1. Formal and Informal Education
for Sustainable Development
Dr. Mark A. McGinley
Associate Professor
Honors College and Department of Biological Sciences
Texas Tech University
Fulbright Visiting Scholar
Institute of Biological Sciences
University of Malaya
mark.mcginley@ttu.edu

2. Starting Assumptions
 Sustainable development is desirable goal
 Sustainable development requires making
appropriate decisions and implementing
appropriate policies

3. To Make Wise Decisions We Need
 Knowledgeable experts
 Capable teachers
 Knowledgeable policy makers
 Knowledgeable citizens
 I don’t think that we have done a very good job of
educating general public in the US.
 (not sure about in Malaysia)

4. To Achieve Sustainable Development
 Change how we educate students, teachers,
scientists, policy makers, and the general public
 Appreciation of the process of science
 Basics of ecology
 Environmental issues
 Political and economic issues related to
sustainability
 How Do We Do This????

5. My Background
 Trained as an ecologist
 Behavioral ecology of
birds and mammals
 Reproductive ecology of
plants, reptiles, and
mammals
 Plant community
ecology
 Old fields in Minnesota
 Sand shinnery oak
community in West Texas

6. My Background
 Been on the faculty at
Texas Tech University
for 20 years
 Recent scholarly focus
on science education
and environmental
education
 Fulbright Visiting
Scholar

7. Population Ecology

8. Population Ecology

9. Human Population Growth

10. Community Ecology

11. Ecosystem Ecology

12. Important Concepts
 Equilibrium
 If you add and remove at the same rate then the
number does not change over time.
 World is Complicated!
 not easy to predict what is going to happen if we
start to alter ecological systems
 Many ecological issues easy to solve from a
biological perspective
 Decisions complicated by economics and politics

13. Education
 Formal Education
 Education that takes place in traditional classroom
settings
 Generally occurs when young
 Informal Education
 Education that takes place out of the classroom.
Can occur throughout lifetime.
 Museums, zoos, national parks
 Mass media
 Internet
 ???

14. What Am I Doing?
 Formal Education
 Educating Elementary and Secondary Students
 Improving curriculum
 Malaysian Bat Education Adventure
 Improving teachers
 MS2 and Multidisciplinary Science
 Educating University Students
 Formal Courses at Texas Tech University
 Ecology and Environmental Problems
 Ecology Science Behind the Environment
 Perspectives in Nature and the Environment
 Tropical Marine Biology
 Degree Programs at Texas Tech University
 Organismal Biology, Ecology, and Evolution- Department of Biological
Sciences
 Natural History and Humanities- Honors College
 Malaysian Ecology textbook
 Informal Education
 Odyssey Expeditions
 Encyclopedia of Earth

15. Curriculum Development For
Elementary Schools
 Data suggests that US science education is
lagging behind.
Science class is too often “a thin gruel of badly
organized textbooks, worksheets, and
memorization of science”.
 Corcoran et al. 2009

16. Problems With Current Methods of
Teaching Science
 Lessons focus more on facts than big themes
 Focus on Important Themes
 Lessons unrelated to each other over time
 Learning Progressions
 Lessons taught in too many different contexts
 Single Context
 Students get no exposure to “real science”
 at best try to “simulate science”
 Situate Education in Authentic Research
Environment
 Students act as “cognitive apprentices”

17. Malaysian Bat Education Adventure
 Learning progression developed by National Academy
of Science
 Evolution
 Embed learning in “common context”
 Biology of Malaysian rainforest bats
 Dr. Tigga Kingston (TTU) has studied bats in Krau Wildlife
Reserve in Pahang for > 10 years
 Bats are cool!
 Students act as “cognitive apprentices” with
researchers in the field
 Send data back via website on daily basis
 Interact with students in real time via video-conferencing

18. Malaysian Bat Education Adventure
 In 2009 we received a
US $200,000 grant from
Texas Tech University to
conduct pilot project for
4th grade
 Just applied for > US $2
million grant to National
Science Foundation to
expand project from
grades 4 – 8.

19. Malaysian Bat Education Adventure
 This work requires
interdisciplinary
collaboration
 Department of Biological
Sciences
 College of Education
 College of Mass
Communications
 Professors, graduate
students, undergraduate
students, school
administrators, assessment
experts, teachers
 http://www.ttu-mbea.org/

20. Teacher Training
Practicing Teachers
 Multidisciplinary Science Masters Degree
 Degree for practicing high school teachers
 Biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences, mathematics,
education
 MS2
 Degree for practicing middle school teachers
 Focus on integrating mathematics and science in
the middle school classroom
 Funded by US $3 million grant from Greater Texas
Foundation
 http://www.ttumssquare.org/

21. Formal Courses
Texas Tech University
 Department of Biological Sciences
 Ecology and Environmental Problems
 Introduce basic concepts in ecology and examine current
environmental issues to non-science students

22. University Courses
 Honors College
 Ecology: The Science Behind the Environment
 Perspectives in Nature and the Environment

23. Field Courses
Tropical Marine Biology

24. What Have I Learned From Teaching
These Courses?
 Students don’t have much knowledge of science,
ecology, or environmental issues
 Almost all students will become interested if you
can touch on a topic that interests them directly
 International
 National (USA)
 State (Texas)
 Local (Lubbock)
 Getting students in the field is useful

25. Degree Programs
Texas Tech University
 Department of Biological Sciences
 B.S. Organismal Biology, Ecology, and Evolution
(OBEE)
 Honors College
 Natural History and Humanities (NHH)
 Interdisciplinary program that combines science, literature,
philosophy, and the arts to train students to communicate
effectively about the environment
 Train future informal environmental educators,
environmental lawyers, etc.

26. NHH
 Highly Interdisciplinary
 Ecologist, Geologist, Writers, Artists, Photographers,
Philosophers, Outdoor Adventure Experts

27. Ecology Textbook
 Collaboration with Prof. Susan Lim, Institute of
Biological Sciences, UM
 Most general ecology textbooks written in US or
Europe and thus focus on western examples
 We plan to produce an on-line introductory
ecology textbook that focuses on Malaysian
examples

28. Informal Education
Odyssey Expeditions
 Summer Adventure
Programs for teens in
Caribbean (British Virgin
Islands and Windward
islands)
 Sailing, scuba, and
marine biology
 Taught scuba and
formal and informal
marine biology
programs

29. Informal Science Education
• Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE)
– http://www.eoearth.org/
– Goal is to be the largest on-line source of
information about the environment in the
world.
– All articles written by scholars, all articles
undergo peer review.

30. Typical EoE Article

31. EoE Articles
• Written by recognized experts in the field
– Student Science Communication Project
• Content Partners
– Governmental organizations and NGOs that have
agreed to let the EoE publish their information
• WWF, IUCN, UNEP, Conservation International, many
US governmental bodies, soon IPCC
• Thus, we don’t always have to reinvent the wheel
because there is already a lot of valuable information
out there.

32. EoE History and Stats
• Launched in September 2006
• 25,000 visits per day
• 700,000 visits per month
• Over 8.5 million visitors per year

33. “Malaysia Collection” on EoE
Develop a collection of articles about
• Natural history of Malaysian
organisms
• Ecology of Malaysian organisms and
ecosystems
• Environmental issues in Malaysia

34. Future Directions
 Scholarly Study of Informal Science Education
 I think it is “interesting” that studying informal
science education is considered to be more
scholarly than doing informal science education.
 Long-term impacts of summer outdoor programs
 Odyssey Expeditions
 EoE
 Blogs as sources of informal science education

35. Sustainability
 Sustainable development requires long-term
perspective
 Humans do not appear to be very good at taking the
long-term perspective
 Psychologically
 Politically
 Economically
 Sustainability Education needs to involve people with
expertise in economics and politics
 Collaborations between politicians, economists,
scientists, and educators are extremely rare!!
 How do we make them happen???

36. Sustainability- Llano Estacado
High Plains of West Texas