January Discussion - Using Guidelines in Higher Education settings - Please Contribute | eePRO @ NAAEE
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January Discussion - Using Guidelines in Higher Education settings - Please Contribute

Fri, 2022-01-07 12:16

Do you use the Guidelines for Excellence in a higher education setting with students or colleagues? Are they incorporated into your course design? Do you have any assignments/projects that utilize the Guidelines; are you willing to share any of your assignment write ups here? Which set(s) of Guidelines do you utilize?

What other questions would you ask of this eePro Guidelines for Excellence regarding using the Guidelines in higher education setting? Please contribute to this discussion. :-)

Each month I will be posting a discussion question for this group. We welcome any and all discussion from everyone.

Fri, 2022-01-07 15:21

Nope but I'd love to hear how others are! I teach elementary science methods courses and feel like it might be 'standards overload' to introduce the Guidelines in addition to NGSS! I'd like to spend time understanding where the Guidelines and NGSS overlap so that I can use that as a starting point! Thoughts?

In reply to Kara Haas
Fri, 2022-01-07 15:49

Kara - I introduce the K-12 NAAEE guidelines to my preservice elementary teachers as a way to 1) boost environmental literacy for both teachers and students, and 2) to get ideas for integrating subjects, which is more doable for elementary teachers. I emphasize they are useful guidelines rather than required (i.e. tested) standards to avoid standard fatigue.

In reply to Sarah Johnson
Fri, 2022-01-07 15:54

I have infused the nonformal, K-12, materials, and professional development guidelines into the 3/4 core course progression for our graduate certificate and Masters Degree in EE. They are each useful in different ways for guiding student learning and shaping assessments.

Sat, 2022-01-08 11:23

Great question! I am interested to hear how others use these - there are so many great sets of guidelines and it's hard to know which to use first. This semester, I taught an environmental education service-learning course, where my students were leading 4-H nature clubs. Since they are students in the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, lesson planning was new for many of them. I used the Environmental Materials Guidelines for Excellence to guide them in designing lessons/instruction for their students.

In reply to Kara Haas
Tue, 2022-01-18 21:42

I really like using the Materials Guidelines for groups of formal educators as an introduction. I often frame it as "Image you are at a science conference and all these different organizations are handing out free science activities or science curriculum guides for free. How do easily determine which are best for your needs?"

Also check out Exploring Synergy: Environmental Literacy and the Next Generation Science Standards. It is designed to provide a series of matrices that help to articulate the linkages between the NGSS Framework and NAAEE's K-12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence (2019). So it wouldn't be an 'extra' but showing how NGSS and environmental ed are linked together.

Exploring Synergy: Environmental Literacy and the Next Generation Science Standards

In reply to Sarah Johnson
Tue, 2022-01-18 21:51

We have an EE Minor at NC State, and use the Professional Development Guidelines in the first and last course to help guide students on the skills they will be getting out of their classes, and other skills or knowledge they will gain from our state EE Certification program. They are also introduced to the Materials Guidelines in the intro course of the minor, and revisit it in the capstone course. We also dive into the Nonformal Program Guidelines in the capstone course as the students begin to work with the field placement supervisors. It is a really great way to scaffold the use and introduction of the different resources.

We also have students do a web-quest, including creating an eePRO account, and finding an eePRO group to join - as well as explaining why they choose that group.

In reply to Sarah Johnson
Tue, 2022-01-25 15:25

I use the K12 guidelines in my graduate level course, "Science Communication and Public Education," in the School of Forestry, Fisheries, and Geomatic Sciences. The course is intended for science majors to learn how to talk to the public about their research. During the second half of the course they have to create a hands on activity related to their research. In week 12 they are introduced to the guidelines. They have to read through the guidelines on Persuall and select a section most relevant to their work. After they read through this, they have discussion board post where they are continuing to edit their lesson plan:

Canvas Discussion Post: What is environmental literacy and why is it important (from the introduction to this week's reading)? How can your work contribute to environmental (or science) literacy? Select an NAAEE strand for your target audience and tell us which guidelines are appropriate for your lesson. Share an outline of the activity you would do with students...
I'm happy to share more information if anyone is interested.