Impact and Outcomes

Try giving any material you analyse 100 points, then subtract up to five points for each of the following questions depending how well each one is addressed.

• Who paid for the materials or funded the developers, and are their messages hidden in the products?

• Are the leaders encouraged to build complete programs with specific learning outcomes or just to sprinkle around whatever catches their fancy?

• Can the leaders see the big picture they are working on and do they know how to go about fitting all the pieces together?

• Does the introduction include a lot of lofty aspirations and high-sounding objectives, while the materials fall short in achieving those goals?

• Do the learning experiences really address underlying environmental concerns, or are they superficial, external treatments requiring little or no change in their participants?

• Are there specific models and schedules for the leaders to consider in how they will use the materials?

• Do the activities really accomplish what they claim, or does the leader have to talk them into doing their job?

• Are the activities tacked on just to get some doing in there somewhere, or are they integral parts of a learning model?

• Do the activities captivate and motivate the learners, or do they involve a lot of tiring and uninspired paperwork assignments?

• Do a lot of activities end up with “discussion’ or “follow-up” lists that look good, but for which there is no built-in motivation or mechanism to insure they they are actually carried out?

• Do the activities deal with basic ecological processes and their meaning in people’s lives, or do many of them focus on secondary concepts and concerns?

• When they are participating in activities, do the learners know where they are going and why?

• After they are finished with the activities, do the learners know what they can do next, and are they encouraged and supported in doing that?

• Are the essential activities mostly classroom-based exercises that require little or no contact with natural places and processes?

• Do the activities fire the learners up about our environmental problems but fail to address how they are part of them?

By the way, we analysed some of our earth education materials using this checklist, and we fell short on a couple of the items ourselves. The important thing is to use these questions to evaluate what you need to do with the materials you are examining.

(Van Matre, 1990)

• Directors and staff clearly model environmentally-sound practices and lifestyles (or there is evidence that they are working on them).

• Programs are designed with specific outcomes in mind and ese stimulating educational techniques and tools to pull instead of pushing the learners.

• Everything works together and the visitors and participants are oriented to the sequential and cumulative ways in which they can proceed.

• Programs and exhibits focus on major ecological concepts such as, energy flows and cycling, and connect these processes to the daily lives of the participants and the visitors.

• Facilities are environmentally-sound in design and operation (or are being retrofitted to become more so).

• Programs and exhibits challenge participants and visitors to make changes in their own lives and model possible choices for them to consider.

• Overall atmosphere conveys great care and concern about the earth’s places and processes, while promoting a sense of wonder and adventure for natural areas (emphasising magic and meaning instead of names and numbers).

• Programs serve as carefully crafted and focussed “springboard” experiences (in ecological understanding and feeling) that must be completed later back at home and school.

• Regular workshops or courses are offered in crafting more harmonious lifestyles (organic gardening, environmentally-responsible investing, modifying homes, etc.).

• The characteristics described above dominate the overall feel of the place (from entrance to exit) and there are few, if any, discordant notes (unnecessarily caged animals, environmentally-unsound materials and practices, racks of trinkets for sale, etc.).

Each item is worth ten points. Rate your local centre and see if it makes the grade. Be sure to share your results.

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