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Legislation in Congress
Would Help Get More Kids Outside!
Schools and educators increasingly are taking students outside to learn, and seeing the benefits of environmental education in student achievement, test scores, motivation, critical thinking and other skills. But schools are pressed for resources to implement this promising tool.
The No Child Left Inside Act, introduced in Congress this week by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD) will address this challenge. These efforts will create a huge step toward the goal of ensuring environmental education is part of every child’s education!
Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont (Tremont), located inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has been providing environmental education for over 40 years. Thousands of students and their teachers have come to Tremont to immerse themselves in the kind of learning that comes from spending time in nature’s outdoor classroom.
Cherokee Elementary School from Birmingham, Alabama, is one school that has been bringing groups to Tremont for many years. Last fall, the school brought 90 students for a five-day experience. For Glenn Rice, one of the teachers with the group, it was the forty-first trip to Tremont with students.
“I asked Glenn why he kept bringing students to Tremont,” said Ken Voorhis, executive director at Tremont. “He said so they can have an adventure of a lifetime. He said he hears from former students all the time about the little things they remembered from their Tremont trip.”
“Glenn is a social studies teacher and much of what he wants his students to learn is incorporated into their week at Tremont,” said Voorhis. “He shared with me that the trip to Tremont keeps coming up throughout the year in the classroom.”
Environmental education uses the outdoors as a tool for hands-on learning. Teachers, for instance, may ask students to collect and assess data on the water quality of a nearby stream. Studies show environmental education can improve student achievement and test scores, especially in math, science and other core subjects, help students think more effectively, provide a real-world context for classroom instruction, and prepare them for the 21st century workforce.
Dr. Cathey May also teaches at Cherokee Bend. When asked why she feels why her school’s trips to Tremont are important, she replied,“our school is one that pushes for the best in education. If we are at 95% we want to push it higher. Quality of education is important and that is why we come to Tremont.
“At Tremont the students see and experience things that they are learning about. We learned about macro invertebrates in the classroom but they (the students) had never seen one. We found them in the stream and looked at them in the scope and saw their gills moving. Education at Tremont happens from the time we get up till we go to bed. We get much more instruction in than we get in the same time period (in the classroom). Alabama has stringent science standards – the Tremont experience helps us with that,” Dr. May continued.
But in Tennessee and elsewhere, educational resources are stretched thin, especially to train teachers in environmental education, and to plan effective programs. The No Child Left Inside Act, could help by providing financial and other assistance to states which are bolstering environmental learning. More than forty states are taking action to urge the development of statewide “environmental literacy” plans, as well as outdoor plans and strategies.
A program that supports outdoor learning is ECO-SCHOOLS USA (or Every Child Outside-Schools USA), www.ecoschoolsusa.org, that provides a model for sustainable development while cultivating the next generation of conservation stewards. National Wildlife Federation is the U.S. host for this international program that fosters sustainable school operations and curricula.
A formal Resolution supporting the work of the ECO-TN Coalition, the local state arm of Eco-Schools USA, was unanimously passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in February 2010. One part of that resolution was the establishment of the Tennessee Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights which states that every child, before entering high school, should have the opportunity to experience such things as walk in the woods, explore nature, camp under the stars, and watch wildlife.
There are currently 125,000 students and 4,000 teachers nationwide participating in the ECO program that involves the entire school community. The program helps schools implement improvements to their school along eight pathways: energy, water, transportation, school grounds, consumption and waste, climate change, global dimensions and outside playtime for students.
Other signs of a national resurgence in environmental education are abundant:
- http://cms.eetap.org/repository/moderncms_documents/comprehensive_ee_article_final_2.24_sm.2.pdf The number of high school students taking the Advanced Placement Environmental Science course jumped 426 percent in the past 10 years compared to an average increase of 97 percent for all AP subject exams over the same period.
- At least 200 green charters schools have opened across the country in recent years using a research-based curriculum called EIC, or Environment as an Integrating Context for learning. The idea involves using nature and the environment as a teaching tool for everything from math to reading to history.
- Between 1995 and 2005 all 50 states expanded and strengthened their environmental education programs by 80 percent, measured by the number of key components implemented: dedicated funding, professional development, comprehensive EE plan, etc.
- Nearly 2,000 schools have joined the national Green School Alliance. Green schools are designed or retrofitted to consume less energy, to reduce waste, and to connect environmental education curriculum to a school’s sustainable features.
“Through an evaluative study, we have found that students who attend Tremont programs develop an increased appreciation and knowledge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and biodiversity,” said Voorhis. “Our study also showed a significant increase in interest in learning and a greater comfort level with the outdoors.”
“When students are at Tremont,” he continued, “they are immersed in the outdoors and learning by experiencing. We get to see children who are thrilled at being outside, who don’t miss their screen time, and whose faces shine with a sense of wonder at what nature reveals.”
Note: More information on Tremont’s evaluative study can be found here.
Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont provides in-depth experiences through education programs that celebrate ecological and cultural diversity, foster stewardship, and nurture appreciation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Connecting people and nature summarizes our mission, which we accomplish through providing hands-on learning experiences with the National Park, focusing on developing in people a greater sense of place, a deepened appreciation and awe for the diversity of life and people, and an ethics of stewardship that follows them home.