Abstract
Few studies have focused on the use of the Project WET, WILD, WILD Aquatic, and Learning Tree Guides as a means of introducing environmental education (EE) in preservice settings. Four different case studies demonstrate methods of integrating EE through the use of the Project Guides into preservice teacher coursework at four different universities. The integration methods strengthen elementary preservice teachers’ science content knowledge, develop science process and inquiry skills, integrate literacy, and introduce fieldwork. Elementary preservice teachers in all four cases reported positive teaching and learning experiences from their use of the Project Guides.
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Appendices
Appendix A
Project Guides activities and descriptions
Lesson activity | Guide | Description |
---|---|---|
Are Vacant Lots Vacant? | PLT | Students examine a study plot for signs of life. |
Are You Me? | WILD | Playing cards with pictures of “young” and “adult” animals are matched up. |
A Grave Mistake | WET | Well-water data is analyzed to determine the source of community water contamination. |
Bottleneck Genes | WILD | A fictional population of animals is reduced in number and students examine what happens to the genetics within the population over time. |
Cold Cash in the Ice Box | WET | Students examine refrigeration by designing mini insulators to keep ice from melting. |
Color Crazy | WILD | Students design a colorful animal to examine the role of color and its importance to survival of wildlife. |
Dynamic Duos | PLT | Symbiotic relationships are identified and students describe how partners in these relationships affect one another. |
Every Tree for Itself | PLT | A game is used to introduce tree growth requirements of sunlight, water, and nutrients. |
How Plants Grow | PLT | Experiments are designed to test factors affecting plant growth. |
How Wet Is Our Planet? | Aquatic WILD | The usable percentage of fresh water on earth is calculated. |
Incredible Journey | WET | A simulation of water movement through a more complex water cycle or journey. |
MikroTrek Scavenger Hunt | WILD | Students go outside to find different kinds of evidence that wildlife exists. |
Move Over Rover | WILD | Animals and their appropriate habitats are discussed. |
Nature’s Recyclers | PLT | Students observe pill bugs to help determine their role in an ecosystem. |
Oh Deer! | WILD | Students become deer in a role play as they investigate habitat components, carrying capacity, and limiting factors. |
Owl Pellets | WILD | Owl pellets are dissected in order to discover food preferences, study rodent anatomy, and reveal the importance of food chains and decomposers in recycling nutrients within ecosystems. |
Quick Frozen Critters | WILD | Students simulate fox and rabbit populations in this very active game. Afterward is a discussion about the similarity of the skills and traits that both predators and prey must have to survive. |
School Yard Safari | PLT | On school grounds, students observe and find evidence of animals and relate that to habitat requirements. |
Stream Sense | WET | At a stream site, students make observations using their senses, take measurements, and test water quality. |
The Closer You Look | PLT | Drawings of trees made from memory and direct observation are compared. |
Urban Nature Search | WILD | Students go on a nature search designed to increase student-observation skills in nature. |
Water Olympics | WET | The marvelous physical properties of water are examined and how these properties affect life on Earth. |
Water Wonders | PLT | Students explain how the water cycle is important to living things and how plants affect the movement of water in a watershed. |
Web of Life | PLT | After researching forest organisms, a simulated food web is built and the relationship between organisms is emphasized. |
Wildlife is Everywhere | WILD | Looking for direct and indirect evidence of life in various settings. |
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Schepige, A.C., Morrell, P.D., Smith-Walters, C., Sadler, K.C., Munck, M., Rainboth, D. (2010). Using Environmental Education Project Curricula with Elementary Preservice Teachers. In: Bodzin, A., Shiner Klein, B., Weaver, S. (eds) The Inclusion of Environmental Education in Science Teacher Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9222-9_19
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