New Horizons for Learning's Electronic Newsletter

Vol. III No. 5 * March/April, 1998

links were valid through June 1998

Contents

IconVisit the Building's New Grounds and Gardens
Welcome to the March-April issue of New Horizons' Online Journal. In this issue we invite you to take a walk in the newest area of the Building, our Grounds and Gardens, focused on constructing learning through environmental education. It is spring here, and this area is just coming into bloom. Like all gardens at this time of year, it is a work in progress. It may be a little muddy and not all the plants are visible, but the garden is taking shape rapidly.

We open the Grounds and Gardens with an area dedicated to action projects and learning. We have framed a process to follow that is a compilation of action project resources, notes, and experience gathered over the last fourteen years of work with teachers, students, and educators at environmental and community organizations and in government who are learning through environmental action projects.

The process is a step-by-step way for an individual student, group of students, classroom, entire school or community to explore local environmental issues. It is designed to help young people understand concerns about the environment, inspire them to develop their own environmental ethic, and to empower them to take responsible action in support of their beliefs. We hope to empower young people around the world by encouraging them to not only envision a green and peaceful planet, but to ACT on that vision.

The content in the Grounds and Gardens is linked to related resources in the Building and on the Internet. Some materials are still in development, and some will be added as we begin to get feedback from students and teachers who use the materials. We will also be linking to student and teacher-built websites that demonstrate this kind of learning, and plan to offer a distance learning course in the future based on this subject.

We hope you will use and distribute the materials gathered here, and we welcome any additions, examples, experiences and stories. No matter the season we are always willing to add new things, propagate and divide where necessary.

Several articles in this issue were gathered in support of the Grounds and Gardens project. You will notice a focus on the Naturalist intelligence, Howard Gardner's eighth identified intelligence, both because there has been a great deal of interest in this new addition to his theory of Multiple Intelligences and because it fits in with the focus of Grounds and Gardens.

Icon Children Can Make a Difference --Using a Problem Solving, Action Oriented Approach to Environmental Education Micki McKisson Evans
Micki McKisson Evans has worked extensively in the field of environmental education and as a classroom teacher. Drawing on research by educators around the world, she suggests that project-based, action oriented environmental education emphasizes life skills that students will continue to use in future work and throughout their lives. Micki has seen her students grow through encouraging community involvement and social responsibility. Her students have learned how to create positive change in their community. They become empowered as learners and as a voice in the world while gaining academic skills essential to the workplace of tomorrow.

IconThe Jason Project: Out of the classroom into the real world
An interview with Gray Thompson of Media Arts on the Jason Project, a hands-on learning opportunity for children and teachers in grades 4-8. The Jason Project is exciting real-science, real-time environmental education, an action project that takes advantage of the latest technologies to open up classrooms and take them away from static textbooks and lectures. The goal of the Project is to spark a lifelong interest in science and the natural environment.

Icon Learning and Teaching Through the Naturalist Intelligence Maggie Meyer
Exploring and learning through the Naturalist intelligence is more important today than ever before. Teacher Maggie Meyer observes that today's children do not have the freedom their parents did to roam and explore freely. Exploration of the natural environment is adding depth to children's learning while giving them experience in problem solving, cooperative learning and collaboration, use of new technologies, and more. She shares her experience with sixth graders who are meeting state standards for mastering essential learnings outside the traditional classroom box.

IconThe Eighth Intelligence Leslie Owen Wilson
In an excerpt from her upcoming book, Leslie Wilson reflects on the eighth intelligence identified by Howard Gardner. What does the naturalist intelligence look like? How can classroom teachers support and encourage children to develop their gifts as explorers of the world around them?

Icon Why teachers are drawn to using Multiple Intelligence Theory in their classrooms Leslie Owen Wilson
Multiple Intelligences theory has taken hold in classrooms across the United States because it helps educators meet the needs of many different types of learners easily, and because it reflects teachers' and parents' deeply rooted philosophical beliefs that all children possess gifts and that part of the most important mission of schools is to foster positive personal development. Teachers who use MI theory report that they understand human patterns, human diversity and human learning at better, deeper, and more comprehensive levels.

Icon Multimedia Technology and Children's Development
A Report on Child Research Net Symposium in Tokyo, Japan, January 1998 Dee Dickinson
Dee Dickinson reports on the exciting first international symposium of Child Research Net entitled Evolution of Child Development in the Multimedia Environment held in Tokyo, Japan in January, 1998. Speakers and discussions raised a number of questions about the role of multimedia technologies in the growth and development of young children. The participants will continue to discuss these issues. Your participation is invited in the dialogue -- we hope you will send us e-mail with your insights.

New on the Bulletin Board:

This month the Bulletin Board has a new look. We've categorized the listings and have added a number of new announcements. Look for an invitation to view the first fully live and interactive underwater broadcast of a scientific expedition by the JASON Project. Read more about this innovative program in the interview in this issue.

The Northwest Regional Education Laboratory has just released a report on what research tells us about how children learn to read. They also plan a conference for Middle Schools that focuses on connecting community-based learning to the classroom and student achievement. A state by state report on gains in education reform has also been published by the National Education Goals Panel. The Hitachi Company has produced a guide to multicultural resources, and the U.S. Department of Education has established a new National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities.

Futurists will be interested in a planned series of conferences and symposia being developed by the Foundation for the Future.

New in the Humor Lounge
  • Who Says Two Wrongs Aren't Right"

  • How to Write Gooder

     

  • Internet Wisdom

  • Real Signs

  • Look! Up in the Sky!

Have You Seen . . .
Links to announcements, interesting reading and great resources.

Go to a list of New Horizons for Learning's Journals

We welcome your feedback and comments!
Please drop us a note at: info@newhorizons.org

Copyright © 1998 New Horizons for Learning, all rights reserved.

http://www.newhorizons.org
E-mail: info@newhorizons.org

For permission to redistribute, please go to:
New Horizons for Learning Copyright and Permission Information