Pre-Service Environmental Education Project (PEEP)

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Pre-Service Environmental Education Project
(PEEP)

• Lynda Paznokas
• Associate Dean, College of Education
• School and Community
• Collaboration Center
• Washington State University
• Pullman, Washington
• February 29, 2008 TEEP Rochester, New York

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Lynda PaznokasPullman, Washington
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School and Community Collaboration Center

• The SCCC is the outreach center for the College
  of Education
• Our purpose is to serve schools and communities
• Teaching and learning, educational leadership,
  counseling psychology, international efforts,
  Professional Certification, National Board for
  Professional Teaching Standards, grant writing,
  etc.

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K-12 students in the United States are deficient
in their understanding of the environment and
the issues that affect it. (Survey Research
Center, 2000)

• The principal cause of this is inadequate
  preparation of pre-service teachers to teach
  environmental subjects.
• (McKeown-Ice, 2000)
• There is an urgent need to remedy this situation.

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The long-term goal of the Pre-Service
Environmental Education Project is to increase
understanding of the environment among K-12
students.

• The objective of the project, which
  represents an important step toward attainment of
  this long-term goal, is that professors at 18
  universities in the state of Washington are
  incorporating significant environmental/sustainabi
  lity education within pre-service teacher science
  methods courses.

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Bringing effective environmental education
to pre-service teachers through their science
methods course is a very efficient method of
improving environmental learning of their future
students.The power of the pre-service
curriculum is its multiplier effect. Where one
teacher has the potential to impact the number of
students taught throughout a career, a methods
course has the potential to impact many future
teachers and, ultimately, a far greater number of
students (Power, 2004).
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TOTOSTeachers of Teachers of Science

• A gathering of university faculty responsible for
  science methods courses for K-12 teachers
• Hosted by WSU since 1998
• Focus on teacher preparation, including content,
  pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment
• Maintains communication with OSPI, WSTA, and
  others
• Provides input on state science initiatives
• Collegial break bread together

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TOTOS Themes

• Some years TOTOS has a theme to our meetings
• Assessment
• Informal science education
• Research
• Environmental Education

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• During the 2004 TOTOS meeting, university faculty
  members in Washington agreed to work together to
• develop and implement a process to infuse EE into
  the basic science methods course for pre-service
  teachers.
• prepare pre-service teachers to be able to
  effectively teach skills and concepts of EE to
  their future students.
• Plans continued to evolve at the 2005 meeting.

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Washington Administrative Code (2000)

• Instruction about conservation, natural
  resources, and the environment shall be provided
  at all grades in an interdisciplinary mannerwith
  emphasis on solving problems of human adaptation
  to the environment.

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Although each university has its own mission and
environmental setting (urban, desert, beach,
forest, etc.), all teacher preparation programs
are working toward the same environmental
education goals. Pre-service teachers are being
trained to deliver experiential, field-based,
effective, accurate, and age-appropriate
environmental skills and content to students,
within the framework of Environmental Education
Guidelines for Washington Schools (2000). This
will be updated through the e3 Washington
initiative. This training is linked to
Washingtons K-10 Science Grade Level
Expectations (2005), particularly Scientific
Field Investigations.
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Funding for Pre-Service Environmental Education
Project provided by.
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Additional funding and support has come from
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There are 3 Aims to the Pre-Service
Environmental Education Project

1. Develop pre-service teacher environmental
   education teaching strategies.
2. Evaluate the application of the pre-service
   teacher environmental education strategies
3. Disseminate pre-service teacher environmental
   education strategy models regionally and
   nationally.

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Aim 1

• Develop pre-service teacher environmental
  education teaching strategies

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Activities are being developed for the classroom
and/or field to fit the unique natural and
academic setting of each university.

• Examples include
• Conducting an outdoor environmental day for
  children
• Learning about hazardous waste reduction
• Partnering with state agencies to do authentic
  science inquiry investigations
• Teaching integrated environmental curriculum in a
  school
• Raising salmon in a classroom with a field trip
  to a salmon stream
• Contributing to a database on the status of
  invasive plant species at a park
• Learning how to use a wildlife refuge or ocean
  shoreline as a field trip site for children
• Teaching environmental education at a science
  center
• Understanding school yard ecology
• Integrating computer technology into childrens
• environmental science classes

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Outdoor Environmental DayKlemgard County Park

• WSU K-8 pre-service teachers put on an
  environmental education experience third graders.
• Students study soil, water, plants, and animals.
• College of Sciences faculty members help with the
  science content part of lesson planning.

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Through EPA funding, TOTOS programs received
funds to buy non-consumable environmental
education equipment to enhance the teaching of
environmental education. The materials also
expose pre-service teachers to types of materials
they can use effectively and safely with children.
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From the Pacific Education Institute, TOTOS
members received an extensive collection of
environmental education lesson plan books such as
Project Wild, Project Wet, and Project Learning
Tree. These books helped support Pre-Service
Environmental Education Project lessons in K-12
science methods courses.
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Aim 2

• Evaluate the application of the pre-service
  teacher environmental education strategies

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• The outcome of Aim 2 is to develop and implement
  a common assessment instrument to show the
  effectiveness of a variety of approaches in
  diverse settings to prepare K-12 pre-service
  teachers to teach environmental education.
• The project is not looking for one unique
  teaching approach but rather identifying multiple
  ways of achieving environmental education
  standards by taking advantage of local needs,
  resources, and environments.

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Some of the many sources of content for student
and faculty surveys
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Faculty SurveySelected Questions
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(No Transcript)
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Pre-Service Teacher Initial Survey

• In addition to the statements of agreement,
  pre-service teachers were asked
• Briefly describe environmental education
  experiences you have had in previous grades
• - Elementary school
• - Middle school/junior high
• - High school
• - University
• - Informal education experiences (Volunteer
  or participant in environmental programs through
  groups such as Scouts, church, nature centers,
  science centers, outdoor schools, parks and
  recreation, zoos, family, etc.)

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Pre-Service Teacher Final Survey

• In addition to statements of agreement,
  pre-service teachers were asked
• - Describe how this course improved your
  ability to teach environmental education to your
  future students (be specific)
• - Describe how this course could be changed
  to improve your ability to teach environmental
  education to your future students (be specific)

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Environmental Education Philosophy Agreement
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Aim 3

• Disseminate pre-service teacher environmental
  education strategy models regionally and
  nationally

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The project is expected to provide at least 24
models of how a university science methods course
can prepare pre-service teachers to confidently
and competently teach environmental education to
their future K-12 students. Plans are in the
beginning stage for a regional Association for
Science Teacher Education conference in 2009 to
disseminate and share environmental education
teaching practices for pre-service science
teacher educators. This conference will serve as
a pilot for a future national conference.
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We were granted a no-cost extension on the PEEP
Project.

• The extension was granted because the project
  involves working with multiple institutions
  around the state and the challenges of this type
  of coordination.
• The grant now extends until 6/30/08.

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Sustainability and Environmental Education for
Pre-Service (SEEP)

• The SEEP grant proposal was submitted to EPA as
  a headquarters grant in December 2007 for TOTOS.
• Among other things, the proposal includes
• Workshop with agencies and informal science
  institutions to discuss human and material
  environmental resources in support of pre-service
  teacher preparation.
• Workshop to discuss implementation strategies for
  evidence-based teacher preparation of
  environmental/sustainability issues.
• Regional conference of NW ASTE
• Collaborative publication describing SEEP models
• Environmental equipment support through the WSU
  Equipment Loan Program at no cost to universities

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The Washington Forest Protection Association
received a grant to provide PLT facilitator
training the day before the May 2008 TOTOS
meeting in Pullman.

• TOTOS faculty will be expected to provide PLT
  training in their methods courses and share
  experiences.
• The grant includes
• - Lesson training
• - Conceptual frameworks
• - Facilitator handbook
• - Mentor facilitator to visit professors
  classrooms in the fall

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As a result of the Pre-Service Environmental
Education Project, the environmental goals of
the historic Belgrade Charter will be brought
closer to realization

• The goal of environmental education is to
  develop a world population that is aware of, and
  concerned about, the environment and its
  associated problems, and which has the knowledge,
  skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to
  work individually and collectively toward
  solutions of current problems and the prevention
  of new ones (UNESCO, 1976).