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ERIC ED464819: The Right Tools for the Job: How Can Aquatic Resource Education Succeed in the Classroom?

Because of its bases in science and stewardship, aquatic resource education may be seen as a type of environmental education. The range of environmental education (EE) programs includes a huge variety designed for different groups and settings. This chapter takes the perspective of environmental education as it is done in the formal K-12 classroom situation, that is, with intact groups of individuals who are fairly homogeneous in terms of age and experience and have been assembled for the purpose of learning. Within that classroom the educational experiences are constrained by an existing system of practice and by methods of teacher preparation, both ingrained over many decades. What is acceptable to the classroom education system is structured by community mores and often supported inequitably across geographic regions. Change in classroom education comes at a glacial pace, and it is nearly always top-down and assessment-driven. By its definition, environmental education fosters the development of ecological knowledge, awareness of issues and how to solve them, and motivation to work toward environmental quality. A major goal is to build within learners and intention to act, which

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