By Tim Mandell
Register News Writer
RICHMOND — Students at Eastern Kentucky University, many of whom are planning careers as teachers or have already begun their teaching careers, are spending this semester learning about environmental issues.
Those taking Ecology for Teachers, an undergraduate class taught by Billy Bennett, and Environmental Science Issues, a graduate course taught by Melinda Wilder, have utilized a grant that allows students to actively pursue ways to teach their classmates and current and future students.
As part of Learn and Serve America, the grant was initiated by Western Kentucky University, and is being used at EKU, Morehead State University, Murray State University and Western.
The grant allows institutions to develop service-learning models and provide information on service-learning best practices to other institutions of higher education.
A focal point of the grant is Earth Force, which engages young people as active citizens who improve their environment and their communities now and in the future, according to its Web site.
“The hope is that once they become teachers in the classroom, they can use this process in their classes,” Bennett said. “Energy was the focus of the grant.”
Each class had to develop a project.
The undergraduate class, made up of 16 students, wants to educate students in the dorms about energy by having a campaign and presentation to give tips on energy saving and provide students with power strips to use in their rooms to save energy.
“We looked around to see if we could see any visible things we could attempt to change and we thought power strips would be the best way,” said Tara Chaney, a senior education major from Whitley City. “When we’re teachers in the future we’ll be able to use this program to help our community.”
The graduate course has 11 students, eight of whom are education students who are already teaching in elementary and middle schools.
“Because it’s a night class, they have chosen to define their community as the three science buildings on campus,” Wilder said. “They’re looking at educating the faculty and students on how they waste electricity on an everyday basis.
“They hope to put together energy saving kits for the faculty offices and to meet with faculty members about the use of Smart Strips and energy saving,” she said. “We would love for them to use the Earth Force model in their classrooms and we actually have money and people to help them do that.”
For students, the classes have been an opportunity to become more informed about environmental issues and to pass that knowledge on to others.
“I’ve been blown away with this project,” Chaney said. “I know I’ve always wanted to bring the environment into the classroom and this project lets me do it in an organized and successful way.”
Tim Mandell can be reached at tmandell@richmondregister.com or 623-1669 ext. 6696.
