Teachers learn to engage their students in ecological restoration

School’s out, but not for a select group of kindergarten through grade 12 teachers who are attending Earth Partnership for Schools (EPS) workshops at the UW–Madison Arboretum. They are learning that ecological restoration – returning the land in their schoolyards to its original state, the way it was before settlers arrived – is not only good for the land, but also good for developing their students’ skills across the curriculum.

Teachers throughout Wisconsin and from as far away as New York are currently participating in a two-week EPS Summer Institute at the Arboretum. The New York teachers will be working with their students on restoring some of the Hempstead Plains on Long Island, an exceedingly rare prairie ecosystem. It appears that they have vestiges of this ecological community on the school grounds.

During the workshop, teams of teachers literally get down and dirty with a variety of hands-on activities designed to show them how to teach their students ecological restoration. In the process, they get tips on how to make the experience meaningful, fun and educational.

Teachers learn how to incorporate math, science, art, music, social studies, history, literature and other curriculum areas into land-restoration activities. Soon, their students will get to participate in this hands-on, minds-on approach to learning and watch the changing face of their schoolyard as it develops into an outdoor laboratory that can be shared with the community.

“We have found that planting a prairie or other ecosystem provides students with rich and personally meaningful opportunities to learn ecological concepts and study the natural and cultural history of their school property,” says Libby McCann, program manager for Earth Partnership for Schools. “Student involvement is grounded in basic science and enhanced through a variety of activities in other subjects as they design, plant, maintain and complete their restoration project. In addition, we have found that along with improving student performance, the experience brings schools and communities together.”

As one 2003 participant stated: “This institute has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me as a teacher. I have never taken any course that has left me so energized to improve my teaching and student learning.”

The Earth Partnership for Schools Program has provided environmental education strategies for students in kindergarten through high school since 1991. Begun as outgrowth of the Arboretum’s focus on ecological restoration as a way of establishing a positive relationship between people and the land, the program also helps teachers meet a state mandate requiring school districts to incorporate environmental education into the curriculum.

The current institute runs from June 21 through July 2. A second institute runs from July 19-30. Teams of teachers apply to the program, with two “lead teachers” from a school attending the first two-week summer institute, and receiving three graduate credits, a stipend and program resources (e.g. curricular activities). The second summer, the two lead teachers return with four “associate” team members, who can be other teachers, staff and/or community members. Teachers in the second summer’s institute also receive three graduate credits, a stipend and program resources.

“We encourage the teams to have teachers from many different subject areas – science, language arts, math, etc. – given the nature of the program,” says McCann. “Participants will sharpen their teaching techniques, gain new content knowledge and collaborative skills, address relevant state standards and student assessment issues, and receive a variety of educational resource materials and curricula.”

All schools accepted into the program also receive ongoing support from EPS staff after the summer institute series. This support includes school-wide in-service opportunities, student field trips to the Arboretum, loan of equipment kits, classroom support for science inquiry projects related to the restoration site and site consultations.

“EPS provides support to encourage long-term involvement because we want to ensure that the project becomes a sustainable part of the school curriculum,” McCann explains.

The UW–Madison Arboretum, world famous for pioneering restoration work initiated by Aldo Leopold and his colleagues in the 1930s, provides living laboratories for restoration-related research and teaching. The Earth Partnership for Schools Program is sponsored by the Arboretum and supported in part by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Wisconsin’s Improving Teacher Quality Higher Education Program and ESEA Title II Higher Education Professional Development Program.

To find out more about the Earth Partnership for Schools Program, contact McCann, at (608) 262-5367 or epmccann@wisc.edu.