This book by the authors of The Classroom Bookshelf blog—Erika Thulin Dawes, Katie Egan Cunningham, Grace Enriquez, and Mary Ann Cappiello—provides formal and nonformal educators ideas for using books to help children care for themselves and others and connect with the natural world.

The combination of clear writing, practical information, and varied assessment tools make this a very useful resource for introducing undergraduate students to environmental education research.

Teaching environmental education requires finding quality information on a variety of subjects and then helping students become lifelong learners. Confidence as readers of natural and social science literature will enable future teachers to base their lessons on accurate, current information.

Environmental education improves by learning from fields such as psychology, sociology, and education. This book not only summarizes many relevant theories but also explains their relevance to environmental education, interpretation, and communication. It will be useful to teacher educators preparing course materials and upper-level students considering doing their own research projects.

Probes meant to help uncover students’ ideas are the focus for the series of books Page Keeley and Laura Tucker wrote. This book particularly addresses ideas in environmental science and earth science, including topics like the following: What is a watershed; Are they talking about climate or weather; Groundwater; Is natural better; and The greenhouse effect. This is a great hook in class to understand what your students think about a subject. This series can be used as formative assessment at the beginning and end of a unit. Even though the book is intended for K-12 audiences, I have used these with my future teachers to better understand their thinking on topics. Adult learners can benefit from examining their own metacognition. The probe, “Is a chrysalis alive?” in this series of books prompted much discussion between my adult students and family members.

Every environmental educator should have Claire Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth’s classic book on nature journaling on their shelves. It is a visually stunning book which guides environmental educators in closer observations of nature throughout the seasons. One of my favorite drawings is a deciduous tree drawn in the winter with a closer look at a stem with a winter bud and a mature fruit. It reminds us that observations can be done any time of the year. This book would be great paired with citizen science bud burst studies. Pencil drawings and water color paintings are included, with little notes for more detail about what was drawn. Drawings include the date, time, measurements and labels which bring the reader into the drawings. This book has been used in Elementary Science Methods classes to teach the basics of observation skills but can also be used in art, biology, ecology, and writing classes to note the fine detail found in nature. A curriculum web for nature journaling near the end of the book shows the variety of ways to include this topic in teaching across the curriculum.