'Conservation Education for Teachers: The Ohio Program' pamphlet   Save
Friends of the Land Collection
Description: Short pamphlet by Ollie E. Fink -- Curriculum Supervisor for Conservation Education for the State Department of Education, Ohio -- describing the scope and impact of Ohio's pioneering program in conservation education. It includes a description of the formation and workings of the Ohio Conservation Lab, an immersive summer hands-on conservation training lab for K-12 teachers. Fink's essay connects the rise of K-12 conservation education in Ohio (akin to what the later 20th century would call "environmental education") to the longer history of immersive science education in America, starting with the labs of Louis Agassiz in the 1870s. The majority of the document is devoted to the curriculum of the Ohio Conservation Lab -- including projects, activities, faculty, sites, and Fink's lessons learned in his years of operating the Lab. The Friends of the Land Collection (1930-1960) contains the papers of the Friends of the Land (1940-1959), a prominent national soil conservation education organization headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. FOTL produced an international literary arts quarterly, THE LAND (edited by New Deal agriculture writer Russell Lord) in addition to several members' only publications (LAND LETTER) and informational pamphlets. They also hosted annual conferences; ran conservation tours, teacher training labs, and workshops; and operated as a national clearinghouse for conservation information. Ohio farmer and novelist Louis Bromfield was active in the organization. Much of the collection reflects the career and interests of FOTL Executive Secretary Ollie Fink, who was a prominent conservation education pioneer in Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS364_B02F08_04_01
Subjects: Conservation education; Environmental education; Agriculture; Soil science; Societies and clubs; Soil conservation
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)