H.O.P.E. ~ Hands-on Outdoor Place-based Education~ for Ecological Literacy is my pedagogical approach driven by experience in the field and classroom as both a scientist and environmental educator for over 20 years. I believe ecological literacy is a solution to understanding our role as global citizens and must be taught experientially and locally.

H.O.P.E. for Ecological Literacy...

1. *  is an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the environment with the entire curriculum by serving as a learning context for science, math, literature, history, writing, exercise, language and art. 
   

2. * engages head, heart and hands in reflective inquiry in nature, while cultivating the capacity to make connections using critical thinking and feeling.
   

3. * is  a culturally relevant pedagogy for everyone that begins with and builds on experience.
   

4. * is best taught place-based ~ in the environment where students live, work, play and study ~ to expand ecological relevance and serve as a starting point for global citizenship.
   

5. * connects schools with the natural and human communities that support them, promotes civic action and plants the seeds for environmental ethics.
   

One of my greatest joys in life is sharing  a love of nature and science with children and helping them develop ecological literacy. I define ecological literacy as a deep understanding that one is a member of a diverse ecological community. It is a method of analysis that draws conclusions based on personal experience in nature. It is the answer to connecting the ideology, intention and implementation of environmental ethics and begins with pedagogy sympathetic to humanity’s innate affinity with nature. Ecological literacy embodies the concept that all life is connected, all our actions have consequences and all our efforts are cumulative.

According to Professor David Orr, “What and how we teach our children shows them that they are either a part of or apart from the natural world” (p.12). H.O.P.E. for ecological literacy is my hope for developing a nurturing, compassionate, creative, earth-connected, proactive and perpetually inquisitive existence for all of my students fueled by the joy of accomplishment in their outdoor classroom.

Reference

Orr, David  W. ( 2004). Earth in Mind. Washington D.C., First Island Press.