My primary goal in each class is to provide my students with the knowledge and skills required for academic progress. In addition, I hope to provide them with a challenging experience that provides them with the skills necessary to be thoughtful members of society. Some students are avid naturalists, very enthusiastic, with a strong grasp of important environmental/ecological/human issues. Most are not. These are the students that I hope to influence. 

Each student learns best through their own unique combination of verbal, visual, and kinetic cues. Each concept/fact is presented with a combination of cues to allow students with different learning styles the same advantage.  I am strict and fair: from the first lesson the student knows that my expectations are high.  On the other hand, I work hard not to distance myself from my students. They teach me as much as I teach them.

                   WOW!!!!  Science is FUN!!!!

Some ideas that I have run across that resonate with me:

Developing Ecological Consciousness: A Path to a Sustainable Future (Christopher Uhl)

Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit disorder (Richard Louv)

I believe in the practice of non-violent communication in the classroom, as a tool to open students up to new or foreign ideas (especially Evolution, individual changes for global good)