Alice Cottone watches her falcons - See the special photo feature for this article too!

An innovative teacher at the Steel Valley Middle School in Munhall, Allegheny County is using the environment to help her sixth grade students express themselves with art and learn new math and language skills.

Alice Cottone (pronounced “Ka-tone”) has been a teacher for 32 years and every day faces the challenge of how to interest her students in art.

“I have done Earth Day and recycling projects with the kids, but what drew me into environmental education was the Peregrine Falcons living in Pittsburgh,” said Cottone. “I became fascinated with the falcons and went to the Peregrine Falcon workshops (put on by the Game Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection) in Harrisburg four times.”

“I also have a computer on my desk at school and when the falcons are laying their eggs, pictures of the nest are always on my screen,” she said.

But it wasn’t until this past summer that she put it all together for her classroom with the help of the Governor’s Institute for Environment and Ecology and two grants from the Mon Valley Education Consortium.

“We learned in the Environment and Ecology classes that the environment was a great way of bringing together an interdisciplinary approach to teaching art, math and language arts,” said Cottone. “My group wrote a middle school study unit with other teachers at the Institute that included writing lessons to the standards, educational goals, activities and concepts we wanted the students to learn in the unit.”

With two “Great Idea Grants” from the Mon Valley Education Consortium, she created two lessons for the art programs this fall at Steel Valley Middle.

“Biodiversity in Our School’s Backyard” is a year long series of activities that turns sixth graders into junior naturalists using binoculars, insect viewers and art to document the birds, fish, turtles and mammals around their school.

Students create their own drawings of birds and other animals they observe just like they would have on the Lewis and Clark expedition. A pond on the school grounds offers a handy aquatic environment for the students to explore.

Unlike Lewis and Clark, students will also be using photography in a second project, “Framing our Environment” to take pictures of what they think are good and bad features of their environment.

“Once a week I take the students out to do bird counts around the school, and almost every morning before school starts I am at the ball field with binoculars and interested students looking for birds,” said Cottone. “We enter the data into the computer and at the end of the year the students will put together their own interpretations using word processing, PowerPoint and pictures they’ve drawn or taken.”

Cottone also plans to do a “bioblitz” in the spring, a marathon effort to document the insects, animals and birds living around the school within a 24-hour period. She plans to enlist the help of other teachers and resources from the community for this aspect of the project.

Each of the projects requires the use of art, math and language skills and helps the teachers meet their obligation to teach concepts required by the state’s Environment and Ecology Curriculum Standards.

“The kids love the program,” said Cottone. “As soon as we started I heard stories about experiences they had with birds and other animals.”

In addition to the training Cottone received at the Governor’s Institute, she also took an environmental education course offered by Conservation Consultants, Inc. and used resource materials from Earth Force in Pittsburgh.

The C.C.I. staff is coming to Steel Valley Middle to teach workshops called, “Encouraging a Sense of Wonder- A Hands-on Interactive Approach to Environmental Education” for the sixth and seventh grade this Spring.

“I’m encouraging other teachers in our school to go to the Governor’s Institute and C.C. I and take advantage of the same resources I did,” said Cottone. “At first I didn’t apply to the Institute because I was an art teacher, but I did and I was accepted.”

“What I did can definitely be reproduced in other schools,” she said. “I was able to buy the equipment for the projects with the grants and got a great deal on the binoculars from a Nikon dealer.”

The Steel Valley Middle School has over 550 students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades and the school administration, including Principal John Ackermann, has been very supportive of the Cottone’s projects.

“Using the environment to teach art is an exciting tool bringing our outdoor environment inside the classroom,” said Cottone.

For more information on Cottone’s approach to environmental education, contact her directly at: acottone@svsd.k12.pa.us .

Resources: The 2005 Governor’s Institute on Environment and Ecology for Educators will be held July 24 to 29 in Seven Springs. For information on how to apply, contact Patricia Vathis, Environment & Ecology Education Advisor, at: Pvathis@state.pa.us or call 717-783-6994.

The Ecology and Environment for Teachers course by Conservation Consultants, Inc. will be offered again in June. Contact Indigo Raffel at 412-431-4449, ext. 214 or by email: indigor@ccicenter.org for more information.

Environmental Education Workshop/Training Calendar

(courtesy PA Center for Environmental Education)

1/14/2005