A Review of Successful Practices in Environmental Education to apply in the design of a Marine Science Curriculum

Abstract

Connecting people to natural systems has become an important way of addressing current environmental issues. The need for conservation and protection of these natural systems will have a much greater chance of success if environmental education for students is designed to help link human actions to environmental impacts. This can be a challenge for educators when environmental issues are not directly related to a student’s lifestyle or understood. How to connect environmental issues to anyone that may have little or no understanding of an issue is a challenge for environmental educators. This MP will provide a short review of environmental education - the past, current themes and methods, and ideas for the future. This review will also assist in helping the client, SAILwind (an educational organization which focuses on coastal ecology and environmental issues) by developing an understanding of how environmental education developed and what is currently happening in several selected learning institutions and organizations. Obtaining the background for environmental education, helps in providing appropriate and accurate curriculum for the educational organization SAILwind, to assist them with their goals of protection and conservation. SAILwind is a highly interactive, educational non-profit, using science, adventure, and fun to help people learn about natural systems and to connect their individual actions and habits with impacts on the natural world. This is accomplished through “play with a purpose”, a tagline of the organization. Sailing and kayak trips, stream bed exploration and coastal excursions all are part of the platform using a nature based experience to learn about an ecosystem and to see how humans affect these natural systems. SAILwind needs more curriculum designed around school aged kids to help expand their educational efforts and this MP includes three educational models/programs to be used for school kids in SAILwind’s educational and conservation efforts.