Education ABOUT the Environment

What is it?

Education about the environment is learning how nature works. Instruction includes the earth’s physical, chemical, and biological systems as well as knowledge of how we are connected to these same systems. Thinking in systems terms is essential for analyzing the complex relationships within and between natural systems and environmental issues.

Understanding nature through thinking in system terms

We provide multiple opportunities in different subject areas to learn about natures systems: matter cycles (e.g., rock, water, carbon cycles); energy flows (heat in the environment, climate change); and life webs (biodiversity, the human body).
When studying natural or human systems, we ask these three questions:
- - What are the parts of the system?
  - How do the parts function in relation to each other (e.g., relationships, cycles, feedback loops)?
  - How is the system itself part of a larger system (e.g. sense of scale)?

Uncovering our dependance on the environment

When we study the parts of nature’s systems (water, soil, air, energy, and food) we make connections to their essential role in sustaining life.
When we study communities and societies, past and present, we examine their dependance and impact on natural systems (water, soil, landscapes, air, food, and energy)

Fundamentals: How Nature Works

It’s a big challenge to provide students with an understanding of how nature works, and how we can live within its limits. Nature is the last area of study that we would like to reduce to a formula, yet unless we find simple ways to break down the basic concepts, we will not be able to integrate and deepen our students’ and our own knowledge.

Art Sussman’s Guide to Planet Earth offers a distilled description of how nature works. He focuses on three interconnected interactions within nature: energy flows, life webs, and matter cycles. We have put the three together to create a mnemonic that can help us remember it all. Using the first letter of each of these interactions adds up to E.L.M. Ecological literacy is acquired in part through developing an understanding of these interactions and how the impact of human systems on these natural systems affects each of them.

Our mnemonic ELM is a native tree species whose decline to near extinction and then gradual recovery through the work of the Elm Recovery Project provides us with an important reminder of human impact on the environment, and the role we can play in repairing the damage done.

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