Nature school: GreenLearning

When Johan Stroman was teaching high school in Vancouver, every fall he would help organize a day of learning in an outdoor setting. Then he started noticing a trend. “At graduation, it was the most consistent thing the students would mention,” Stroman says. “It was striking. Even kids that live in an urban setting: there’s a strong interest in the natural environment.”

Now, instead of leading classrooms of students out into the environment, Stroman spends his working hours trying to help other teachers bring more of the environment into their classrooms. As the B.C. director for GreenLearning – a web-based educational program designed by Alberta-based not-for-profit organization The Pembina Foundation, Stroman’s job is devoted primarily to giving teachers the tools they need to help the next generation make a difference to the planet.

It’s a job that might soon get a lot easier, with the provincial government throwing its support behind greening the curriculum. B.C.’s Ministry of Education published “Environmental Learning and Experience” last fall, with the aim of helping “B.C. teachers of all subjects and grades to integrate environmental concepts into teaching and learning.” It’s a huge leap forward, Stroman believes, with teacher workshops planned for the upcoming years to complement the guidelines.

Stroman remembers struggling to incorporate environmental values across the curriculum during his 12 years of teaching math and science to test-weary high-school students. That’s where GreenLearning – along with a number of similar programs, run by organizations such as Destination Conservation, Walking the Talk and Wild B.C. – step in with teacher support.
GreenLearning’s “E-cards,” for example, can be applied to the geography, language and visual arts curricula for grades 6 through 8. Students research different forms of energy production (geography), design an image (visual arts) and a message (language), and then e-mail the cards to their principal, a friend or the premier. The cards help teachers cover contemporary environmental issues while fulfilling the needs of the curriculum at the same time. They also relate sustainability to the everyday lives of students, rather than present it as a distant textbook topic.

While GreenLearning relies on the power of technology, Stroman admits that the most important tool for teaching the next generation about the environment is still the environment itself. “One of the most radical things you can do as a teacher is take your kids outdoors,” Stroman admits. “You’ll be doing something most people don’t do.”

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