Environmental focus gives teachers insight
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River Parishes Community College recently held a workshop to assist area environmental science teachers enhance their curricula with interactive and Louisiana-relevant activities focused on teaching students to think critically about local environmental issues affecting them.
Nine high school environmental science teachers from Ascension, Iberville, St. James and St. John parishes attended the free, daylong workshop that focused on issues such as waste management, invasive species and urban expansion, Angela Turner, RPCC public information coordinator, said in a news release.
Activities included building a miniature landfill to safely contain waste and examining local maps and resources to plan for urban expansion with minimal negative impacts on the local environment, she said. All activities directly reflected Louisiana statewide requirements for environmental science curricula.
The environmental science teacher workshop is part of an RPCC grant and initiative to develop environmental science programs and awareness in the River Parishes and at RPCC, Turner said.
“Environmental science can be found in every science discipline,” Debi Graham, environmental sciences coordinator at RPCC, said. “This initiative not only promotes environmental science, but also illustrates that these are everyday issues that require different points of view to solve. The goal is to teach students how to think critically about environmental issues, not what to think.”
The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry facilitated activities from Project Learning Tree, the American Forest Foundation’s environmental education program that produces curriculum materials for students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grades.
The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on the preservation and restoration of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin’s ecosystem, trained teachers to take accurate water samples and test the samples for turbidity, dissolved oxygen, fecal coli form bacteria and pH, Graham said.
Both organizations provided materials for teachers to take back to the classroom and the option for in-class visits to assist with student education.
The Louisiana Chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association sponsored the breakfast and lunch for all participants.
Graham said the college hopes to hold other workshops like this one. It is also offering an introductory environmental science course in the spring.
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