Creating environmentally literate citizens

[proud2BlibKansan]

I found this at the Nat'l Science Teachers Assn (NSTA) website. Turning down free copies of Inconvenient Truth seems very political rather than practical when you look at the goals for environmental studies espoused by NSTA. Anyone want to contact them? I think it is time for a massive DU letter writing campaign!

http://www.nsta.org/contact

We used the RAFT strategy with our 11th-grade vocation-track environmental science students because we saw its potential in helping us shape our students as the environmentally literate citizens the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE) imagines them to be: thoughtful, skillful, and active citizens in a democracy who can make informed environmental decisions that consider future generations.

Environmental citizenship, the NAAEE asserts, cannot be developed through a “fact-by-fact, piece-by-piece examination of our environment,” but rather through a sophisticated understanding of interconnected systems. According to the NAAEE, environmentally literate citizens understand that the interrelated, dynamic systems we create—our societies, political systems, economies, religions, cultures, and technologies—affect the total environment. NAEEE, in its Learning Guidelines (2006), states that environmental citizens should be able to:

articulate a position on an environmental issue (Strand 3.2.A.1)

recognize diverse cultural views about humans and the environment (Strand 2.3.B.2)

analyze how the actions of businesses or community groups may have environmental consequences (Strand 2.3.A.2)

explain current and historical environmental issues in terms of political and economic ideas (Strand 2.3.C.4)

evaluate the cumulative effects of human actions on a specific species or environmental system, such as a stream or a watershed (Strand 2.4.A.4)

explain the importance of place to human identity (Strand 2.4.B.2)

identify links among issues, for example, the relationships among traffic congestion, poor air quality, and suburban sprawl (Strand 2.4.E.3).

http://www.nsta.org/main/news/stories/science_teacher.php?news_story_ID=52851

[MasonJar]

1. I just e-mailed them with a scorching indictment of their decision

and asked them to reverse it. Please join me in this important effort.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Thank you

I wrote a letter too. That is really the best we can do right now.

I have a friend who is very active on the leadership team of our local NSTA. I have already called her to ask what she thinks we should do. I will definitely post her advice when she calls me back.