Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 22
Restoration-Based Education: Teach the
Children Well
ELIZABETH MCCANN
Opportunities to “dig the earth” have become increasingly critical during this age
when young people often spend more time in front of a computer screen or video
game than outside. A corollary to this increasing interest in indoor activities is a de-
crease in the general public's ecological literacy, even as public participation in natu-
ral resource management issues has increased and the scientific complexity of such
concerns has magnified (Orr 1992; Bingle and Gaskell 1994; Nelkin 1995; Miller
1998). Understanding about the environment is declining, and a recent survey found
that adult environmental concern in the United States is at the lowest point in two de-
cades (Jones 2010). Although more than three in four Americans report they reduce
energy use, recycle, and buy environmentally friendly products, these numbers have
barely changed from a decade earlier (Morales 2010). Indeed, despite increased me-
dia and political attention focused on climate change, U.S. citizens are no more con-
cerned about that issue than they were ten years ago; only a very few consider the en-
vironment the most important concern facing the nation (Newport 2010). A National
Environmental Education and Training Foundation /Roper Survey (Coyle 2005) also
found America's environmental knowledge to be poor, with an alarming number of
adults believing outdated and erroneous environmental myths.
If our society desires an ecologically literate populace, conservationist and educa-
tor David Orr (1992) contends that interdisciplinary, firsthand experiences advanced
by environmental education (EE) professionals are key. He defines an ecologically
literate person as someone who “has the knowledge necessary to comprehend interre-
lations, and an attitude of care or stewardship . . . [with] the practical competence re-
quired to act on the basis of knowledge and feeling” (92). Orr's definition is compara-
ble to that held by proponents of “scientific literacy”—a concept that empowers all
people “to make better civic decisions, better personal decisions, and better decisions
on the job” (Eckman 1998, 7; see also Ramsey 2005). The American Academy for the
Advancement of Science's Project 2061 reflects these concerns. This initiative has
supported efforts to make science relevant to K-12 learners through educational ap-
proaches that move beyond textbooks to more hands-on approaches to science, such
as inquiry-based learning (Freedman 1998).
