Oksana Bartosh

Teaming Children and Elders to Grow Food and Environmental Consciousness

Fueled by concerns of a pending global crisis, environmental educators ask the question: How can we promote a responsible attitude and caring view of the planet among young people? Although nurturing an emotional connection with nature is a prominent theme and goal for environmentalists (Berry, 1987), little is known about how to translate environmental philosophies into education practice. To address this challenge we designed the Intergenerational Landed Learning Project, which brings together community elders, elementary students, and their teachers on an urban farm to explore how farming practices can be integrated with school curriculum to foster environmental knowing and care. In this article we provide empirical evidence that an intergenerational learning experience that involves working with the land can be powerful in promoting environmental concern and discuss the challenges we encountered in carrying out this initiative.

Improving Test Scores Through Environmental Education: Is It Possible?

The present research investigated the impact of environmental education (EE) programs on student achievement in math, reading, and writing by comparing student performances on two standardized tests for environmental education schools and schools with traditional curriculum. Quantitative analysis was used to evaluate the impact of the EE programs. The study indicates that schools with integrated environmental education programs outperform comparable “non-EE” schools on the tests. The authors believe that this exploratory research shows a pattern or trend between the level of implementation of environmental education and student achievement, which calls for more in-depth studies to investigate a correlate or cause-effect relationship.