Tyler Chisholm, the director and lead teacher here at Mudpies. I, for one, am incredibly excited to be here today because opening this school has been a dream of mine since graduate school at Western Washington University where I received my Master’s of Education in Environmental Education. But before we get started with what a nature preschool is and why I think this type …

Doing. Myself. Justice., Kaci Darsow

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

The titles for these capstones were due five weeks ago. Five weeks ago I had no idea what this presentation would look like. I still don’t know. I had, and have, so many ideas, so many things I want to share with you. But these three words kept showing up in my journal, over and over. Just like this: Doing. Myself. Justice. When Nick asked for my title, all I could do was write this on the chalkboard. I didn’t know what it meant. I still don’t know what it means. But so far I’ve spent 26 years finding out, …

Rare Or Well Done? A Waitress Wonders How To Best Serve Environmental Education, Katherine Renz

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

Environmental education (EE) promises to facilitate the transformation of attitudes and behavior on a broad scale. Yet the field has not fulfilled its potential. This article takes an auto-ethnographical approach in considering the reluctance of environmental educators to discuss environmental problems. How is the discipline weakened by equating critical thinking and ecologically motivated despair with a negative attitude rather than honestly acknowledging the grief and promoting resiliency and empowerment instead? Through the lens of a professional waitress, this article argues that the service industry offers a privileged though overlooked venue for EE. Rather than framing EE as an isolated event …

A Francophile In The North Cascades, Sarah Stephens

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

The fields of cultural studies and environmental studies are often disconnected. Even the tagline, ‘act locally, think globally’ tends to refer to realizing how local ecological processes are related to global processes (Thomashow, 2002). Culture is left out of this interpretation of the phrase. I believe that in order to address global environmental issues cultural awareness needs to be part of the solution. My experience with learning French language and culture has convinced me that second language acquisition can be an effective way to bring cultural studies into the world of environmental studies.

What Came First, The Love Or The Learning?, Samantha J. Hale

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

Today I’ll be talking about identity and a sense of home. Before I start, let me briefly tell you a bit about myself. I am 1⁄4 Irish, 1⁄4 Italian, 1⁄4 German and 1⁄4 English. I don’t know where my Irish, German or English relatives originated, but my Italian side of the family comes from Bergamo, Italy; I still have family there to this day. I was born in Weymouth Massachusetts, a suburb just south of Boston. I was raised and educated in Weymouth until high school, when I opted to go to a private school a few towns over. At …

Emergent Student Practices: Unintended Consequences In A Dialogic, Collaborative Classroom, Anne E. Crampton

Journal of Educational Controversy

It’s a commonplace to decry the folly of “best practices” in education. They make many practitioners and researchers twitch, fearing that the good-- or even just decent--practice will soon be setting the tempo in the steady march toward standardization. The argument against best practices, then, is the argument against one-size-fits-all pedagogy. Instructional practices must come with a necessary humility, based on situating students within the picture, with particular attention to with histories of institutional and societal othering and marginalization. Good practices cannot be delivered or imposed, and therefore, if successful, they become suggestions or starting points carried out with greater …

Engaging Students In Conservation: Beaver Restoration - Lesson Plan, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

BEAVER RESTORATION IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST - Lesson Plan

The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is a social, mostly nocturnal mammal well adapted to survive in – and create – wetlands. Balanced with a broad, flat tail and powered by webbed hind feet, adult beavers can swim underwater for as long 15 minutes, staying warm with dense, dark brown fur coats that are waterproofed with secretions from special oil glands. Beavers are perhaps best known for their ever-growing, sharp incisors’ capacity to fell entire trees. Though nourished by the thin cambium layer of living cells beneath the trees bark, beavers …

Singular They: Lesson Plan, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Singular They - Now, the singular they is addressing another problem with English grammar: There is no room for gender identities other than the he/she binary of singular pronouns. Grammarians are drawing lines in the sand over this return to they as a singular pronoun.

Carbon Farming: Lesson Plan Recommended For Grades 8 - 12, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Carbon Farming & Agroecology in California Farmlands: The mounting scientific evidence of climate change and predictions for the future (sea level rise, increasing droughts, flooding from extreme weather events, and global temperature rise) carries with it a need for human action. Both adaptation and mitigation are necessary action pathways upon which society must embark. Adaptation, or dealing with the inevitable changes already happening, is distinct from mitigation, which minimizes the predicted consequences through activities that reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This lesson focuses on mitigation activities possible through the lens of agriculture, specifcally agriculture practiced in …

Engaging Students Through Global Issues: 2nd Edition, Activity-Based Lessons And Action Projects, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

The activities in the second edition of Engaging Students Through Global Issues are organized around eight sustainability big ideas (Nolet, 2016). High-quality education about sustainability helps learners investigate the meaning and implications of these ideas and incorporate these ideas into their own thinking, problem solving, and decision-making. When learners dig deeper into the meaning and implications of a sustainability big idea, they are better able to acquire new knowledge and skills and apply that knowledge and those skills in new situations. The eight sustainability big ideas that frame the activities in ESTGI are: Connecting with Nature, Equity and Justice, Health …