Moorea C's Senior Project Blog

Project Title: Teaching Green: The Process of Creating an Environmental Curriculum for Lower Elementary Students BASIS Advisor: Miles Hansen Internship Location: NAU education classes in Prescott, Arizona Onsite Mentor: Dr. Alison Conant, Professor

Project Abstract

The majority of society can agree that learning the proper sentence structure or how to divide fractions are important topics to cover in school, but what about teaching additional complex and prevalent topics? Teaching students why recycling is crucial to sustaining a healthy planet or how climate change is impacting our world and society today is just as important as the general curriculum mentioned above. Teaching green is the process of including lessons surrounding environmental topics for students of all ages; even students in lower elementary grades. By implementing this type of curriculum into students' learning, they can further develop their critical thinking skills to be better prepared for future discussions about the environment. During my project, I will be researching the process of creating a curriculum and teaching young students about the environment, as well as working with my external advisor to gain a better understanding of the ins and outs of education. I will also conduct interviews with lower elementary teachers throughout California and Arizona who have experience teaching environmental topics to further learn about the full process of teaching these topics. Once I have gathered my information, I will be putting my skills to the test by creating my own environmental lessons and activities to teach to the 2nd and 3rd grade classes at BASIS Prescott.