Sunship Earth
An Earth Education Program For Getting To Know Your Place In Space

Author: Steve Van Matre
Format: Paperback
Length: 265 pages
Publisher: The Institute for Earth Education
ISBN: 0876030460

Notes: The complete program for 10-11 year olds must be purchased as a program package through a Memorandum of Agreement with the institute.

Item #: BSSE

Price: $15.95

Order fulfillment provided by The Simple Living Network. Order by phone 800-318-5725 or 509-395-2323.

Sunship Earth is the most comprehensive earth education program available today. The program sets out over five days to awaken the feelings and understandings that will help young people better fulfill their responsibilities as crew members and passengers of Sunship Earth.

Here are some of the highlights:

• 15 Concept Path activities -- focusing on the ecological concepts of energy flow, cycles, diversity, community, interrelationships, change, and adaptation, remembered by the formula EC-DC-IC-A.

• Discovery Parties -- exploring natural areas in a free-wheeling, fun-filled fashion.

• Earthwalk activities in a "Touch the Earth" format -- a light touch of nature presented in a non-identifying, non-discussing, non-threatening way.

• Immersing Experiences -- breaking through our personal barriers to more fully experience the natural world.

• And much more -- Including a Student Passport and Log Book, Disguise-Removing Techniques, "Magic Spots," "Welcome Aboard" and "Journey Home" ceremonies.

Today there are Sunship Earth programs in operation at resident and nonresident sites around the world. Sunship Earth has even been offered as a summer camp experience in a city park district. If your learners are 10-12 years old, and they can join you and your helpers for four to five days, then you should consider setting up a Sunship Study Station.

The Sunship Earth book contains clear descriptions of key ecological concepts and concise reviews of important learning principles, plus over 200 additional pages of ideas, activities and guidelines for setting up a complete Sunship Earth Study Station. Sunship Earth has set the standard for quality earth education programming, making it a relevant college text, leader's guide, or curriculum resource.

Excerpts:

"Welcome Aboard"

Entering the building, the students find themselves in a dimly lit eight-sided room. Cardboard partitions form the walls, and a parachute suspended from the roof of the building drapes over them to form the ceiling of this room.

The students are seated on benches, facing away from the door through which they entered. On both sides of them the walls are labeled EC-DC-IC-A . . . OPERATING PRINCIPLES governing the existence of all passengers. Those to the left read: "The sun is the source of energy for all living things"; "The building materials of life must be used over and over"; "Differences in living things provide for the success of all life"; and on the right: "All living things interact with other things in their surroundings"; "Everything is becoming something else"; "To survive, everything must fit how and where it lives."

In front of the students are three panels. The center panel is a landscape mural showing an indigenous person, Chief Holalumquat, sitting in a forest glade, with a caption underneath that reads: "Plants and animals live together in areas that meet their special needs." The panels on both sides of the mural contain large white windows; one is labeled "SPACE," the other "TIME."

As they come in and sit down, the students hear music -- a slightly eerie melody that fills the room with anticipation. When all are seated, the music dies and the lights go out, except for one small ray that calls their attention to an object in the room they hadn't noticed before. A sphere, hanging from the ceiling has been painted to resemble the photographs of earth as seen from space. The ray of light slowly fades.

In the window to the right of the mural, a hidden projector beams the opening frame of the film "Cosmic Zoom," accompanied by a stirring piece of music.

• Steve Van Matre

Copyright © 1979 The Institute for Earth Education

Reviews:

Sunship Earth has helped our centre look at its own environmental impact and had a big influence on all the programmes we now run, both earth education and our own home-grown ones. We have had many letters from children (and their parents) who say that Sunship Earth has literally 'changed their lives' or made them 'into new people!'

• Jon Cree, Peak National Park Centre, Losehill Hall, Castleton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom

The Sunship Earth programme is the most enriching experience imaginable for leaders and participants alike. You have to experience the programme for yourself to appreciate how all the activities together with all the small details truly add up to more than the sum of their parts.

• John Rhymer, Programme Coordinator, Wyre Forest Sunship Earth, United Kingdom

About The Author:

Steve Van Matre is the author of Acclimatization, Acclimatizing, Sunship Earth, The Earth Speaks, Earthkeepers, Earth Education... A New Beginning and Sunship III. A former university professor, camp director, youth leader, school teacher, and educational consultant, he now travels the world introducing the earth education alternative to others.

Other Information:

The Institute for Earth Education is the world's largest organization for educators in the environmental movement, offering an alternative to the supplemental, infusion approach to educating students about our environmental problems. There are formal Branches underway in a dozen countries, with an international home base at Cedar Cove in Greenville, West Virginia.

Related Resources:

Earth Education... A New Beginning For All Those Who Love This Planet & Its Life
      By Steve Van Matre (Paperback)

Sunship Earth An Earth Education Program For Getting To Know Your Place In Space
      By Steve Van Matre (Paperback)

Earthkeepers Four Keys For Helping Young People Live In Harmony With The Earth
      By Steve Van Matre, Bruce Johnson (Paperback)

SUNSHIP III Perception & Choice For The Journey Ahead
      By Steve Van Matre, Bruce Johnson (Paperback)

Rangers Of The Earth Young People Responding To The Planet's Cry For Help
      By Steve Van Matre & Laurie Farber (Paperback)

The Earth Speaks A Powerful Tribute To Our Home In Space
      By Steve Van Matre, Bill Weiler (Paperback)

The Living More Lightly Profile Duplication Masters For Group Study
      By Steve Van Matre (Duplication Masters)