Helpful Tips on Sustainable Practices for the Holiday Season

The Holiday season,for me, is one of the greatest times during the year. I visit family, enjoy lots of food, and receive an array of gifts(major plus). Yet the holidays can put a dent in the environment so it’s important to stay green. Here are just a few tips on how to stay environmentally friendly this holiday season.

1. Christmas Lights
Everybody enjoys the magical feeling Christmas lights radiates but they can cause serious increases in our carbon footprint. If you enjoy spreading holiday cheer through brilliantly lit Christmas lights, consider either cutting back a few or at least switching to LED lights. LED lights consume on average about 90% less energy than regular Christmas tree lights.

2. Green Gifts
We all enjoy the simple act of giving a gift, even more so when you know you’re not creating unnecessary waste when you do so. Try saving Holiday gift boxes or bags that you received from this year to use next year. Use gift wrapping paper that is made out of recycled material. Don’t waste your money by going out to buy a Christmas card. Instead make one yourself using the materials at your house. It may take more time but those that receive it will appreciate it. Also when you’re thinking about what to get for your child try battery operated toys that don't need so many batteries or that are energy efficient.

3. Holiday Food
Coming together to celebrate during this holiday seasons usually brings along an array of food to be eaten. Make sure to save the food as leftovers the next day instead of throwing it out. If you’re the host of a family event or attending one, bring some containers over (not plastic bags) to hand out extra leftovers.

4. Reuse
Getting new clothes, perhaps a new sweater or scarf? If so, this year though try to go through all your clothes, shoes, furniture, appliances, and toys and donate them to a thrift store or non-profit that will turn them around and reuse them.

5. Traveling
You may be going to visit your family during this time of the year and that may mean a lot of traveling. If so try to use public transportation whenever possible. Even take TRAX or a UTA bus to your local shopping center to buy gifts.

6. New Year
If you are looking for some New year's resolutions, I've brainstormed a few, feel free to use any that you relate to:

• Try to spend 2012 reducing mycarbon footprint by re-using materials,
  
• Buying local and/or responsibly farmed produce,
  
• Walking, carpooling, or taking public transportation instead of a car.

About the Blogger:

Anthony is a volunteer for USEE. He has been helping USEE with the Enewsletter, blogs, and designed our 2012 USEE calendar. He is currently a senior at Judge Memorial High School and has plans to start college in the fall of 2012, where he plans to major in Environmental Engineering.

Great nature activities all year long!

Winter is upon us, it’s cold outside, and I’m sure teaching about nature is the last thing on your mind for your weekly curriculum themes in your Pre K – 1^st grade classroom. It’s just too cold to go outside and experience nature! That’s something better left for the spring and fall, right?

I’ve worked in preschool, kindergarten and first grade classrooms in Michigan, and nature was never a topic I felt I could cover during the winter months. What can you observe or experience in the winter anyways? Just lots of snow, dormant trees and grass, and no animals, since they are hibernating or have migrated. Plus it’s so cold, gray and gloomy outside. Spending 15 minutes to get 20 children dressed to go outside just doesn’t seem worth it.

It’s been my experience too, that most nature activities are geared toward the fall and spring and seeing the changes during these seasons. So, even IF I could convince myself that we can bear the cold for 15 minutes, what would we do??

Well, I’ve found some easy answers. I’ve been exploring the bookshelves at the USEE office, and acquainted myself with the Project Learning Tree activity guide: Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood. It is NOT a full curriculum, but rather a collection of hands on exploration activities geared to pre k-1^st grades. Not only are there spring and fall activities, but they have a grouping of activities geared for the winter! Many of their other activities can easily be preformed any time of year and inside as well. There is no longer a reason to forget about nature when it’s cold outside!

The guide is easy to use and reference. The book is broken into 3 sections and the sections into activities. Each activity is really a grouping of activities focused on a more specific topic. For example, “Evergreens in Winter” is the activity title, however this activity is composed of separate activities to do as a large group or to include in learning centers. The activities range from suggested read alouds, art projects, snack ideas, writing projects, music and movement, math manipulatives, and discovery table ideas etc. They have really covered all aspects of a pre-school/kindergarten classroom.

Visually it’s very easy to find an activity or topic to match your needs without reading the whole book. That’s always a must when I’m looking for a good activity guide.

Many activities are things you may already use in your classroom, like the song “Going on a Bear Hunt.” I know my students love singing this song and doing the movements. However, now thanks to this activity guide, I can amend the song to talk about textures while teaching about the 5 senses.

There are also simple new ideas you might never have thought of. I personally loved the winter art project idea of painting using small spruce branches as paint brushes or drawing with cinnamon sticks. They also include a list of things to observe if you do actually decide to take a winter nature walk. There is actually a lot to more to observe and describe then I thought!

It’s these little add ins and twists on favorite activities that make it so easy to incorporate nature in any part of the curriculum without feeling overwhelmed with trying to fit in new separate activities.

I would really recommend taking the Early Childhood workshop and buying the book and audio CD. It is a great reference to have.

Please visit the Project Learning Tree page or USEE.org for more information.

Click here to see a calendar of the upcoming workshop.

Exploration and Discovery Limited by Instruction

A link to this blog was emailed to me today by the Director of the National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education. I thought I'd share...


Bonowitz, Shafto, Gweon, et al. did some very interesting research, which they describe in an article titled The double-edged sword of pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery. Their key finding is that when a preschooler is taught about an object by a teacher, s/he is less likely to explore that object when given the opportunity. However if the adult instead of overtly teaching pretends to discover something interesting about the object or simply presents the object, the preschooler is more likely to explore that object and make discoveries about it.

It appears that these very young kids (4- and 5-year olds) already have internal expectations of teaching. One expectation is that if someone is teaching them about something, the teacher will teach the relevant bits of information. Thus further exploration is expected to be less fruitful. It's unclear whether these expectations come about through experience or whether they might have evolutionary roots.

The authors did two experiments. In the first preschoolers were randomly divided into four conditions. They interacted with an adult who behaved differently in each condition. The experiment involved a toy-like object that had four interesting features. In some of the conditions, only one of these four features was demonstrated. The question was how long would the children interact with and explore this toy and how many of the other features would they discover on their own.

The four conditions were:

1. pedagogical : the adult said s/he would teach the kid about the toy-like object and demonstrated one feature and left
2. interrupted : the adult acted as a teacher, but after demonstrating one feature, pretended to need to immediately attend to something else, and left
3. naive : the adult did not act as a teacher but instead pretended to accidentally discover one feature and left
4. baseline : the adult brought out the toy, looked at it without demonstrating any features, and left it for the child

The pedagogical group spent less time exploring the toy, performed fewer actions on the toy, and discovered less about it. The naive group discovered the most about the toy. And the baseline group spent more time playing with the toy and tried more actions.

The second experiment looked at indirect teaching, where the preschool participant watches either another preschooler or an adult being taught. Watching a peer being taught leads to similar behaviors as being taught directly, that is less discovery. But watching an adult being taught leads to better discovery. When watching an adult being taught, it appears that the preschooler believes the teaching is less applicable to themselves and is therefore more willing to explore.

Some of this may seem a bit counterintuitive. Why wouldn't a child avail themselves of these opportunities to explore and learn? One of the themes of the SESAME model is that the world contains far too much for a comparatively small brain to learn. There is a bias to learning that which is heuristically more likely to be useful. Those of you who took one of Steve Kaplan's classes may remember the four molar learning rules, four conditions which tend to result in enhanced neural learning. Listing them here would get us off track, although if you're curious please feel free to start a blog discussion in which they can be explored.

Teaching by instruction can be very efficient and undoubtedly has an important role in the education of children. For those who teach children, and perhaps adults equally, the challenge is in figuring out when to create the conditions conducive to exploration and when to use direct teaching. This is just one of many decisions a teacher must make and there are no easy answers.

For a final bit of inspiration, let me recommend Dan Meyer's TED Talk in which he describes how he approaches teaching high school math. His pedagogical approach encourages discussion and exploration. At the end of his talk he gives five recommendations, one of which is to "be less helpful". If you have a spare 12 minutes, Meyer's talk is well-worth watching.

What are some techniques you've used in a teaching environment to encourage exploration?

USEE in the News!

News Releases By Date

EPA awards $50,000 to two Utah organizations for environmental justice efforts

Release Date: 12/12/2011
Contact Information:

EPA awards $50,000 to two Utah organizations for environmental justice efforts

Two Utah nonprofits receive funding to address impacts of air pollution and recycling

CONTACT: Lisa McClain-Vanderpool, mcclain-vanderpool@epa.gov, 303-312-6077 ; April Nowak,nowak.april@epa.gov, 303-312-6528

(Denver, Colo. – Dec. 12, 2011) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it awarded more than $1 million in grants to 46 non-profit and tribal organizations working to address environmental justice issues nationwide. The Repertory Dance Theatre and the Utah Society for Environmental Education are two nonprofits in Utah receiving $25,000 each.

“Community-based action and participation in environmental decision-making are critical to building healthy and sustainable communities,” said Lisa Garcia, EPA’s senior advisor to the administrator for environmental justice. “By supporting local environmental justice projects in under-served communities, we are expanding the conversation on environmentalism and advancing environmental justice in communities across the nation.”

The Repertory Dance Theater uses the arts to educate Salt Lake City youth about the impacts of air pollution. The organization will conduct Arts/Environmental Residency Programs in K-6 schools in the west and central areas of Salt Lake City and will use the arts to help students understand the impacts of air pollution on the environment and their health. The project intends to produce innovative lectures, demonstrations and movement classes in 10 elementary schools.

The Utah Society for Environmental Education will create a waste recycling program for residents of Rose Park community. The mission of the Keep Rose Park Beautiful Project is to help alleviate improper waste management in Rose Park. The project will use information gathered in previous studies to create a waste/recycling education program that will meet the needs of the Rose Park Community.

EPA also announced it is seeking applicants for $1 million in environmental justice small grants expected to be awarded in 2012. The grants enable non-profit organizations to conduct research, provide education, and develop solutions to local health and environmental issues in communities overburdened by pollution. The 2012 grant solicitation is now open and will close on February 29, 2012. Applicants must be incorporated non-profits or tribal organizations working to educate, empower and enable their communities to understand and address local environmental and public health issues. EPA will host three pre-application teleconference calls on December 15, 2011, January 12, 2012 & February 1, 2012 to help applicants understand the requirements.

More information on the Environmental Justice Small Grants program and a list of grantees:http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/grants/ej-smgrants.html

Environment Justice Small Grants 2012 Request for Proposals and schedule of pre-application teleconference calls: http://1.usa.gov/utmmdh

New Nature Center Resource for Teachers and Parents!

Need an idea for a field trip or family outing? Why not go to one of the many nature centers close by to learn about our beautiful environment? Now it’s even easier to find a nature center near you! The National Environmental Education Foundation, in partnership with the National Association for Interpretation (NAI), presents the Environmental Education Week Nature Center Map.

The map includes contact information for over 2,000 nature and environmental education centers nationwide, and is a perfect way for educators to find local natural areas for field trips and outdoor study.

This great resource for teachers and parents makes it easier to find and plan trips to nature centers and participate in hands on learning and observation of our environment. Just use the drop down menu to select your state, or enter in your zip code to only show centers in your area. If you have never planned a field trip to a nature center, click on their new resource link “planning a nature center visit” to gets some ideas of what to expect and what to do before, during and after your visit. It’s just that easy!

Feel free to explore the rest of their site for other environmental education resources and activities.

USEE Honorees in the News!

Honoring Ibis — Local coffee shop wins state’s Green Business of the Year Award

Michael Unruh greets customers at Caffe Ibis in Logan on Friday. Caffe Ibis was selected as the Green Business of the Year for the state of Utah. (Jennifer Meyers/Herald Journal)

Posted: Monday, November 28, 2011 1:00 am | Updated: 9:33 pm, Sun Nov 27, 2011.

By Kevin Opsahl

Logan-based coffee brewery Caffe Ibis has been selected as the state winner for the Green Business of the Year Award by an environmental education organization.

Coffee shop owners Sally Sears and Randy Wirth were presented the award at the annual conference of the Utah Society for Environmental Education, or USEE, a statewide umbrella organization and resource for K-12 schools, environmental educators and higher education to encourage environmental literacy.

The Logan-based business that has been a fixture in downtown Logan since 1976 was recognized for its contributions to sustainability and environmental education after it was nominated by the Stokes Nature Center.

"We've never thought of doing business any other way," said Sears. "We're very, very honored (to receive the award). We were surprised, and we're delighted."

Ru Mahoney, a spokesperson for the Nature Center, also cited the couple's contributions to numerous nonprofits in Cache Valley as a factor in nominating Caffe Ibis.

"They go above and beyond; they don't have one area of focus," Mahoney said.

Wirth and Sears' business is thought to be one of the only coffee shops that specializes in triple-certified coffee, which means it's certified organic, fair trade and Smithsonian bird-friendly.

"It sounds impractical as a business model, but it actually does work because most coffee is grown by small-family farms, so we've been keeping an additional premium to keep (the coffee beans) growing that way," Wirth said. "It requires manual on-the-ground inspection. It's a very difficult certification."

The company accepted recyclable materials from the community before Logan city established its own recycling program, and were instrumental in helping to launch the popular Cache Valley Gardeners' Market that connects local farmers with Cache Valley residents May through October.

The deli and coffee shop, at 52 Federal Ave. in downtown Logan, has also been recognized for its historical renovation and creative use of recycled materials in the infrastructure and interior decor. The civic-minded couple reinvest a generous portion of their profits, offering special blends that support everything from multiple Logan nonprofits to a cooperative of women coffee farmers in rural Peru.

The couple attended Utah State University and wanted to find a way to contribute to the community's "beautiful" environment, so they opened Caffe Ibis and quickly became involved with the Stokes Nature Center.

"The Stokes Nature Center has always been important for us to educate young people to get outside and to be a part of nature," Sears said.

Sears and Wirth both give credit for the development of Caffe Ibis to Allen Stokes, one of the founders of the Nature Center.

"The ‘Allen test' for us was, ‘What would Allen think?'" Sears said, noting that the business continues to compost all produce from deli and coffee grounds. "We really wanted to be judicious and honest and contribute back to the community that we lived in. ... We feel very lucky because every day we can get up and feel good about the business that we're in."

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kopsahl@hjnews.com

Twitter: KevJourno

Utah's Hogle Zoo in the News!

Hogle Zoo receives award, honors volunteer

The Salt Lake Tribune

First published Nov 18 2011 08:18PM
Updated Nov 23, 2011 07:10PM

Hogle Zoo has received an Environmental Program of the Year award for its assistance in helping Boy Scouts earn a half-dozen merit badges in various environmental pursuits. The Utah Society for Environmental Education bestowed the award on the zoo.

Zoo officials also posthumously honored Janet Ryan-Finlayson, who spent more than 30 years as a volunteer docent, trainer and raptor handler, as its Environmental Volunteer of the Year. She died in September.

The Salt Lake Tribune