EEK!+-+Environmental+Education+for+Kids

__Curriculum Review of “EEK: Environmental Education for Kids”: __ Kelley Fischbach, January 28, 2014


 * What organization developed the curriculum module you are evaluating?

 This curriculum module, “EEK: Environmental Education for Kids,” was developed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. ( [] )


 *  What is the mission of the organization?

 The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources lists their mission statement as the following: “To protect and enhance our natural resources: our air, land and water; our wildlife, fish and forests and the ecosystems that sustain all life. To provide a healthy, sustainable environment and a full range of outdoor opportunities. To ensure the right of all people to use and enjoy these resources in their work and leisure. To work with people to understand each other’s views and to carry out the public will. And in this partnership consider the future and generations to follow.” ( [] )


 *  What is the educational mission and philosophy of the organization?

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ educational mission is to “help people of all ages understand and appreciate our state’s [Wisconsin’s] natural resources.” Their mission continues on to state, “We invite you to learn how to use, protect, and conserve natural resources for today and future generations.” EEK’s specific educational mission is listed as “a website for children and educators to encourage children to have fun while learning about nature.” ([])


 *  What does the curriculum module aim to teach? In other words: what are the learning outcomes supposed to be?

 Although the website does not explicitly state its learning outcomes for students, it is apparent through the organization of their website that they value teaching students about (1) native Wisconsin animals and their habitats, (2) the environment and environmental issues, (3) environmental careers, and (4) enjoying the lifelong process of learning. ( [] )


 *  Do you think the curriculum is appropriated designed to produce the intended learning outcomes?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This curriculum is definitely aimed at producing the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ intended learning outcomes. The DNR’s educational motto involves teaching students to enjoy learning about nature, which can definitely be accomplished through the series of modules found on this site ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">). The modules incorporate different segments of their website as a kind of “learn then do” system in which the students read through a portion of the website and then perform activities to help them increase their understanding of what they read. These activities are meant to be brought into a classroom setting, although some could easily be achieved by students on their own. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The “unofficial” outcomes are easily met, with (1) extensive lists and descriptions of virtually all of the native amphibians, birds, fish, insects, “other invertebrates”, mammals, reptiles, and endangered species in Wisconsin, (2) a plethora of information on air and water, as well as on invasive and endangered species, and (3) a portion of the website specifically devoted to raising awareness to students about a range of environmental careers that exist, inclusive of job specifics and “perks” given straight from the experts in that field ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">).


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Does this curriculum teach the kind of literacies the EcoEd Research Group advocates?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This curriculum teaches a large portion of the EcoEd literacy goals. They are explained and denoted below by the green text.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> While most EcoEd literacy goals are addressed in these curriculum modules, there is room for improvement in several different competency areas. These are further explained in the red text below.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> What could be layered into this curriculum so that it addresses more of the learning outcomes that the EcoEd Group advocates?

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">EcoEd Literacy Goals: __
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of their own health and well-being as shaped by an array of both proximate and far-off causes. Diet and cigarette smoke need to be considered, for example, as well as the health effects of trans-boundary air pollution and climate change.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">NOT ADDRESSED **


 * <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of how their own actions have an array of proximate and far off effects. In choosing when and what to drive, one has an effect on air quality for example. In choosing consumer products (made of vinyl, for instance), one becomes involved in an occupational health hazard.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is room for improvement in this area, but this literacy is addressed in a roundabout way when students learn about invasive species and the effect that one animal can have on an entire ecosystem. This topic is also breached when EEK teaches about greenhouse gases. **


 * <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of different scientific disciplines and medical specializations, aware that they rely on diverse methods, produce many types of knowledge, and are ever evolving. Science needs to be understood as a crucial but far from straightforward social resource.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is very much incorporated into the learning outcomes of EEK, as there is an entire page of the website devoted to different professions that relate to the environment and helping students understand the complexities of and differences between these positions. **


 * <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of government at various scales, from the local to transnational, made up of diverse agencies and types of experts, which rely on diverse decision-making processes.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">While not explicitly taught in these modules, one curriculum in particular addresses environmental “heroes” and requires the students to research an environmental “hero” from their state and discuss some of their values and actions they have taken to improve this environment. I believe that this is a great starting point for students to understand how one individual can instill change on a governmental level. **


 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of the history of disaster and decision-making failures, the vulnerability of some populations and regions, and varied approaches to risk management, reduction and communication.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">NOT ADDRESSED **


 * <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of potential for change, and of alternative ways of doing things and organizing society (though familiarity with historical and cross-cultural examples, for instance).
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is a strongpoint of this curriculum module that is discussed in many different ways throughout the modules. One specific example is taught in a sort of “energy audit” lesson in which students look into ways in which they can reduce their household energy consumption. **


 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to conceptualize complex causation, without being paralyzed.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">NOT ADDRESSED ENOUGH **


 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to use empirical understanding of complex causation to identify specific points of intervention.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">NOT ADDRESSED ENOUGH **


 * <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to recognize the multitude of factors influencing what they are told about environmental problems (such as asthma), including vested interests, disciplinary bias and blindness, and the sheer limits of knowledge.
 * **<span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is addressed in one of the modules in particular, where students need to research land use in a particular area and understand the history and complexities with changing the land usage. Through this exercise, the students will be exposed to the many aspects involved in all environmental problems. **


 * <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to recognize and productively deal with diverse perspectives, avoiding the paralysis often produced by insistence on “balance” and “consensus,” leveraging heterogeneous collectivity and epistemological pluralism.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This literacy goal could probably be accomplished through the section of the site devoted to professionals in the environmental field and their differences, although it is not as polished as it should be. **


 * <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Having creative info-seeking practices, animated analytic capabilities, and a capacity to narrate complex chains of events.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is an aspect of EEK’s learning outcomes that is involved in almost all of the curriculum modules, in a variety of ways. For instance, students need to narrate “complex chains of events” when they write about land usage in a region and need to take the audience step-by-step through the factors that influence land use decisions and then need to predict the future of land usage in that region, based on the complex histories that they researched. **


 * <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of the challenges and value of deliberation and cooperative action.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">As discussed with the previous literacies, this is achieved in the module in which students research an environmental “hero” and learn about land usage decisions, both of which involve a deeper understanding on the student’s part of the decision-making process and the value of collaboration. **