Teaching Environmental Awareness in Baltimore

Graphical Abstract

Abstract

A national movement, sparked by Richard Louv’s (2005) treatise Last Child in the Woods, has catalyzed collaborations among government agencies, schools, and nonprofit and community organizations to reconnect children with the environment. Research has indicated the significant positive impacts of spending time in nature on children’s physical, cognitive, and social development (Coon et al. 2011; Rook 2013; Banay et al. 2015). This is especially critical at a time when the general public lacks a solid understanding of the importance and benefits of nature and its ecosystem services, or the many benefits that humans freely gain from the natural environment (Duvall and Zint 2007; Turnpenny, Russel, and Jordan 2014). Environmental education rooted in local, place-based issues is one way to ensure our youth have the knowledge and skills necessary to address complex socioscientific issues as adults. For example, Klosterman and Sadler (2010) found that the implementation of a place-based curriculum focusing on socioscientific issues surrounding climate change led to students expressing more detailed, accurate, and sophisticated understandings of global climate change and the controversies and challenges surrounding the issue. Furthermore, environmental literacy is a component of overall scientific literacy (Blumenstein and Saylan 2011) and requires the same skills, such as the ability to organize, analyze, and interpret quantitative data and scientific information) as other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields (Jordan et al. 2009). Recently, the following education requirements have been implemented in our state of Maryland to address the overlapping boundaries of human and environmental health:

• preK–12 environmental literacy standards, adopted by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE);

• a requirement that all public schools provide preK–12 students with place-based field experiences, called “meaningful watershed educational experiences” (MWEEs), that are focused on inquiry-based environmental education (Chesapeake Bay Program 2014); and

• a requirement that all incoming ninth-grade students complete a comprehensive, interdisciplinary environmental education program aligned with eight standards: environmental issues; interactions of Earth’s systems; flow of matter and energy; populations, communities, and ecosystems; humans and natural resources; environment and health; environment and society; and sustainability (MSDE 2019).

Keywords:

• Citizen Science
• Environmental Science
• Teacher Preparation
• Middle School
• Informal Education

Author Contributions

Sarah Haines ([email protected]) is a professor of biology and science education at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

Chelsea McClure ([email protected]) is a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

Symone Johnson ([email protected]) is the Urban Conservation Education Program lead at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland.

Supplemental Material

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Haines

Sarah Haines ([email protected]) is a professor of biology and science education at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

Chelsea McClure

Chelsea McClure ([email protected]) is a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

Symone Johnson

Symone Johnson ([email protected]) is the Urban Conservation Education Program lead at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland.