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2/22/2010 - Eastside Prep Article Published in Journal
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Bringing Sustainability to an Independent School
by Chuck Henry and Elena Olsen
Eastside Preparatory School, Kirkland, WA
A teenager’s life today in the United States is defined by “necessary” objects that are high-tech,electronic, “Made in China”, disposable. They are the plugged-in, urban-suburban generation. Most of them are at least one generation removed from any direct family tie to farming or other land-based
career vocations. But, as NEEF (2005) suggests, “in the coming decades, the public will more frequently be called upon to understand complex environmental issues, assess risk, evaluate proposed environmental plans and understand how individual decisions affect the environment at local and global scales.”
As they reach adulthood, today’s teenagers will have to surmount the mountains of electronic devices in order to understand the workings of the natural world in a manner much more complex than previous generations.
At Eastside Preparatory School (EPS), an independent school with grades 5-12 in suburban Kirkland, Washington, our efforts in environmental literacy grew out of convictions that preserving the environment and practicing sustainability are crucial to our students’ future.
Our commitment to environmental curricula emerged from our acknowledgement that students have a daunting task ahead of
them in stewarding the planet. It also grew out of the fact that new tools and approaches – such as those
gained by direct experience – to engage students to the extent that they value, balance, understand, and
respect our relationship with nature and, crucially, their immediate surroundings. We practice
experiential learning to bring this engagement to the students because we believe as Gopnik (2005)
writes: “Research is (often) divorced from learning… …I know that children, and even adults, learn
about the everyday world around them in much the way that scientists learn”.
It is our belief at EPS that all our students need to have a course in environmental literacy, one that
includes a fundamental understanding of the ecosystems of the world, the ability to discern conclusions
based on scientific evidence rather than perceptions, and the problem solving skills to make informed
policy choices. They will soon be confronted with what will surely be an increasingly urgent need: to
integrate connections to both physical environments and diverse human communities in their everyday
and professional lives. They will have an obligation to value, balance, understand, and respect our
relationship with nature and our surroundings. “Today, global demands on natural systems exceed their
sustainable yield capacity by an estimated 25 percent (Brown 2008).” Our approach is to provide
educational exercises that interest and motivate the students. We provide students with the responsibility
to research and develop projects, with the instructors acting as coaches or facilitators.
The Eastside Prep Impact Center (EPIC) was brought to life in Autumn 2007 to provide a focal point
for literacy in sustainability and our interaction with nature. The EPIC mission is: To expand the vision
of every student to include conscious awareness of and caring regard for nature and humanity on a
global scale. Specifically, our objective for EPIC is to give students a basis so that when they graduate
from EPS, they should:
• Know what sustainability is.
• Know the most important environmental issues.
• Be able to ask informed questions.
• Have some basic tools to take action.
• Have the passion to get involved.
The EPS Board invested in physical facilities – a whole building that facilitates our activities. But,
far beyond walls, EPIC houses an instrument for interdisciplinary pedagogy, as well as distinct
programs. Sustainability has proven to be an excellent bridge between all academic disciplines --science,
English, art, history and language. In this short two and a half year period, we have developed a
comprehensive framework for environmental education, such as:
• An extensive curriculum map that details interactions at all grades 5-12 and includes all disciplines.
• A class specific to this concept called “Critical Practices for the Environment”, environmental
literacy in non-science classes, and a culminating 12th grade Environmental Science class.
• Programs that support the curriculum map, such as: (1) Adoption of a 14-acre site owned by the City
of Kirkland for restoration, (2) The GLOBE Program for environmental monitoring, (3) The national
WeatherBug Program, (4) Investigation and installation of renewable energy, and (5) Programs in
international sustainability.
• Our ninth grade Impact projects that are yearlong efforts to investigate and promote sustainability.
• Special projects where students learn in "classrooms without walls," such as our Islandwood Cob
Oven project, and the Summer Kayak build/trip class, and our "Recycling Week" that formalized a
comprehensive recycling program for EPS.
Much has been written lately about alternative approaches for education. Two that are being heavily
practiced within the EPIC framework are place-based education and project based learning. Placebased
education is becoming a well-established method that gives students new ways of connecting to
what they are studying. “Place-based education fosters students’ connection to place and creates vibrant
partnerships between schools and communities (Promise of Place 2008).” Similarly, “Project Based
Learning is an attempt to create new instructional practices that reflect the environment in which
children now live and learn (BIE 2007).” These two concepts sound similar, and they do have the same
objective in mind; that is, changing the approach
to education by association with different physical
environments and by physically working on
projects. Traditional lecture-discussion-testing is
replaced with “doing.”
This article highlights our overall program
detailed in our curriculum map, and three
examples of how it is practiced at EPS: the
environmental and sustainability classes, the
Impact Projects and our Watershed Restoration
Project.
EPIC Curriculum Map
This program has had tremendous faculty buyin;
they wholeheartedly embraced the concept
behind EPIC. Yet, a formalization of the process -
the steps that facilitate how it is manifested - is
crucial for maximization of its success. Our
Figure 1. Example from the Curriculum Map
curriculum map includes a matrix of rows for Grade Level Objectives (GLOs) for Environmental
Literacy, Service Learning, and traditional disciplines of English, Fine and Performing Arts, History,
Language, Math, Physical Education, Science, Information Literacy/ Technology, and Life Skills and
Impact Projects. Columns include categories of Scope including: Entire School (Institutional
Responsibility); Immediate/Local (5th and 6th grades), Community (7th and 8th grades), and Global (9th –
12th grades).
Environmental Literacy Classes
Formal induction into the concepts
of sustainability at EPS came in the 8th
grade. The students engage in weekly
discussions about different aspects of
sustainable practices. Associated with
the seminars are exercises where they
are asked to find out alternatives to
traditionally used methods of energy
production and use, water and
wastewater, recycling, and restoration.
Much of the class is hands-on. Last
year, the primary project was removal
of invasive weeds in our 14-acre
Watershed Park site (see Watershed Park Restoration); this year students the major project was
building a state-of-the-art experimental composter from a design licensed at the University of
Washington.
Although the class includes written and verbal discussions about the environment and sustainability,
the majority of the class has been project-based. For instance, each year the students build snowshoes
that are used in a field trip. The purpose is to demonstrate that they can do things themselves, rather than
always purchasing off the shelf items.
Due to the success of the initial class, it has recently been
expanded. Critical Practices in the Environment: Surviving
on Planet Earth is a trimester-long 7th grade class. In the 8th
grade students spend two trimesters continuing on this theme
with Critical Practices in the Environment: Change and
Response. This series of courses explore the environment in a
way that delves into the many various aspects of our
relationship with the natural world. It engages
students in science, math and problem solving, but
also in exploration using literary skills to study
the “critical practices” that exercise our ethical
responsibility towards the environment. Both
classes rely heavily on the place-based education
Figure 3. An 8th grader drilling PVC,
part of fabricating the composter.
Figure 4. Finished experimental composter
built by 8th grade class.
Figure 2. Snowshoes built by an 8th grade class.
and project based learning approaches, and are purposely integrated with English, history, math and
science. Planned projects include continued restoration of Watershed Park, a soil carbon sequestration
project, an urban garden at EPS, and our snowshoe construction.
Classes in non-science departments integrate environmental learning into their curricula. For
example, the Social Sciences department offers a course titled: “Economics and the Environment:
Green and Green”. In this class, students explore how capitalistic markets can be used to tackle modern
environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, and endangered species. For their final projects
students design a green business plan. The English department offers a twelfth-grade course in literature
of the environment. This rigorous course focuses on both the
tradition of environmental literature in America and contemporary
critical and literary texts. Students read such diverse texts as poetry
by Emily Dickinson, selections from Thoreau, and contemporary
writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko and Lawrence Buell. They are
also introduced to the literary field of “eco-criticism,” which
recognizes individual and societal accountability to the natural
environment as a pressing ethical concern for contemporary society.
Students in this class complete their own observation journal and
field guide, as well as propose their own eco-critical theory.
The philosophical foundation of courses such as these can be
described as the notion of a “place-based” education combined with
environmental literacy. In his renowned book, The Last Child in the
Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, Richard
Louv (2005) describes what he calls the “third frontier” in American
development. The “third frontier” is the plugged-in generation, the
urban-suburban areas that the majority of American families now
inhabit. Thus, vast numbers of kids are growing up in an
environment of electronic and suburban detachment from nature.
Interesting, the average third-grader today may know more about
endangered species or threatened Amazonian rainforests than the average third-grader twenty or thirty
years ago, but may also have spent limited time in the outdoors,
simply playing in vacant lots, or camping in the woods. Thus, part
of the EPIC mission is to foster a relationship between Eastside Prep
students and the local, Pacific Northwest environment. To that end,
English classes in creative writing visit local parks and incorporate
the outdoors into writing assignments; the twelfth-grade
environmental literature class is intensively involved in documenting
and reflecting upon students’ experiences outside, and in a more
formal field-guide project. As another environmental education
expert, Robert Michael Pyle, put it, “What is the extinction of the
condor to a child who has never seen a wren?”
Impact Projects.
Each year at EPS Upper School grades immerse themselves in
what we call “Impact Projects.” Consistent with the goals of EPIC,
the 9th grade projects are focused on sustainability. Groups of
students led by faculty advisors choose a particular aspect of
sustainability that contributes to a theme. During the first year, the
theme was how to make a green roof (and potentially one that could
Figure 5. Nature writing
exercise by the 10th grade
class.
Figure 6. Demonstrating
vermiculture during the 2007
Green Fair of the 9th grade
Impact Project.
be constructed at EPS). Last year, our main emphasis was on energy; this year we focused on making a
solar greenhouse as a demonstration of what the students envisioned as a permanent facility at EPS.
Students first work on researching and creating posters on
different aspects of urban sustainability. These are used
primarily as learning tools for each group, then later
when presenting their particular project. Our 2009
projects included a geodesic dome greenhouse, solar
heating, organic gardening, solar lighting, rainwater
harvesting, and compost production.
In the second step, students make actual
demonstrations of the different projects. That is, the
different groups construct and assemble
equipment/materials to show what these different
approaches to sustainability are, and how they work.
Examples of the projects include: a straw bale couch
made out of a straw bale, chicken wire and stucco (sand,
cement and lime) that now resides at the entrance to
EPIC, and the geodesic dome complete with sustainable
heating, lighting and rainwater harvesting, and a
vermiculture demonstration with use of the resulting
material in organic gardening display.
The culmination of the Impact Projects is a “Green
Fair,” where 4th and 5th graders from local schools visit
for a few hours to view the exhibits, try some hands-on
activities, and listen to the Impact Project students describe the theories and creation of their particular
projects. Students also participate in a special
evening presentation made for parents.
Watershed Park Restoration Project
During and for construction of I-405 in the
mid 1950s, a gravel "borrow" pit was established
in the southern portion of what was to become
Watershed Park, a public park in Kirkland, WA.
Restoration attempts have been minimal and yet
to be successful; Scotch Broom (Cytisus
scoparius) sparsely occupies the majority of the
level ground, while Himalayan blackberry (Rubus
armeniacus) and Evergreen blackberry (Rubus
laciniatus) vines occupy the majority of the
sloped areas. In 2007, EPS received a written
agreement with the City of Kirkland to
collaboratively do restoration and research in the
park. This is a multi-agency agreement with
Eastside Prep School partnering with the City as
well as Cascade Land Conservancy, the
University of Washington, King County
Department of Natural Resources, and local
compost producers.
Figure 7. Explaining the construction of
the geodesic dome during the 2009 Green
Fair of the 9th grade Impact Project.
Figure 8. Eighth grade student pulling
invasive Scotch Broom at Watershed Park,
Kirkland.
In the ‘50s laws for restoration were non-existent. Being totally barren of topsoil and primarily
consisting of sand unsuitable for road building, only pioneering plants established, particularly Scotch
Broom, an invasive plant. Since they fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, they are capable of surviving in
nutrient poor soils. Often, they will dominate plant life in a disturbed site, such as our gravel pit, greatly
reducing biodiversity.
Since the park is located within a mile northeast
of EPS, it presents a perfect opportunity for EPS
students to study the environment and learn about
restoration of disturbed areas. In 2007-8, ten classes
(six 8th grade and two 7th grade) spent double class
periods pulling Scotch Broom with our newly
purchased Weed Wrenches™ in a ¾-ac area in
preparation for installation of a restoration research
project conducted by the University of Washington.
Research plots have now been established by UW
undergrad and grad students under the direction of
UW Prof. Sally Brown and Dr. Henry through a
$25,000 contract funded by King County. The senior
Environmental Science class is helping with
monitoring and analysis; we have recently sampled
and characterized soils on the research site. A 100 m3
compost mix was delivered and has been used both
for this research project and for a new restoration demonstration that the EPS Parents Association
installed during Earth Day.
The long-term approach for this project is to have all grades participate in a series of sequential
activities. Students in grades 5 and 6 will be introduced to the project with simple restoration activities,
such as weed pulling and maintenance on existing plots. Starting in the 7th grade, classes will take
“ownership” of a new area that will include soil preparation and planting. This class will follow their
area throughout their career at EPS, each year doing maintenance, as well as more sophisticated studies
involving soil chemistry assessments, biological inventories and design of future areas. In a decade, our
goal is to have a series of “ecological islands” – something the students can take pride in and visit many
years in the future.
EPIC’s fit at EPS
The EPIC program integrates well into our school mission: “…to inspire each student to develop
intellectual character, ethical discernment, and responsibility for self and others through an
interdisciplinary program incorporating inquiry-based experiential instruction.” Moreover, EPIC was the
first major program that EPS selected to start that implicitly strengthens our mission. There are now
many studies that document the value of environmental literacy. “Schools with EE programs
consistently have higher test scores on state standardized tests and have more support from parents,
community and administration (Bartosh 2003).” The EPS Board, administration and faculty are in this
for the long run. The Board dedicated an entire building to EPIC, and since the administration and the
faculty helped craft the program, they have ownership; ownership often assures value to them. As NEEF
(2005) suggests ‘True environmental “literacy” takes time. It can't be placed in an ‘educational
microwave.’
Figure 9. Eighth graders celebrate a good
effort cutting invasive blackberry bushes at
Watershed Park, Kirkland.
References
Bartosh, Oksana. 2003. Environmental Education: Improving Student Achievement. Master’s Thesis.
Evergreen State College.
Brown, L. 2008. Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. W. W. Norton & Co.
Buck Institute for Education (BIE). 2007. Project Based Learning.
http://www.bie.org/index.php/site/PBL/pbl_handbook_introduction/. May 1, 2009.
Gopnik, A. 2005. College Makeover: Let Them Solve Problems. Slate Magazine.
http://www.slate.com/id/2130331/ January 10, 2009.
Louv, R. 2005. Last Child Left in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.
Algonquin Books.
National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF). 2005. Environmental Literacy in America.
www.neefusa.org/pdf/ELR2005.pdf. January 10, 2009.
Promise of Place. 2008. Promise of Place: Fostering Student Achievement and Sustainable Communities
Through Place-Based Education. http://www.promiseofplace.org/ December 22, 2008.
Dr. Chuck Henry is Director of EPIC and an Environmental Science teacher and Dr. Elena Olsen is an
Upper School English Teacher, both at Eastside Preparatory School.
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