Workshop 4: June 10, 2010
Fostering Environmental Leadership in K-12 Students
Workshop 4 was led by Kerry Schwartz (Arizona Project WET) and Margaret Wilch (Tucson High Magnet School). They focused on a four-pronged approach to revitalizing environmental education in K-12 schools: empowering youth, student development, community involvement, and teacher support. A central theme was the need to create opportunities for students to connect with nature, encouraging hands-on activities with real-world issues. The participants proposed to bring more resources into schools for this purpose by engaging businesses, agencies and the community with mentoring, internships, presentations and collaboration. They recognized a need for the community to value education more, particularly water-related education.