I Hear to Forget

I See to Remember

I Do to Understand

Noel McInnis’s theory of learning, particularly in regards to environmental education, forms the basis for our conception of our project in Hamilton Central School for the 4^th grade class. Children at the 4^th grade level, ages 9-10, best learn using their five senses. Doing, feeling, and emotions generate the best learning environment. To maximize these utilities among children, we designed our project to include interactive projects that would enable kids to do, to feel, and to experience emotion and reaction. Although we are limited in an hour session to a class of 20 students (roughly), we can be best effective by initiating projects that will provoke thought through physical and mental participation.

While we realize the limitations to this project, we were determined to focus on how to best convince children that their attitudes matter in their actions; to cultivate an environmental ethic and an environmental literacy, it is important to develop the notion that attitudes and values matter. Education’s primary goal should not be dissemination of information and preparation for future careers. Rather, education should facilitate independent thought and teach people that attitudes behind actions matter.

Environmental literacy refers to learning how to live in harmony with the environment, focusing on the interaction of natural systems and human systems. Environmental ethic is a human value system promoting the survival of the ecosystem, where people develop a sense of responsibility for the natural world. Values and attitudes play the primary role in creating that ethical system, and if developed properly, will carry over in one’s relationships with other humans as well.