Even Big Kids Like to Learn

            Stuart DeLandre

I had a very nice chat with Stuart this morning and leaned all about his wonderful work in Australia. Read all about this kid at heart below. 

Name- Stuart DeLandre

Home - New South Wales, Australia 

Education- Trained as a science teacher and began teaching in 1979. He taught for one year and then realized that he wanted to take a different path. Stuart took a course in environmental education and that set his course in motion. This course gave him a more relevant aspect to his teaching and brought out his love for being outdoors and sharing with kids. 

Occupation- Principal of Illawarra Educational Center which serves over 10,000 5-18 year-olds each year through day visits and day camps and programs within the schools. Another focus of this school is to provide professional learning for teachers to help them teach their students about energy conservation by providing them with a complete module including all materials. 

Q- Is this your first Earthwatch

 experience?

A- This is my third Earthwatch experience. The first was 20 years ago as a teacher fellowship in the tropical rainforest in Queensland which focused on arthropod diversity.  My second was a teacher scholarship in Brazil's Pantanel, which is the world's biggest wetland. At this conservation center, Eaethwatch had twelve different programs going on concurrently and I got to choose three. I focused on birds, mammals and water quality. 

Q- Why did you choose Thinking Like an Elephant in Thailand?

A- I mainly chose this program because of its explicitly strong focus on school education and developing school conservation programs. I wanted to learn how to convey conservation to kids on site as well as digitally. I also wanted to learn how to apply what I learn here to kids at home- and not just at my own school but students all over the state. 

I want to make a contribution to what's happening here. Maybe not much while I'm in the country, but more so when I return. I want to share with my students what I've learned here. It might be something as simple as arranging a video conference with Think Elephants. I believe this is just the beginning of our relationship. 

Q- What advice would you like to give our students back home?

A- First, I would tell them to try to discover how you learn best. Once that's done, try to find things you're interested in to learn about. I would also tell your students to look for opportunities to share that learning to help other kids. I'm all about kids teaching kids. 

Q- What's next for you?

A- At the moment, I am collaborating with colleagues in other environmental centers across New South Wales to establish more effective conservation education and sustainability programs. There are 2,200 such schools so this is a huge undertaking. However, with technology such as it is, distance isn't a barrier in establishing conservation programs all over the state and beyond. 

RELATED LINKS:

Climate Clever Energy Savers:http://youtu.be/BvYCY01wN-0