This book demonstrates how educators and youth leaders can help middle-school and older students understand and define their relationship with nature and learn the importance of protecting the environment. Chapter 1 defines environmental ethics and discusses biocentric and anthropocentric ways of seeing the world. Chapter 2 examines how ecology, nature, technology, and human communities relate to environmental ethics. Chapter 3 classifies types of environmental ethics, discusses misconceptions and excuses that act as barriers to following an environmental ethic, and provides details on specific ethics: Wise Use movement, social ecology, ecofeminism, land stewardship or management, Leopold's ecological conscience or land as community, Schweitzer's reverence for life, deep ecology or bioregionalism, indigenous or traditional ethics, animal liberation and rights, and radical ecoactivism. Chapter 4 discusses strategies for teaching environmental ethics and values, criticisms of such education in public schools, instructional challenges, and authentic assessment of student progress. Chapter 5 describes 40 outdoor and classroom activities to help students develop an environmental ethic. The activities fall into 11 categories: thinking and discussion, solo reflection, writing, nature study, questioning, codes of ethics, role models, action projects, aesthetics, literature, and games. Chapter 6 lists environmental ethics curricular resources and periodicals. A bibliography contains approximately 180 references. An index and chapter notes are included. (SV)

Outdoor education, a general term describing the use of resources outside the classroom, has long been considered a method to improve student learning. This book aims to create a bridge between current school reform efforts and the field of outdoor education. Chapter 1 introduces the idea of outdoor education and relates several recent educational innovations to principles of outdoor education and experiential learning. These innovations include service learning, children's museums, constructivism, problem-based learning, technology-based authentic learning, concern for multiple intelligences, and interdisciplinary learning. Chapter 2 makes suggestions for planning outdoor learning, explains the role of the teacher in student-centered learning, and outlines a learning adventure model. Chapter 3 presents 12 outdoor adventures that move instruction into the community. Developed for grades 4-9, these adventures can be adapted to most ages or to nonschool situations or can be a model for teachers to develop their own thematic units. Each adventure contains an organizing problem, background, outcomes, activities, reflection questions, and performance assessments. Themes include observing people at the shopping center, community planning, local pollution problems, starting a democratic society, homesteading, seeing a city block, fast-food fact finding, scouting the school grounds, reading the cemetery "story," down the drain, nature in the city, and creating a nature trail. Appendices contain a brief history of outdoor education and experiential learning, an environmental inventory, bibliographies of related materials, guidelines for creating student-centered learning communities, related organizations, and 15 ways to study a place without a guide. Contains 44 references. (SV)

An instructional activity is educational only when students understand its meaning and apply their understanding to future situations. Outdoor educators seek to improve teaching and learning through direct experience but, if such experiences are to be meaningful and applied to life situations, teachers must help students learn from carefully planned and guided reflection sessions. This guidebook deals with the theory and practice of reflecting upon experiences, using examples from outdoor education. Chapter 1 discusses common uses of reflection in everyday life; findings of cognitive research related to reflection and experiential learning; six scenarios illustrating classroom uses of reflection; definitions of reflection, knowing, thinking, and learning; types of knowledge and the relationships among them; and contributions of Socrates, Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky on the educational value of reflection in a group setting. Chapter 2 describes how to lead a reflection session, focusing on planning, teacher facilitation skills, educational objectives, and developing a supportive climate in a caring community of learners. Other chapters outline questioning strategies and techniques, describe alternate reflection activities, and list questions for teacher reflection on this guidebook. This booklet contains 53 references. Appendices list various types of reflective and evaluative questions, and 47 additional resources: organizations, networks, colleges, books, and bibliographies. (SV)