Presenter: Armon Ashoubi − Environmental Studies
Co-Presenter(s): Riley Roefaro, Emily O’Brien, Kaylie Smith
Faculty Mentor(s): Meredith Jacobson, Katie Lynch
(In-Person) Oral Panel—Covering Covid
The COVID-19 lockdown has caused children to look at their iPads instead of their local environment, creating gaps in their outdoor education. Through a combination of field trips and in-class lessons, our leadership team brought environmental education to over 200 elementary students in Eugene. Our lessons worked to dismantle barriers that prevented students from fostering stewardship and discovering the magic of nature. Field trips included games that introduced students to focal species and animal senses. Students were also given individual journaling time, which connected person to place and encouraged deep reflection on the surrounding environment. Our desire to create awareness and knowledge of the environment and its associated problems has been met. The outcomes of our lessons show that students built a relationship with the outdoors and established a sense of care toward nature. Students showed empathy for wildlife by constructing fairy houses and removing invasive species from the area. We also saw students identify motivating species and distinguish between various habitats within an ecosystem. Throughout lessons this term, we made a difference in our community while strengthening our own environmental education skills. In this technological era, it is important for youth to have access to the outdoors so that care and concern for the world can be established. With this, there is hope the advocation of nature will increase and create positive environmental action.