Kate Ireton
Secondary Education – Earth Science
K-State College of Education
How did you arrive at being environmentally aware and interested in sustainability?
I was raised in a family that did not believe in being wasteful and practiced recycling but I noticed that not all families practiced this, which brought my attention to social environmental issues. This awareness grew through practice at cleaning up the environment through trash pickup, land maintenance (planting and watering vegetation) and similar activities. Soon I discovered my love of science and began on my own to study the environment and topics relating to protecting and being a positive impact of our Earth.
What is your personal sustainability research about?
In my free time I look at ecology, the relationships between organisms and their environment, of tropical areas and why the ecosystems are changing. Once you understand the ecology of an area you are able to find the source of change and can address the issue from there. For example, while studying in Belize I researched the deforestation that is happening there. The people remove the forests so that they may use the land for agriculture. Why they do this is an issue of economics. Belize is a poor country and in order to feed their families and export goods for a livelihood they must remove forested land. The government is coming to the aid of its people in some Central American countries and paying the land owners for replanting their agriculture land back into forests, saving the ecosystem and providing money to help the families.
What are some of the most innovative ideas you have seen relating to sustainability on campus or locally?
It’s not too innovative, but I would like to mention the efforts the Kansas State Student Union went to simply set up a recycling program. Through my work I have been behind the scenes and suggesting to the people in power at the Student Union to put a recycling program in place for newspapers and pop bottles because of the heavy traffic flows the Student Union sees. It took a few years before everyone was able to work together to set up a simple program like this. Lack of cooperation plays a huge impact each time you work with sustainability. Besides deciding locations for the recycling containers, I had little part in putting this program in place because the people in charge were already aware of the importance of recycling.
Given the various experiences that students have, how would you design a class that would resonate with them to advance the concept and practice of sustainability?
In my classes the students will be required to first discover the importance of community involvement by being involved in something after school. It can be school activities, work, or volunteer work, anything that shows they care about being involved in the school and community and they are either improving their lives as individuals or as part of the community. After we have developed a commitment to the community the students and I can develop ways to help improve it using what we know and understand about sustainability.
It is more important for my students to understand their impacts on the environment and how the environment works than to take action on improving or changing the environment. Start with the knowledge and then the action will follow. This is why having Earth Science taught in schools is so important. Our Earth is always changing and it is tough to know when to take a part in the natural processes and when to let them be; so it is imperative to study Earth Science!
Check out one of Kate's lesson plans:
→ Erosion and Deposition by Running Water [pdf]
[8th grade Earth Science]
Students will develop an understanding of energy in the earth system, geochemical
cycles, the formation and organization of the earth system, the dynamics of the
earth/moon/sun system, and the organization and development of the universe.