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July 6, 2009
Fertile ground for environmental education


Teachers Dierdre Watkins (left) and Ella Davis collect critters from Newton County’s Bear Creek as part
of a lesson in investigative learning. Participants in the 2009 Oxford Institute for Environmental Education, the teachers plan to take inquiry-based techniques they’ve learned back to Arabia Mountain High, Georgia’s first LEED-certified public school.

For 10 days this June, the Oxford College biology faculty taught 20 teachers from K–12 schools across Georgia and north Florida the basic principles of ecology, how to apply this knowledge to lesson plans, and how to develop their schoolyards for environmental education.

Now in its 18th year, the workshop has helped over 300 educators become more engaging teachers by experiencing science at the hands-on level. “Many participants have told us this has changed the way they teach,” says Oxford Biology Professor Eloise Carter.