Earth Partnership for Schools
EARTH PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOL FACILITATING CENTERS
The Arboretum's Earth Partnership for Schools (EPS) program works with interested partners to expand the program on a regional basis.
To best ensure localized support to K-12 teachers, students, and schools involved with schoolyard restoration-education and native plant garden projects, "EPS Facilitating Centers" have been established through support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Wisconsin's Improving Teacher Quality ESEA Program, University of Wisconsin Baldwin Idea Endowment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and private donors.
These EPS Facilitating Centers are designed to provide regionalized on-going support to participating schools in Wisconsin and beyond.
Click on the organizations below to learn more about the programs and activities they offer to area schools interested in ecological restoration, environmental education and schoolyard learning.
Wisconsin EPS Facilitating Centers
Southeastern Wisconsin-Milwaukee Facilitating Center
Northern Wisconsin Facilitating Center
Western Wisconsin Facilitating Center
Standing Cedars Land Conservancy
Philadelphia Community Farm
University of Wisconsin-Stout
National EPS Facilitating Centers
Dyck Arboretum of the Plains, Hesston, KS, The Kansan article
Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, St. Louis, MO
Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center
Earth Partnership for Schools - Chicago Partnership, Chicago, IL
Institute for Applied Ecology, Corvallis, OR
Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis-Center for
Earth & Environmental Science, Indianapolis, IN
Carthage College Department of Education, Kenosha, WI
Return of the Natives, Watershed Institute, CSUMB, Seaside, CA
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of TX-Austin, Austin, TX
JCPS Gheens Academy, Louisville, KY
Southeastern Wisconsin-Milwaukee Facilitating Center
Contact:
Beth Fetterley, Director of Education, Urban Ecology Center
Riverside Park, 1500 E. Park Place
Milwaukee, WI 53211
e-mail: bfetterley@urbanecologycenter.org
Web site: www.UrbanEcologyCenter.org
The Urban Ecology Center (UEC) is a non-profit, neighborhood-based, community center that has been associated with the Earth Partnership for Schools Program since 1997.
Located in Milwaukee's historic Riverside Park, UEC provides environmental science programs to the neighborhood schools, promotes environmental awareness in the community, preserves and enhances the natural resources of Riverside Park, and protects the Milwaukee River.
This historic park was well groomed and popular for seasonal activities in the early 1900's. As pollutants accumulated behind a dam in the Milwaukee River, Riverside Park lost its appeal for recreation and became a hot-spot for crime. In 1991, neighbors pulled together to save the park from both crime and development by forming a nature center.
Now through UEC activities and programs, over 30,000 people visit the park annually, crime is significantly reduced and the ecosystem is being revitalized. Students and teachers from 22 neighborhood schools explore the ecology of their urban wilderness using UEC 's K-12 science curriculum and outdoor classroom for hands-on learning. In addition, UEC provides a space for community clubs, events and outings such as hiking, climbing, canoeing and kayaking.
UEC continues to be an integral part of the community and local restoration efforts made possible by their devoted staff, volunteers, students, teachers and community leaders, as well as many donations and grants. In 1999-2000 and 2005, EPS held summer institutes for teachers at UEC that trained 63 teachers in 18 Milwaukee schools who have reached approximately 1100 students annually. EPS continues to collaborate with staff to support native gardens as outdoor classrooms for those schools involved in the summer institute.
Northern Wisconsin Facilitating Center
Contact(s):
Becky Brown, Ph.D., Visiting Associate Professor, Northland College
e-mail: bjbro-wn@centurytel.net
Ted May, Ph.D., Environmental Education Consultant
e-mail: tmay@cheqnet.net
Established in 2001, the Northern Wisconsin Facilitating Center is the newest partner of the Earth Partnership for Schools Program and is associated with the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College.
Northland College, an outstanding environmental liberal arts college located in Ashland, Wisconsin, was established in 1906. The College's Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute empowers citizens to be good stewards of the environment and facilitates solutions to environmental problems through education, research and citizen involvement.
The Northern Schoolyard Restoration program offers local K-12 schools information on how to restore and maintain forests, wetlands, and grasslands native to northern Wisconsin. The program is designed to help schools build rain gardens, butterfly gardens, and forest habitats. Project staff provides education about native plants and integrated curriculum related to school yard restoration.
In addition, College efforts are underway to restore native landscapes on campus, develop educational materials, and coordinate native plant programs, including plant sales, seed collecting and native plant propagation. In addition to working closely with seven schools pursuing schoolyard restoration projects, the EPS Northern Wisconsin Facilitating Center plans and implements continuing education courses for regional educators.
The Northern Wisconsin EPS Facilitating Center's efforts include indirect and direct educational support to approximately 53 teachers from 21 schools (13 school districts) reaching approximately 700 students annually through various aspects of restoring school sites as outdoor classrooms.
Western Wisconsin Facilitating Center
The Western Wisconsin EPS Facilitating Center is a joint effort of University of Wisconsin-Stout Biology Department and Standing Cedars Land Conservancy/Philadelphia Community Farm.
Since 1997, Earth Partnership for Schools has partnered with the Western Wisconsin Facilitating Center to offer a series of summer institutes for teachers at UW-Stout, training over 80 teachers from 30 schools (20 school districts) who reach about 1600 students annually.
In addition to assisting with EPS programming held at the UW-Madison Arboretum and offering on-going support to regional schools, this Facilitating Center also extended EPS programming through the STAR Academy in 2005, reaching another 10 teachers from 3 area schools. They have a Web site that highlights EPS activities in the area at: http://faculty.uwstout.edu/bomarc/EPP/epp.htm
Standing Cedars Land Conservancy
Contact:
Rick Hall, M.S., Education Coordinator
P.O. Box 668
Osceola, WI 54020
e-mail: pcomfarm@centurytel.net
Web site: http://www.StandingCedars.org
Standing Cedars Community Land Conservancy is a non-profit organization that has formed a unique public-private partnership of local citizens, community groups, and public agencies. It provides a model of sustainable local community building as a basis for long-term stewardship and protection of biological and cultural diversity within St. Croix Valley and Western Wisconsin communities.
Since 1994, over $2.5 million has been raised to protect more than 1500 acres of undeveloped woodlands, bluff lands, wetlands, and farm land in a Farm and River Greenway along more than 5 miles of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. Community volunteers, including hunters, farmers, students, neighbors and nature enthusiasts, are beginning restoration and management efforts.
Web site: http://www.Philadelphiafarm.com
Philadelphia Community Farm (PCF) is a non-profit, community-based organization in the St. Croix Valley and has been working to restore health and vitality to people, animals, plants, and the Earth since 1989. It includes people with special needs in its community life and work. Philadelphia Community Farm provides in-depth, meaningful experiences in nature for youth and adults. Through its Community-supported Agriculture (CSA) project and Cedar Bend Folk School, PCF involves individuals, families, schools, and community groups in environmental education, agricultural experiences, and community building efforts.
As a non-profit conservation organization, PCF serves as a catalyst, incubator, and training ground for rebuilding sustainable rural communities. Since 1990, 60 interns and apprentices, and each year more than 1000 children, youth and adults have learned about growing food, protecting the environment, and sharing life and work with differently-abled people. PCF also partners with Standing Cedars in creating educational programs like Earth Partnership that are being developed with area schools.
Contact:
Chuck Bomar, Ph.D., Professor,
UW-Stout Department of Biology
Menomonie, WI 54751
e-mail: bomarc@uwstout.edu
UW-Stout is a long-standing, highly reputable institution of higher education. This institution was established by the former Wisconsin civic leader, James Huff Stout, in 1891. Since then UW-Stout has remained true to its mission of providing educational excellence, providing a wide range of programs that lead to professional careers.
Its many programs are presented through a "hands on-minds on" approach to learning by combining theory, practice and experimentation. Just recently UW-Stout began a program in Broadfield Science Education.
Dr. Chuck Bomar has been directly involved in the Applied Science program, engaging undergraduates in the natural sciences. As faculty in the UW-Stout Biology Department, Dr. Bomar's research involves comparing remnant and restored/reconstructed prairies. His primary method of comparison uses grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae). He is particularly interested in developing an ecological time-line for grasshoppers in Wisconsin prairies, to better determine which grasshopper species are truly prairie dependent. Bomar is the author of numerous peer reviewed publications, and co-author of the Guide to the Grasshoppers of Wisconsin, available through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/es/science/publications/ss1008_2005.htm