Terry Kryzkowski, July 29, 2003
Infusion Improves Environmental Education at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln
Terry Krzykowski, a Wisconsin Rapids Science teacher at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School and December graduate from the UW-Stevens Point graduate program in Natural Resources diagnosed a lack of Environmental Education in her curriculum and decided to do something about it.
“Rapids had a strong science curriculum but it lacked coverage of the Wisconsin Environmental Education standards,” she says. Mrs. Krzykowski identified this shortcoming and set out to correct it.
As a project for her master’s degree, Krzykowski designed and implemented a plan to infuse EE into the Comprehensive Natural Science Curriculum at Lincoln High School and then to in-service other educators on the benefits of this infusion.
According to Krzykowski, “the staff and administration has been very supportive of my efforts and the kids have really embraced the concepts taught.”
Currently the state of Wisconsin mandates that environmental education be infused into K-12 classrooms but according to Krzykowski it is rarely being done.
“EE should be taught in all classrooms in the state and if other teachers’ classes embraced these lessons as enthusiastically as mine have I think there would be little hesitation to make the change to EE. My project is going very well,” Krzykowski states, “The students feel like they can really make a difference and have become involved in their learning both physically and emotionally.”
The first phase of Krzykowski’s plan was the creation and implementation of two long-term EE projects that focused on the study of air quality and exotic species introduction. The topic for the air quality study focused on the prevalence of lichens growing around the Wisconsin Rapids community. Lichens grow in three varieties in the area with each different species having a different tolerance to air pollution. When you find a lack of the most sensitive species of Lichens it can be an indication that you may have polluted air. According to Krzykowski, “The most sensitive lichens work much like a canary in a coal mine, when the canary or the sensitive lichens die you better start questioning the safety of the air”.
And what did the students find? “They (the students) found a healthy abundance of all three lichen types… we are experiencing good air quality at this point,” said Krzykowski.
The second long term project of Mrs. Krzykowski’s students involved the study of exotic species, namely the zebra muscle, a small clam-like mollusk that has invaded many area lakes and is disrupting the ecology of these ecosystems. “My students are preparing for the creation of monitoring equipment to monitor the spread of the zebra muscles in the Wisconsin Rapids area… this will be a great activity for them because this will make them feel like their work will really make a difference,” stated Krzykowski.
The second and final phase of Mrs. Krzykowski’s project will be the in-servicing of other CNS teachers on how to use these two projects to infuse environmental education into their curriculums. “The in-service is scheduled to take place at the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year and the feedback was so positive from the kids on these activities that my colleagues are really looking forward to learning about the use of these activities,” said Krzykowski.
After such a large undertaking one might think Mrs. Krzykowski would be taking it easy for a while but not quite. “I am teaching two different classes this year and can’t wait to bring in new EE activities into those curriculums as well… my kids just love the hands on learning involved with these lessons and seem to really be learning how to learn.” she said.
Finally, when asked what was the best thing to come out of this project, Krzykowski stated, “I believe I have helped to give my students the skills needed to be environmentally literate adults and excellent problem solvers. I am very proud of their hard work”.
Teachers interested in getting more information about the Masters degree program in environmental education at UW Stevens Point can contact Tim Byers, Program Coordinator at (715) 346-4176, tbyers@uwsp.edu
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