Educating through Art, Ecology, and Ethical Care: Creating Responsible Citizenship in the Community

Preservice art teachers worked with the nature reserve staff to explore ways to teach junior high students to develop connections to their local land and to foster ethical care for it through reflective projects within their classroom and through an outdoor excursion in nature. The groups worked together to design, create, and disseminate nature inspired rain barrels into the community to raise money and simultaneously to educate others on storm water runoff and water sustainability. The students and professor worked to explore ways service learning could be guided as personally meaningful way to teach about STEAM education at a junior high level, and how this can work to further improve acts of responsible citizenship towards sustainability in one’s community.