March 28, 2001

WKU Center Provides Environmental Education Resources,
Brings Science And Teacher Education Together

Bowling Green, Ky. - When opportunity knocked for aspiring math teacher Terry Wilson, he opened the door on a new career: environmental education.
"I wanted to be a high school math teacher," Wilson said. But when his Ohio school started an Outdoor Education Program, Wilson was asked to teach outdoor classes.

"I got really excited about it," he said.

That excitement has continued for nearly 30 years. Wilson has been director of Western Kentucky University's Center for Mathematics, Science and Environmental Education since 1989 and is president-elect of the North American Association for Environmental Education.

"The environmental education field exploded and the opportunities moved from one thing to another," said Wilson, who earned his bachelor's degree at Ohio University and master's and doctoral degrees at Ohio State University.

As director of the CMSEE, Wilson oversees the program designed to encourage the collaboration of educators, scientists and the public on issues related to science, math and environmental education.

The center, which was established in 1983, is a collaboration between Western's education and science colleges. "This partnership nurtures the relationship between experts in different fields and brings people together in an interdisciplinary way," Wilson said. "Environmental education is more of an umbrella."

For example, he said, recycling is more than an environmental science issue. It is a social and educational issue that requires math and communication skills to resolve.

The center provides professional development opportunities for teachers, training for students, creation of curriculum and other materials for schools and agencies and coordination of environmental education for schools, businesses and agencies.

"Our society has embraced the need to have everybody understand the importance of the environment," Wilson said.

In Kentucky, he said, "we've been able to connect what we want do with environmental education onto the state's education reform movement which emphasizes hands-on, real world learning."

Even though many Kentucky residents attended schools that didn't emphasize environmental education, one poll shows that 96 percent of parents want environmental education in the schools now, he said.

Wilson was a member of a task force that created "Land, Legacy and Learning," a master plan for environmental education in the state. The plan's recommendations include improving environmental educational programs by training educators, teaching children, promoting environmental literacy and establishing regional education centers.

"In a lot of ways, Western is ahead of the game," Wilson said.

Among the agencies that have provided funds for education, training, workshops, seminars or curriculum development are the Kentucky departments of education, agriculture, fish and wildlife; U.S. Department of Education; Environmental Protection Agency; Tennessee Aquarium; Tennessee Valley Authority; Kentucky Rural Water Association and the state Division of Water.

NASA's Project NOVA (NASA Opportunities for Visionary Academics) is helping fund development of a course that will help elementary education majors learn more about teaching science. The interdisciplinary program will bring science educators from Ogden College together with teacher educators from the College of Education to enhance the learning opportunities for children, Wilson said.

This summer the CMSEE will offer two workshops for teachers.
"Field Experiences in Environmental Education" is scheduled for June 23-29 at Land Between the Lakes. The workshop will use LBL as a learning laboratory to increase teachers' understanding of the natural and cultural world and how to translate that knowledge to students.

"The state Department of Education is saying let's put more emphasis on helping people with the content and how to teach this content," Wilson said.

"The River: A Resource for Improving Math and Science Content" is scheduled July 9-13 at Mammoth Cave National Park and will show 23 teachers how to do water quality monitoring and how to determine the environmental health of streams and rivers.

'"The River' is the focal point for learning math and science in new ways," Wilson said.

For information on the workshops or other programs offered by the Center for Mathematics, Science and Environmental Education, contact Terry Wilson at (270) 745-4424.

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