Project Wild Child

Lord Stirling Community School

Population

• New Brunswick, NJ

• Kindergarten

Trips

Trips

• To where?
• Rutgers Gardens / Helyar Woods

• Rutgers Ecological Preserve

• Hutchinson Memorial Forest

Goals

Goals

• Introduction to Nature

• Build empathy and understanding

• Long term survey

Cost

Cost

• $5,000

• Mostly for survey

How PLT Can Help

Project Learning Tree

Project Wild Child

• Foster stewardship ideals via Environmental education
• Expose students to the natural world via an immersive curriculum
• Encourage empathy and teamwork

• Promote stewardship through environmental education
• Curriculums that "use trees and forests as windows on the world"
• Help students acquire appreciation and tolerance of diverse viewpoints

Title

Races and Ethnicities

Ethnicities

Our school is composed predominantly of hispanic youth

Income

• 66% from low-income families

Income

IUCN Red List Index (RLI) of species survival

Extinction

• Species survival for mammals, birds, amphibians, reef-forming corals and cycads

• Coral species most at risk, while amphibians are most threatened group
• RLI value of 1.0 = Least Concern
• RLI value of 0 = Extinct
• Blue line indicates the overall RLI

Source:

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (n.d.)

Atmospheric CO2 Rise

Warming

• Shows rise in atmospheric CO2 over time
• Begins before the end of last ice age

• Planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees since the late 19th century (Industrial Revolution)

• Extremely likely the result of human activity since the mid-20th century

Source:

Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know? (2019)

The Solution?

Raise our children to be stewards of the land

Warming

Connection

Stewardship

• Instrumental in developing environmentally responsible behavior

• Fosters a sense of spirituality in early childhood
• Sense of self

• Compassion towards others

• Kinship with nature

• Explore the natural world– up close and personal -with others

• Repetition

Sources:

1) Zylstra, Knight, Esler, & Grange (2014)

2) Schein (2014)

Interpersonal Benefits

Mental Health

• Benefits
• Emotional

• Social

• Cognitive wellbeing

• Physical and immune system-related benefits

• Post-occupancy study
• Children exposed were "more relaxed, focused, engaged, cooperative, creative, nurturing and happy"than those not

Sources:

1) Zylstra, Knight, Esler, & Grange (2014)

2) Dennis, Wells, & Bishop (2014)

Nature Study Movement

USFWS (2013)

Historical

• Beginning of 20th Century

• Linked to the Progressive movement

• Educating pupils about science via exposure to their local natural world

• Goal: promote and expand conservation techniques

• Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold

Agriculture (2013)

Text Source:

Carney (2011)

Ridge and Valley Charter School

Our Model

• Kindergarten through eighth-grade

• Focused on teaching sustainability

• Actively bring their classes outside and allow pupils to engage in various means of play

• Curriculums that combine New Jersey learning goals with outdoor education

• Students continue to be highly involved in nature advocacy

Budget

Thank you

References

References

Schiller, A. (2019, September 24). New Brunswick, NJ Crime Rates. Retrieved from https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/nj/new-brunswick/crime.

Byrne, J. (2012). When green is White: The cultural politics of race, nature and social exclusion in a Los Angeles urban national park. Geoforum, 43(3), 595–611. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.10.002

Carney, E. (2011). Review Kevin C. ArmitageThe Nature Study Movement: The Forgotten Popularizer of America’s Conservation Ethic.(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009. vii 291 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95.). The Western Historical Quarterly, 42(1), 92–92. doi: 10.2307/westhistquar.42.1.0092

Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know? (2019, September 30). Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.

Dennis, J. S. F., Wells, A., & Bishop, C. (2014). A Post-Occupancy Study of Nature-Based Outdoor Classrooms in Early Childhood Education. Children, Youth and Environments, 24(2), 35. doi: 10.7721/chilyoutenvi.24.2.0035

How many species are we losing? (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/biodiversity/biodiversity/.

indicator-sea-level-rise-2018 - Indicator: Sea Level Rise - GCIS. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://data.globalchange.gov/report/indicator-sea-level-rise-2018.

Moore, J. B., Jilcott, S. B., Shores, K. A., Evenson, K. R., Brownson, R. C., & Novick, L. F. (2010). A qualitative examination of perceived barriers and facilitators of physical activity for urban and rural youth. Health Education Research, 25(2), 355–367. doi: 10.1093/her/cyq004

New Jersey Department of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nj.gov/education/modelcurriculum/.

Rigolon, A., & Flohr, T. (2014). Access to Parks for Youth as an Environmental Justice Issue: Access Inequalities and Possible Solutions. Buildings, 4(2), 69–94. doi: 10.3390/buildings4020069

Schein, D. (2014). Natures Role in Childrens Spiritual Development. Children, Youth and Environments, 24(2), 78. doi: 10.7721/chilyoutenvi.24.2.0078