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Environmental Teaching Activity

Interview with Beverly Meier
August 15, 2008

ANNIE REISER: Hi, I'm Annie Reiser with NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. And I'm here today with Beverly Meier. Beverly is a retired long-time middle school teacher from Colorado's Boulder Valley School District. Welcome, Beverly.

BEVERLY MEIER: Hi. Thank you for having me, Annie.

ANNIE REISER: Well, I am so glad you could join me. Beverly is the creator of a set of resourceful and unique lesson plans called the POET Program. These have recently gone live on our NOAA website. We'd like to introduce them to you today through a discussion with Beverly. Tell me, Beverly, what is POET?

BEVERLY MEIER: First of all, the word itself is an acronym which means Protect Our Environmental Treasures. POET, in reality, is 15 environmentally-based student activities that has several goals. One, of course, is good science; another is to integrate the various subjects that students learn in school.

ANNIE REISER: So can you give me an example of how you did that with one of the lessons?

BEVERLY MEIER: Yes. In fact, all of the POET activities incorporate some version of that. But one that's particularly an illustration is called "Tornadoes Over Kansas." And it integrates science with art.

ANNIE REISER: How interesting.

BEVERLY MEIER: So students need to be able to observe and infer from their observations which is a skill needed in science and a skill needed in art, and this activity brings those together.

ANNIE REISER: Beverly, what was your motivation for creating these lesson plans? How'd you come about doing this?

BEVERLY MEIER: Well, first of all, I was invited to write some curriculum for NOAA's 200th Celebration of Service. But in addition to that, the ideas had been ruminating for over a quarter of a century. And it was a perfect opportunity, because the ideas just sort of spilled out once I started talking with researchers at NOAA. One of the things that impressed me so much was the fact that people doing significant research are willing to take the time to talk to me. The way I see my job is to take the information that the researchers are generating and translate it so that middle school students, high school students, and the average person on the street can understand that. And I am amazed at the time and the patience that researchers were willing to spend with me.

ANNIE REISER: So these are ESRL Lab researchers that you visited on a regular basis while you were developing these lessons?

BEVERLY MEIER: They are, indeed.

ANNIE REISER: Beverly, what would you like to tell teachers who are out there listening and possibly planning to use these materials in the classroom? Do you have a message for them?

BEVERLY MEIER: I do, indeed, and thank you for asking, Annie. We know from research that teachers typically teach the way they've been taught. Unfortunately, that doesn't work. Education is currently in a state of flux. In the past, education, learning meant gathering information and doing something with it, like giving a speech, creating an experiment or writing an essay. Information now is at everybody's fingertips, quite literally, via the Internet. Type in a question, you get an answer, and you have information. So what is it that we're trying to do? We need to look into our crystal balls and try to anticipate what our students are going to need in the future. We know that reasoning skills, what I call the brain tools, are important for students' success. The POET activities embraces this idea that we have to absorb information, process that information, come to conclusions, and make judgments based on facts and data. So my message to teachers is to keep in mind the needs of the students. Help them to learn and use these brain tools.

ANNIE REISER: Thank you for that valuable message, Beverly. And on behalf of NOAA and most certainly your teaching colleagues, thank you also for all of the hard work you poured into this project. You have succeeded in combining so many aspects of learning in a creative and resourceful way, and I'm so glad you were able to join me today to launch POET.

BEVERLY MEIER: And to you, Annie, a heartfelt thanks for inviting me to talk about the POET activities. And a special note of thanks to John Osborn for taking my humble design and transforming it into a visually beautiful document.

(END OF RECORDING)

Transcribed by: bcv/nie