Education Commons^™

Creative Connections: Building Empathy To Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, Jocelyn Salim

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the potential positive impact of fostering empathy and understanding for the natural world through art education. Through action research, this study examines various teaching approaches, such as incorporating scientific knowledge, employing literature to discuss ecological themes, and engaging in participatory storytelling activities to cultivate empathy among elementary school children. The objective of this thesis is to explore empathy as a potential pathway to encourage children to foster connections with the natural world and develop compassionate traits, attitudes, and behaviors towards nature as they grow. The findings of this study reveal that children exhibit high levels of enthusiasm …

Selective Framing And Narrative As Anthropocentric Agents In Yellowstone: America’S Eden, Breanna Lee Hansen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Yellowstone: America’s Eden is but one example of nature documentaries tackling the complexities of nature-culture relationships during the age of the Anthropocene. Yellowstone National Park, the first to be named, is a primary example of how our relationship to the natural world developed through conservation and commodification. Yellowstone: America’s Eden demonstrates how film techniques conceal nature as a human construct through selective framing and narrative. By analyzing editing techniques made in the representation of Yellowstone National Park, this thesis bridges anthropocentrism to nature documentaries. Drawing on interdisciplinary research from media studies, environmental humanities, and anthropology, this thesis analyzes the ways …

The Understanding Of Mycorrhizae Networks: A Historical Approach, Jake Sun

The Confluence

The growth of mycorrhizal fungi into plant roots used to be viewed as a parasitic relationship between plants and fungi, where the fungal symbiont benefits and the plant host is harmed. Current research elucidates a mutualistic relationship. The mycorrhizae network assists the plants by increasing the capabilities for nutrient absorption in the soil. In exchange, the fungi receive carbon supply from the photosynthetic plants for growth. Our scientific understanding of other topics like species specificity, seed germination, and co-evolutionary influence of mycorrhizae and plants has also progressed. Additionally, we now understand that the mycorrhizal mutualism is not limited to the …

Tracing The Landscape: Re-Enchantment, Play, And Spirituality In Parkour, Brett D. Potter

Publications and Scholarship

Parkour, along with “free-running”, is a relatively new but increasingly ubiquitous sport with possibilities for new configurations of ecology and spirituality in global urban contexts. Parkour differs significantly from traditional sports in its use of existing urban topography including walls, fences, and rooftops as an obstacle course/playground to be creatively navigated. Both parkour and “free-running”, in their haptic, intuitive exploration of the environment retrieve an enchanted notion of place with analogues in the religious language of pilgrimage. The parkour practitioner or traceur/traceuse exemplifies what Michael Atkinson terms “human reclamation”—a reclaiming of the body in space, and of the urban environment …

The Art Of Reflection, Amy L. Ruopp, Mae Debruyn

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This writing shares a course designed to reconnect middle school students to the natural world. In reconnecting to nature while IN nature students are afforded the opportunity for deep reflection, and the space to wonder and realize the inter-connectivity between things. We highlight transformational thinking and feeling awareness as students’ connection with nature is expressed though art and writing while deeply immersed in the natural environment.

An Exotic Journey Into The Commonplace, Linda Weintraub

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Standardized mass-produced commodities, reliance upon electronic data-gathering, and sanitized material manipulations are so pervasive in contemporary industrialized societies that today, ‘exotic’ experiences activate sensory interactions with the substances and conditions of planet Earth. ‘Plugging in’ to the international flow of goods and information commonly results in ‘tuning out’ connections with the immediate surroundings. This essay highlights the capacity of the un-aided mind and body to explore the wondrous complexity of planet Earth. The first part presents four artists who, by engaging geological, biological, and meteorological components of their surroundings, exchange dematerialized surfing activities offered by the World Wide Web, for …

Exploring The Role Of Spirituality In The Ecology Of Language Learning, Teresa Lin

International Journal of Christianity and English Language Teaching

With the presence of many Christian missionaries in the field of TESOL, numerous educators have raised concerns about the ethical issues surrounding evangelistic outreach via English language teaching (ELT). Christian English Teachers (CETs) in the field of TESOL have faced criticism for manipulation of student-teacher relationships, unethical religious coercion, and cultural insensitivity. Current positivist views render religious discussions in the classroom as detrimental to ELT. While proselytizing via ELT is a serious ethical issue, the backlash against religion and spiritual beliefs is also quite alarming. Disregard for the spiritual underpinnings motivating and influencing the way students learn limits how complex …

Researching Critical Incidents Of Transformation, Paul R. Scheele

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study examined transformation within individuals in a collaborative adult learning context. Using a combination of methods—surveys and critical incident technique (CIT)—the study explored in depth the experiences of 28 subjects from a population of 100 participants in an open-enrollment workshop, the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium produced by the Pachamama Alliance. The program employs high-impact training approaches to inform participants about social injustices and environmental practices that threaten the planet, and to encourage them to act on that information. The research focused on critical incidents at or shortly after the workshop that produced significant and meaningful change …

Defining Earth Smarts: A Construct Analysis For Socioecological Literacy Based On Justly Maintaining Quality Of Life, Bryan H. Nichols

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes the creation and validation of a new educational construct. Socioecological literacy, or earth smarts, describes the qualities we need to justly maintain or improve our quality of life in a changing world. It was created using construct analysis techniques and systems tools, drawing on an extensive, transdisciplinary body of literature. Concepts related to environmental, ecological and scientific literacy, sustainability and citizenship were combined with educational frameworks, new research in science education, and modern cognitive psychology. After the initial formulation, the results were considered by a variety of experts and professionals from the fields of ecology, environmental science …

The Planet, 1993, Fall, Derek Martin, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

Charles Birch: Synthesis And Hope, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Risd Rag March 23, 1972, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

The RISD Rag was a student publication released in the spring of 1972, first on a monthly basis and later on a bi-weekly basis. The issue of March 23, 1972 included an article with photographs about RISD students who traveled to Mexico for Wintersession. Also there was a reply from Dean Donald Lay about RISD improvements to a letter from a RISD student. A small article about organic food stores in Providence was also included. Poems, letter to the editor including one about renovating Carr Haus and events for RISD students also were included.

Ursinus Magazine, Spring 1970, Donald L. Helfferich, Henry R. Taylor, Milton E. Detterline, Lucille Hunt Bone, Cris Crane, Russell D. Sturgis, Frank Smith

Ursinus Magazine (New Bulletin Series), 1969-1996

From the President • The history of chemistry and the Chemistry Department at Ursinus College • Ecology: The "in" science • Alumni Day 1970 • Eleanor Snell and her belles • Ursinus has raised $2,800,000 of $2,900,000 goal • Regional clubs hear students • Class notes • Births • Weddings • In memoriam • Ursinus names twelve as Chapter Scholars • Ursinus Evening College enrolls 942 • Ursinus receives Merck education grant • Library seeks alumni works • Reunion cartoon

Designer's News May 19, 1969, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

The Designer's News was a student-run weekly newspaper published in the late 1960s. The issue of May 19-25, 1969 featured an article about the RISD Landscape Architecture department's study to save Block Island, RI. There also was an interview with John Torres about summer programs at RISD and at a school in Vermont, and an article about a RISD photo student who taught local pre-teens about photography. Also included was an article about the Rhode Island Art Festival and some RISD students who were volunteering their time to help.