Did you know that the heating and cooling of our buildings creates more greenhouse gas emissions than our cars and all transportation? That’s why earlier this year, we replaced our home furnace and also “earth conditioned” our yoga studio, which is able to be cooled or heated from the earth by a high efficiency geothermal heat pump. We are excited to have the opportunity to use this new technology, and we want to share our enthusiasm with you, so we have included some before and after photos of the 300 feet of tubing that comprises our geothermal loop field. It was quite a process! Our hope is that with creative minds and teamwork we can help create a a greener planet for future generations.
In our environmental education experience in the schools and past work with the National Science Foundation, we see how much children thrive in the natural world. There’s so much to do and see and explore! And it’s this curiosity and love that can set the stage for teaching about our natural world and working to protect it.
And its not bad for us adults either, as new research offers powerful evidence of the positive psychological and physical effects that come from merely spending time in natural environments.
These are the reasons why we’ve developed our new Eco-Education course that integrates movement and art with natural science, which we’ll be offering for the first time next month. The sub-title of the workshop is Love, Knowledge and Action – and this is what we hope to develop. Curiosity and Love for the environment, scientific Knowledge, which can lead to stewardship Action. For example, even our most urbanized cities have opportunities for children to connect with nature through school gardens as Farm to School advocate Michelle Ratcliffe so elegantly expressed at our recent Children’s Wellness Conference.
Eco-Education: Integrating Art, Movement & Natural Science will show participants how art education, simple schoolyard environment explorations and movement activities can be effectively integrated to serve diverse populations of students and address multiple intelligences less targeted in schools, including the naturalistic, kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal.
Workshop sessions will teach you how to
- Lead explorations and inquiries that draw out children’s innate curiosity and appreciation for their communities, animal life and the natural world as motivators for science education and environmental stewardship.
- Use accessible, everyday environments (e.g., schoolyards, parks, backyards) to teach art and basic natural science curricula.
- Teach lessons that develop an ecological perspective and understanding of our interconnectedness with the world and empower personal responsibility and engagement.
- Learn ways to incorporate artful expression into the classroom and into the child’s experience.
Using nature as the touchstone to develop imagination ands creative expression, you’ll be introduced to fun and effective class plans (K-12) and themes that support writing, literature, science and health education goals and standards.
This new workshop will be held October 2-3 at our new Still Moving Yoga Studio, here in Portland, Oregon.
Learn more about the course and how to register.
