Introduction to Youth Environmental Education Training Package Office

Introduction to Youth Environmental Education Training Package Office of Overseas Programming & Training Support (OPATS)

Session Objectives By the end of this session, you’ll be able to: § Define what environmental education is and how it fits into your role as a Peace Corps Volunteer § Identify Standard Sector Indicators that match specific categories of environmental education content areas. § Explain why it is essential to consider community environmental priorities, ages of kids, prior knowledge, and prerequisite knowledge when determining program activities. § Select two activities that will teach knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) and explain how to measure success in student achievement.

What is your personal definition of “environmental education”? Environmental education is that which ultimately leads to more sustainable environmental behavior.

Definition From the EPA Environmental education (EE) increases public awareness and knowledge of environmental issues and challenges. Through EE, people gain an understanding of how their individual actions affect the environment, acquire skills that they can use to weigh various sides of issues, and become better equipped to make informed decisions. EE also gives people a deeper understanding of the environment, inspiring them to take personal responsibility for its preservation and restoration. www. epa. gov/enviroed/

Common Program Topics • Natural science, particularly ecology or how natural systems function • Appreciation and enjoyment of nature • Natural resource management skills • Environmentally sustainable income-generating activities • Community service/citizenship • Environmental advocacy and action

Whose behavior can you affect? The behavior of the youth • Now • When they are adults The behavior of others whom the youth can influence • Members of their families • Members of their communities

What makes a successful and significant environmental education project? • The project effectively educates the participants and communicates the material you want to present • The project is engaging (especially with non-formal programs in which participation is voluntary) • The project is appropriate for the youth you will be working with (ages, literacy, background knowledge, cultural norms) • Most important of all: The project ultimately brings about a change in behavior resulting in improved & sustainable environmental management

Baseline Information Needed When Planning Activities • The environmental issues confronting the community • What people need to do to address the issues • How youth will likely be able to contribute toward addressing these issues when they are adults • How youth can help address these issues now • What knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) do the youth need to attain so they will address the issues

What makes a successful and significant environmental education program? • The project effectively educates the participants and communicates the material you want to present • The project is engaging (especially with non-formal programs in which participation is voluntary) • The project is appropriate for the youth you will be working with (ages, literacy, background knowledge, cultural norms) • Most important of all: The project ultimately brings about a change in behavior resulting in improved & sustainable environmental management

“I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused – a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration, or love – then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate. ” – Rachel Carson

Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (KSAs) § K stands for knowledge; it has to do with your head and with thinking. § S stands for skill; it has to do with your hands and with something you do. § A stands for attitude; it has to do with your heart and with feelings.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (KSAs) Knowledge: The Cognitive Domain Concepts, rules, procedures, terms, and vocabulary (e. g. , greeting in the local language, developing a lesson plan); facts; or meaningful connected prose (e. g. , names of months, metric measures) Skills: The Psychomotor Domain An action, physical movements, coordination of manual processes (e. g. , making a presentation to a civic group) Attitudes: The Affective Domain Interests, values, feelings, choices, acceptance, adjustments, appreciation, and beliefs (e. g. , being willing to try new foods)

What do you want them to do as a result of the environmental education program, and what activities will enable them to do it? • How will the youth contribute toward addressing the environmental issue? • Are there limitations related to their age? • What do the youth already know and have the skills to do? • What new concepts and skills do the youth need to learn?

Determine what youth already know by: • Asking them questions that would reveal their knowledge • Asking teachers and other knowledgeable adults what they think the youth know • Trying to determine while listening to youth during discussions • Having the youth play a quiz game like Jeopardy during which their answers can reveal what they know

Example: Planting legumes to fertilize soil • What nitrogen is • What bacteria are and what nitrogen-fixing bacteria are • Where the bacteria live in the legumes • That the nitrogen-fixing bacteria take in atmospheric nitrogen from the air and convert it to a form that can be drawn in by plant roots and used by animals that eat plants • The nitrogen cycle

Example: Protecting natural habitat for wild bee pollinators of agricultural crops • What flowers are (reproductive parts of the plants) • What pollination is and why it’s essential for plant reproduction • Why bees are attracted to flowers • Why flowers display different sizes, shapes, colors, and scents (to attract different pollinators) • Why honeybees can’t do all the pollination necessary

Have you been successful? • Did the youth carry out the project successfully, thus showing they have achieved the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes? • Ask them to play a quiz game like Jeopardy and listen to their answers • Listen to their answers during a wrap-up discussion • See if they have demonstrated the desired KSAs in an art project, a drama presentation, a poem, a newspaper article, or another creative means of expression • Listen to what parents, teachers, and other adults tell you about what the youth have taken away from your project