GreenHeart+Education+Memo

Thomas Sgueglia Nature Bonding EcoCurriculum Memo

The Nature Bonding module was developed by GreenHeart Education. GreenHeart Education’s mission is to transform the education system to take a more primary focus on sustainability. Their modules can be applied to the classroom, teacher’s curriculum, the school’s community, as well as home life. This module is specifically designed to get kids to connect with nature at an early age. It is GreenHeart Education’s hope that by building a strong connection with the environment at an early stage, the children will grow up to be people who take care of the Earth. There are many learning outcomes that this module is designed to convey to the students such as a development in their naturalist intelligence, learning how to be safe in nature, experience the peace of nature, realize that everything in life comes from nature, and be inspired by nature, just to name a few. I believe that aside from forming a bond with nature at an early age, it is extremely important for students to see the connection between their life and nature. By understanding that everything in life comes from nature, this module will be a productive influence on the student’s decision making in years to come. One point the module makes to the teachers is to specifically not introduce environmentally tragedies at an early age. Greenheart Education believes that children deserve a childhood and that means that their ecological education should be base off experiences they have. They will have plenty of time when they are older and more ready to learn about the problems of the planet. This module is directed towards younger children in grades preschool through second grade and therefore will have a difficult time teaching the literary goals that the EcoEd Research Group is trying to advocate. If the module is successful and does convey the idea that everything in life is related to nature, it will be promoting one of the EcoEdu literary goals. I like this module a lot because it cultivates the students for further learning about sustainability. It is designed to make further learning and connections easier for teachers to get students to make. In order to get more of the desired learning outcomes the module could take more of a cause and effect focus for the kids. However, this module clearly states the limits that it should be taken to as second grade students are still fragile kids. By pushing for a lot of literary goals, the connection to nature might be severed.

http://www.greenhearted.org/nature-bonding.html