An Integrated Curriculum for Educators
“Every child needs to hear:
You came out of the energy/ That gave birth to the Universe
It is your beginning.
You came out of the fire
That fashioned the galaxies:
It is alive within you”
Brain Swimme, Canticle to the Cosmos
COURSES
OPTIONS
This is an invitation to creative experienced educators
interested in Earth based curriculum. It is not a course to be learned,
but a structure for innovative educators to create their ideas together.
The structure for discussion will be similar to the format used in the
other courses: two weeks of home writing/thinking with some input. The
third week we post our ideas and then the fourth week we give helpful
comments to one another. It will be like a writing group for our ideas
to be shared. By the end of the course we will have previewed several
CD’s, written a brief outline of 1-3 years of curriculum, K-8,
and 1-3 years of the beginnings of a scope and sequence, K-8. We will
integrate best practices of the latest progressive schools. The purpose
of this discussion format is to stimulate new ideas and to create something
that has never been done before.
The following questions will be addressed in this discussion based study
1. How can we transform education so that it addresses the ecological
challenges of the 21st century?
2.What would education look like if it were taught within an integrating,
ecological context, a context of the entire history of the Universe,
including stars, planets, plants, animals and people?
3.What would an elementary school curriculum look with an Earth/Universe
based context?
4. How would the elementary school scope and sequence be designed?
5. What values and principles would be part of the curriculum?
This discussion is designed for educators who have had experience in
the classroom and want to be part of creating a transformative approach
for our schools and our children.
Primary Faculty
| Jean Edwards, M.A. earned her degrees at Occidental College, Univ of Cal at Berkeley, Cal State Northridge, and the Sophia Center. She has taught elementary grades for over 20 years, trained teachers, and developed a private kindergarten. She was the administative coordinator midwifing the first elementary school based on the principles of the Universe and Earth Literacy, the Ridge & Valley Charter School, in Blairstown, New Jersey. Jean's central mission now is the development of an integrated curriculum based on the history of the Universe for K-12 students while collaborating with other innovated educators. |  |
| Larry Edwards received
a Ph.D. in chemical-physics from Harvard
University. He has been on the faculties of the American
University of Beirut, the California
State University of Northridge, the California
Institute of Technology, and was a research associate at the
Jacques Cousteau Oceanographic Museum
in Monaco. Larry worked 17 years at the U.S.
National Science Foundation in Washington D.C. He is currently
on the faculty of the California Institute
of Integral Studies in San Francisco, Wisdom
University in Oakland, CA, and Genesis
Farm in Blairstown, NJ. |
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