Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Woody Franzen looks over sketches by Susan Duncan and Bill Clark during an evergreen tree identification project. They were attending Franzen's teacher training program, which addresses the positive aspects of bringing students closer to their surroundings while studying the environment.

Environmental educator wins praise for lively lessons

ALMA D. SHARPE, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Saturday, March 23, 2002

TUMWATER -- Woody Franzen takes his students outside the classroom to prove a point.

After the students -- teachers themselves -- draw short, triangular and bushy renditions of a Douglas fir tree, they walk outside to see the real thing and realize their memories deceived them.

The real Douglas firs are much taller, asymmetrical and sparsely branched.

For most of his professional life, Franzen has worked to get students up close to their surroundings to teach them about the environment.

That approach has brought him national recognition.

"If you ask kids to draw a forest, they see the trees and that's all," Franzen told a group of Tumwater School District teachers during a recent training session. "The idea is to have kids really look at what a tree is, all its parts and what's around it. There's something to be gained by having kids become more observant."

Award winner

Franzen, a 30-year veteran teacher and now an education consultant for the Washington Forest Protection Association, recently was named one of the nation's top five environmental educators.

The award, Project Learning Tree Educator of the Year, comes from the American Forest Foundation, a coalition of forest associations from across the country.

While Franzen hasn't held a permanent teaching post in years, he continues to work with students through Project Learning Tree, a national environmental education program for children.

Franzen is one of several teachers in the program, which last year was taught to 1,200 students in the state.

Teaching teachers

Franzen teaches teachers how to make lessons about the environment come alive for students.

"He walks the talk, and he doesn't just think it's a good idea to teach about the environment. He has taught about the environment before it was popular," said Lynne Ferguson, director of environmental education for the Washington Forest Protection Association, and one of the people who nominated Franzen for the award.

"He has a lot of credibility."

Indeed, Franzen is a longtime advocate of getting students out of the classroom -- to find rare plants or look at bugs or wildlife.

It all started when, in his class at Lakes Elementary in Lacey, an indifferent student came alive during a lesson about dyeing wool and spinning lichen.

"He got hooked and stayed hooked," Franzen said. "The outdoor connection aroused in him an interest that I hadn't seen before."

Learning to look

One of the teachers in the Douglas fir exercise acknowledged that looking at the tree firsthand made her realize she hadn't always paid attention to its details.

"These trees are around us all the time, and we see them, but we don't really look at them carefully," said Janet Schloz, a fourth-grade teacher at Tumwater Hill Elementary.

Many teachers steer away from the outdoor approach to teaching because it takes longer than lecturing or going over the same material in a book, Franzen said.

Teachers are focused on improving student achievement in core academics so it will improve test scores, he said.

'Education, not activism'

Pressure in that direction has grown with the state's increased focus on academic standards measured through the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, Franzen said.

"I've had teachers tell me that after they go outside and maybe pull out a plant and look at its roots, the most difficult student in the classroom is the first to get excited," Franzen said.

Franzen said there's a difference between teaching students about the environment and teaching them to become environmentalists.

"It's education, not activism," he said.

Teachers should teach students about the role humans have in the environment, how industry affects it and all the aspects -- positive and negative -- of using the environment as part of one's livelihood, he said.

Besides spending time outdoors with teachers, Franzen nurtures other passions: his grandchildren and birding.

But he relishes the opportunity to impact a child's education by training his or her teacher, Franzen said.

"I'm indirectly touching a lot more lives working with teachers."

Alma D. Sharpe covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-4226 or asharpe@olympia. gannett.com.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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