Environmental Education Program

Great Lakes

Steps to Environmental Literacy

Environmental Awareness
Units of study for lower elementary students enhance beginning science, math, and language arts skills. These studies engage all the senses in order to hone each student's observational skills. These units are also designed to familiarize each student with plants and animals of our northwoods region and thereby develop a sense of place. Each study provides direct experiences in the natural world, which foster wonder, joy, and delight.

Basic Ecology
Each student needs to understand that they are inextricably linked to the environment. For many of our children this understanding is hard to grasp. They only know food as coming from a grocery store, water from a tap, heat as being produced by a thermostat, etc. It becomes difficult for children who do not understand their connectedness to the Earth to fully comprehend ecological concepts. Before proceeding with the concepts of basic ecology, students need to gain an understanding of their dependency on the environment.

Environmental Dependency
Students need to have a basic understanding of some of the inter-relationships within the natural world. These units of study guide students to an understanding of some of the basic principles governing the interaction of living things and their interaction with the nonliving portion of the environment.

Environmental Studies
These studies use techniques to measure the health of our environment. Whether the study focuses on air, surface water, groundwater, or an entire watershed the inter-link between the non-living aspects and the living components of our environment are demonstrated. Each study emphasizes how individuals affect environmental quality. Students are given the training necessary to make decisions and develop lifestyles that maintain a productive and healthy environment.

These steps work together to train stewards who can take leadership in our communities to bring healing to the land and protect environmental quality.

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