The Analysis and Development of an Environmental Education Curriculum for the Rosholt School District with Inservice for the Middle School

Abstract

This project was developed to improve environmental education at the Rosholt Middle School in Rosholt, Wisconsin through revising and operationalizing the environmental education curriculum. Rosholt is found in Central Wisconsin 23 miles from Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It is a small rural school district with a student population of 773. The Middle School enrollment is 175. This project reviewed existing environmental education for the district in 1993. It was found that the curriculum was incomplete and not being used by the Middle School teachers. Plans were made for the revision of the curriculum by the reviewer. Other curriculums were reviewed and studied. A new curriculum was developed and then approved by the Rosholt Board of Education in 1994. In November of 1994 an inservice was held with the middle school staff to help them understand the new environmental education curriculum and assist them in finding ways to implement it. Six teachers spent three and one-half hours discussing goals, philosophy, ethics, and the importance of environmental education. They also looked at some environmental education research and were given time to begin planning ways to infuse the new environmental education curriculum into their unit plans. Recommendations were made to: continue work on the activity portion of the curriculum, develop additional or different activities that would provide for more continuous programming in the area of environmental education, provide for more evaluation of the effectiveness of the curriculum, and to infuse the use of a new outdoor site into the curriculum.