This week for my semester internship with Stratford, I have focused on developing activity ideas for my final project- the two continuation learning activities. April also contacted me this week with an exciting update: the Environmental Education staff at Stratford met with a non-profit organization who created the “Green Machine”, a portable solar education display that can be used for outreach and onsite programs, and she hopes to incorporate the solar activity I develop for my internship with this new educational tool they have added to their center.

The Green Machine is essentially a simplified solar kit geared specifically toward K-12 learning and variations of this machine have been in the works for approximately 10-20 years. This newest model of the Green Energy Machine includes real-time data collection and in addition, the Green Machine is a fully functioning solar generator that can be used during events, outdoor programs, class sessions, etc.

This upcoming week I plan to visit Stratford to learn more about the Green Machine and the potential activities I could help generate to go along with it. Here is the one-page information flyer April passed along regarding the Green Machine and its purpose:

The Green Energy Machine — One Pager — Summer 2020

My recent focus for this internship has been diving into the origin of environmental education and how it has transformed throughout history. The importance behind this focus area of my internship is to fully understand the initial purpose of environmental education and what it has looked like historically, so that I can better understand how it needs to continue to progress in order to meet modern and future education goals. Interestingly, the idea of environmental education dates further back than one may expect.

The original emergence of the idea of environmental education can be traced back as early as the 18^th century. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher, was the first to suggest the importance of education focused on the environment in Emile: or, On Education (Stanford 2010). Similarly, there was another famous scholar who had a crucial impact on the start of environmental education. Philosopher Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-born naturalist, mimicked Rousseau’s sentiments a century later and encouraged his students to study the natural world rather than books (Berkeley 1996). Agassiz was a known biologist and geologist of his time, and his philosophical views centered around a scientific perspective.

For the first week of my internship I visited Stratford Ecological Center to observe the Wednesday morning Farm School program. The Farm School Program is a new program at Stratford, and it was developed to accommodate the COVID-19 pandemic and current restrictions. Farm School is solely an outdoor, full-day program for grade-level students that focuses on helping children learn from and experience nature. April Hoy, the lead environmental educator at Stratford, led the program which focused on learning about the basic jobs and tasks of working on the farm as well as tending gardens and exploring native habitats. The program began by discussing the biotic and abiotic factors of a farm ecosystem and how they are important to one another. After learning about the ecosystem, we examined the animals on the farm and checked off daily farm tasks that ensure the needs of the animals are being met. The morning portion of Farm School touched on other topics as well, like what native pollinators are and how we can support them.

Photo taken during Farm School Program in the orchard going to feed baby goats at Stratford Ecological Center.

This past week, April and I discussed further details for my final project. My initial project focus was too broad in focus and the primary purpose of our meeting this week was to narrow my focus to something more specific and manageable for the amount of time I will be on campus this semester. As a result, my condensed project focus is to develop hands-on outdoor continuation activities that children can do at home. These activities will be related to topics mentioned during Farm School or at similar programs and these activities will provide additional hands-on learning opportunities for children after the time of the program. The idea behind this project was also to find more ways in which Stratford can continue their mission during the unprecedented times of the pandemic. The activity topics I will be focusing on are backyard habitats for native pollinators and a solar-related activity. These topics are things April already touches on during her program but not topics that she has the opportunity to cover in-depth. These activities will also try to cover a deeper STEM-based curriculum as this is an ongoing goal for environmental education at Stratford.