School District of Lee County

Florida Gulf Coast University's "Colloquium" -- Course titled "A Sustainable Future."

Master Naturalist program

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Young students and the outdoors.

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

More than 30 years ago, Florida educators in Lee County began what would become one of the nation's first environment education programs in a public school. And according to Bill Hammond, one of the educators involved in that early effort, step one was to get students out of the classroom...

"As a young science teacher, I thought it was important to get our kids out into the community and see how natural systems worked and how the cultural systems worked... how a community is planned and where the sewage water went or didn't go..."

Then, equipped with a school bus that had been converted to a mobile laboratory, the program grew...

"Kids were doing water testing on the Caloosahatchee and everywhere in Southwest Florida. In fact, that baseline data is still used by EPA as some of the earliest data collected on the Caloosahatchee River, and they cite that data as a beginning place for reference."

Now, more than three decades later, thousands of students have passed through the environment education program in Lee County schools...

This actually happened before Earth Day in 1970. So Lee County actually helped to define environmental education nationally, as well as being one of the very first programs in the entire country."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. We're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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An environmental university.

In the 70s and 80s Florida's population continued to grow -- especially on the Southern Gulf Coast -- and plans began for what would become the 10th state university. According to Acting Provost Jack Crocker what has become Florida Gulf Coast University, had at its inception, a mission to focus on the environment.

"...that students would have an ecological perspective... that ecological literacy would be one of the outcomes that a graduate of Florida Gulf Coast University would have."

The University's location -- in a previously undeveloped area -- served the environmental mission well...

"It actually made the campus itself a perfect laboratory for what was to become the curricula for the University."

But equally important was the University's decision to create an environmental course that all students would take as a requirement for graduation..

"It's an eye-opening, mind-opening experience that we're finding. And I would be willing to be that five years from now -- as we're doing surveys of students -- ten years from now, that those surveys will show that this course will frequently be cited as one of the most memorable experiences a student's had."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. We're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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Training for eco-tourism.

Much of the environment education and information in Florida comes from private sources: tour guides, docents and tourist attractions. But how accurate is their information and what are visitors really learning? Marty Main is organizing the University of Florida's master naturalist program, as a way of standardizing information about South Florida

"The training program is going to be designed to train people to act as or to serve as interpretive naturalists. And it'll have both the ecological aspects but also the human dimensions aspects."

And because so many people receive the messages that these operators offer, assuring valid information will have an impact...

"The information these folks provide to visitors -- both residents and tourists -- will help develop a greater appreciation for what we have here."

Main says the master naturalist program will provide a mixture of how natural systems work along with some fun Florida info

"We have a special place here. And I hope this program will give more people a sense of ownership, and at the same time, provide some real high-quality information."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. We're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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Recognizing the Florida difference.

As institutions and organizations provide environment education in Florida, they agree that it is Florida's difference that makes the education both challenging and necessary. Southwest Florida educator Bill Hammond helped establish one of the nation's first public school environment programs in Lee County...

"South Florida is tropical... It's a little finger that sticks out that's different from the rest of the places. The basic principles apply, but the specifics don't. It's like watching a baseball game: When you're watching a Japanese team, you can understand the concepts but you probably don't know any of the players."

Marty Main with the University of Florida is developing a master naturalist program to celebrate Florida's difference..

"People from all over the world recognize that... and one of the things that foreign tourists want to see is the Everglades... They've heard about it. And they want to see a cypress swamp...They recognize this, and so do people from the United States as well.".

And at Florida Gulf Coast University, acting provost Jack Crocker says because of Florida's difference, a course on the environment must reach well beyond plants and animals...

As we treat it ecologically, we're talking about the social world, the economic world, political... All of those influences... So the course is like an ecosystem, where you're not an isolated factor out there."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. We're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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The impact of environment education.

Grade schools and high schools, Universities and agencies in Florida have for years seen the need to educate students, citizens and visitors about the Florida Environment. And most of them feel they're making an impact. Educator Bill Hammond -- 30 years ago, a pioneer in environment education -- continues to preach the environment gospel...

"Knowing how natural systems and cultural and political and economic systems work is just essential to being a good citizen and a good productive community member."

In developing an education program for eco-tourism, the University of Florida's Marty Main hopes to capture visitor's interest..

"It's only through a greater appreciation really, that people become interested and maintaining a healthy ecosystem and start to respect the landscape around them."

And with Florida Gulf Coast University's requirement that all students take a course on a sustainable environment, acting provost Jack Crocker says students are challenged..

"Whatever beliefs you have, you have to confront them. You may change, you may not. But at least that experience makes it one of the richest kinds of educational forums that we have here."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. We're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.