2016 firestarter panel discussion: engaging with higher education

2016 Firestarter Panel Discussion: Engaging with Higher EducationHow do we strengthen EE partnerships to benefit the field with the new thinking, research, and study happening in Colorado’s higher education institutions?

Panelists:Melanie Armstrong, Assistant Professor, Environment & Sustainability, MEM Public Lands Coordinator, Western State Colorado University

Corrie Colvin-Williams, Children, Youth & Environments Program, Community Engagement, Design and Research Resource Center, Environmental Design Program, University of Colorado Boulder

Jamie Dahl, Experiential Learning Coordinator, Colorado State Forest Service and Warner College of Natural Resources

Katrina Marzetta, PhD Candidate, Science Education, School of Education & Human Development, Instructor, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Denver

Christine Moroye, Associate Professor, Educational Foundations and Curriculum Studies, University of Northern Colorado

Kay Phelps, Assistant Professor, Graduate and Undergraduate Science and Arts Integration Education, Fort Lewis College

Moderator: Bryan Wee, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences University of Colorado Denver

Melanie Armstrong, Assistant Professor, Environment & Sustainability, MEM Public Lands Coordinator, Western State Colorado University

Melanie is where she is now because she worked for the national park service

during summers while in grad school. Her current job, Public Lands Coordinator,

is the perfect combination of her value of academics and her value for EE.

Melanie is interested in: Will public lands be our new universities? National parks

could be where students go to apply what has been learned in online courses.

The interaction of landscapes and places carries into higher ed as a place of

learning and a place of community building.

In her career, Melanie has been really looking at the value of a masters

environmental management program, weighing the benefits to the cost and the

salaries students will make upon gradating.

Jump to 36:26 in the video

Corrie Colvin-Williams, Children, Youth & Environments Program, Community Engagement, Design and Research Resource Center, Environmental Design Program, University of Colorado Boulder

Being outdoors was a part of childhood and is a part of her family. Corrie has a background in

geology and geography and environmental resource management. During her masters had a life

changing experience teaching where she realized there is a population of people who didn’t have the

same opportunities she had growing up to be outdoors all the time. She learned that foundations in

childhood really influence who we become as adults. Corrie worked in environmental consulting

which led her to graduate work. She studies significant life experiences and looking at how effective

EE programs are.

After grad school she founded Blue Lotus - “The company was born out of a disconnect between

practice and research. We both came from research and environmental education but we also had

experience as practitioners… our goal with Blue Lotus is to really help serve as a bridge for that

disconnect, to help organizations have access to the research and literature.” Corrie is a co-Owner of

Blue Lotus Consulting & Evaluation where she specializes in evaluating and capturing the "stories" of

environmental education.


Jamie Dahl, Experiential Learning Coordinator, Colorado State Forest Service and Warner College of Natural Resources

Jamie had a creek in her backyard growing up and was a girl scout. She went to

school for forestry in Pennsylvania, and is now a hard core conservationist and

believes in the wise use of the land. Jamie is currently in a phd program in

education, she is hoping to nurture higher ed so students have interdisciplinary

and practice experiences in school. Through her position at the forest service she

works as liaison to CSU and to expose students to forestry in a hands on way.

Hope to achieve: Light the spark – all natural resource professionals are

environmental educators


UPDATE: Jamie has since moved from Colorado to Ohio where she continues advocating environmental education and experiential learning as the Assistant Director, Career and Leadership Development Center in Patton College of Education at Ohio University.

Katrina Marzetta, PhD Candidate, Science Education, School of Education & Human Development, Instructor, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Denver

As a child Katrina’s grandparents had a wonderful backyard where she got to experience

nature. She often wondered why do some people care about the environment and some

do not? This led to her trail of thought: How to teach ALL students about the environment?

What do we consider the environment? Katrina now focuses on looking at how placed

based education can really impact the way children learn about climate change. Katrina

really focuses on connecting how the environment impacts students’ lives, their struggles,

and their personal environment.

Katrina’s hope for the future: To get students involved in environmental education research

that can impact the natural environment and their own personal environments.


UPDATE: Katrina has since graduated from her doctoral program and is now an Evaluation Specialist at the University of Colorado Denver Evaluation Center.

Christine Moroye, Associate Professor, Educational Foundations and Curriculum Studies, University of Northern Colorado

Christine used to teach high school but was “disheartened by the lack of ecologically minded

curriculum”. She went back and got her phd at the University of Denver and studied the practices

of ecologically minded teachers in the humanities and how they orchestrated their practice. She

noticed that their environmental beliefs came out in the classroom, even when they did not

think they were. Christine believes that environmental ed should be lesson integrated.

Current research: studying teachers plan their lessons. Christine gives teachers broad ideas

around ecological mindedness and asks them how they can incorporate these ideas into their

curriculum. Teachers have told her that the lesson plans they have created around these ideas

have been pushing the children to connect to their local communities.

Christine is also interested in the connection between what we think of as what is good for

education and what is good for the environment and how do these two overlap?

Jump to 12:20 in the audio

Kay Phelps, Assistant Professor, Graduate and Undergraduate Science and Arts Integration Education, Fort Lewis College

When Kay was 5 her grandma came to come to live with them. Her grandma kept binoculars and

spiral notebook on her at all times for her bird watching. Kay Climbed and hiked with father and

now her own children are hikers. Her children, like her, have a reverence for the outdoors and

natural world around them. Kay was a teacher for 31 years in K-8 classrooms and thought it seemed

natural to teach environmental stewardship.

Then, she went back for her doctorate and became a professor. Since teaching higher ed she has

been surprised and worried that so many of her students are uncomfortable talking about the

environment and going outside in the natural world. Kay believes that it is essential for children to

have the opportunity to develop healthy relationships with the natural world, which comes from

spending time outside. For her, partnerships are a must as it is a small department and college.
