The University of New Orleans is taking advantage of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant that is allowing the school to better provide environmental education training to K-12 teachers through its Mississippi River Delta Institute.
The institute, which is a partnership with
the Center for Global Environmental Education and the Meraux Foundation, allows teachers to gain hands-on field experience in the science of the
Mississippi River watershed, including its ecosystems, why the area is
experiencing land loss, and the challenges of working to reverse that trend.
“Human beings are disconnected from their
environment, and getting people to learn about the world via their environment
is a way to get them more connected,” science education program director for
UNO’s Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences Dinah Maygarden said. “We
want teachers to understand how they can teach good stewardship.”
The teachers’ training includes time at the Arlene Meraux River Observation Center at St. Bernard Parish, the UNO’s Coastal Educational Research Facility and the urban water management facility at Arabi’s Maumus Center. In addition to working in the field in New Orleans, some teachers will travel to Minnesota for further training from the Center for Global Environmental Education on the upper Mississippi River.
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