Water Resources Research Act Program

Principal Investigators: Carla Schuk, Carla Schuk

Abstract: While environmental education has been designated as a component of Pohnpeis curriculum, it has never been made an instructional priority in the classroom. Because of this, Pohnpeis citizens have only minimal knowledge about their environment and the impacts of their actions on it. Pohnpei is faced with a number of environmental issues from the upland forest down to the coral reef. Deforestation and sedimentations effects on Pohnpeis drinking water are significant. Coastal water pollution, dredging, over-fishing are other problems that Pohnpei is currently facing. CSP sees the need to provide local teachers with tools that will integrate environmental education into the current curriculum in order to educate kids about the issues we have and possible solutions to help mitigate these issues. CSP is dedicated to filling that gap and providing a sustainable system of environmental education in Pohnpeis primary schools. CSP has developed an Environmental Resource and Activity Book (ERAB) for grades 1 through 8. The ERAB contains a resource guide for teachers, as well as activities that integrate information about Pohnpeis environment into curriculum subject areas. ERAB activities incorporate language arts, math, reading comprehension, visual arts, and science to enable teachers to cover environmental subject matter without creating increased curriculum requirements. About 30 percent of the activities deal with water and waste management. Through discussions with teachers and the Department of Education, it has been deemed impractical to try to teach environmental education as a new subject area. With this in mind, CSP designed the ERAB with environmental lessons and activities that will compliment various subject areas in existing school curriculum. The objectives of the ERAB project are; 1. To provide resources to teachers that will complement their curricula with messages of environmental awareness without creating new burdens and work demands 2. To develop in the youth an awareness and understanding of the environment and ecology of Pohnpei, fostering a sense of stewardship towards environmental protection. 3. To collect local teachers input for the ERAB and to produce a final draft for print 4. To train teachers in the use of the ERAB within the classroom in order to integrate environmental education into their current curricula. In the spring of 2006, CSP will form a task force of education professionals from the Department of Education and local teaching staff, to edit and produce a final draft of the ERAB. Participating teachers will pilot some of the activities within their classrooms to ensure that they have appropriate instructions and match the abilities of the students. This process will be followed by a series of teacher trainings in the summer of 2006 that will introduce the ERAB to teachers and provide them with an opportunity to practice using the activities. The teachers will participate in role-play to practice using the activities and lessons, as well as have an opportunity to ask any questions they may have. The three trainings will be divided by grade levels: (1) for teachers of grades 1-3; (2) for teachers of grades 4-6; and (3) for teachers of grades 7-8.