Your Name and Title:
Bryan H. Nichols, MS, MA
Instructor/Ecologist/Science Writer
School or Organization Name:
University of South Florida
Co-Presenter Name(s):
N/A
Area of the World from Which You Will Present:
Florida
Language in Which You Will Present:
English
Target Audience(s):
Anyone interested in making their teaching, curricula or schools more sustainable.
Short Session Description (one line):
This session will introduce earth smarts, an educational framework for socioecological literacy based on justly maintaining quality of life.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
What is Earth Smarts?
Earth smarts, or socioecological literacy, is an educational construct that describes the qualities we need to justly maintain or improve our wellbeing in a changing world; a kind of street smarts writ large. It emerged from a construct analysis of concepts from a wide range of academic disciplines and professional reports.
The goal of earth smarts is to provide the capacity to adapt to environmental challenges, so in a just world, everybody should acquire earth smarts, picking up the components through their schooling, family, community and experiences. Earth smarts is actively developed with free, open-source software1 to encourage contributions from a wide range of experts and stakeholders, including under-served groups. Earth smarts is available under Creative Commons Attribution licensing, so it is freely available to any individual, school, or community that wishes to use or adapt it to their needs.
Why Is It Helpful?
Earth smarts offers a free, accessible tool to anyone designing curricula, making environmental literacy plans, conducting research, or simply hoping to improve the wellbeing and resilience of their community. It should be helpful to individuals, researchers, educators, and policy makers because it is:
- practical – it is made up of components designed to be learned, practiced and developed;
- nonpartisan – it is based on justice as fairness and a nearly universal human desire for quality of life;
- theoretically grounded, drawing on a range of disciplines;
- flexible enough to be useful across different cultures and ecosystems;
- flexible enough to encourage localization and creativity by teachers and parents;
- focused enough to be practical in modern, standards-based classrooms.
What are the Components?
Earth smarts incorporates new research from psychology, ecology, and education. It includes some key knowledge and thinking skills, but also includes affective and moral qualities that research suggests are essential to real learning beyond the classroom. To reduce political and cultural conflict, earth smarts does not prescribe behavior – it describes qualities that will facilitate a wide range of creative solutions.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
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