Professor of Biology and Environmental Science University of Saint Francis Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
After years of conventional teaching in ecology, I reframed my course in a nature-as-therapy theme. The engagement of health pre-professionals taking the course improved so dramatically that I sought certification in ecotherapy and ecopsychology and wrote an ecology textbook using this theme. While following the 4DEE framework, the textbook turned toward what students found most relevant. Natural history, TEK, neobiogeography, post-modern evolution, wildlife management, and conservation biology were among the most popular sections. In the end, the idea of reciprocity – healing self while healing Earth – was the most powerful single idea that transformed attitudes in my ecology course.
