Positively Pittsburgh Live! 5-2-11
Pittsburgh Ecology Advocates
(Recap of 5-2-11 Show by Delana Flowers)
Today’s Guests
Nikole Brugnoli Sheaffer, The Environmental charter School at Frick Park
Jessica Kester, The Outdoor Classroom
Sandy Antoinette, Wild Bird Center
The Environmental Charter School of Pittsburgh (ECS) provides a unique educational experience for students and teachers by integrating the Pennsylvania Environment, Ecology, Science, and Technology standards within the Math, Social Studies and Language Arts curriculum. The Outdoor Classroom (formerly the Regional Environmental Education Center) Provides hands-on, site-based environmental education to southwestern Pennsylvania residents ages 2 through adult.Wild Bird Center in Mc Murray, family owned and operated retail store that specializes in everything for the backyard bird enthusiast.
Nikole Brugnoli Sheaffer
· The Environmental Education Coordinator at ECS.
· Earned her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Allegheny College.
· Worked at Conservation Consultants, Inc., encouraging “green” changes in Pittsburgh neighborhoods and developing environmental education programs for local schools.
· At the University of Maryland emerged with an elementary teaching certificate and a Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction.
· Worked as a fourth grade teacher in an arts integrated magnate school for the highly gifted.
· Today, she works to actualize the school mission of building critical thinkers and problem solvers utilizing the environment as a teaching tool.
· Work focuses on growing the Environmental Charter School to an institution leading region in progressive thinking and educational practice.
About the Environmental Charter School (ESC)
- Provides a unique educational experience for students and teachers by integrating the Pennsylvania Environment, Ecology, Science, and Technology standards within the Math, Social Studies and Language Arts curriculum.
- In addition to classroom-based instruction, students engage in the adjoining Frick Park to explore environmental concepts more deeply and to practice scientific investigation.
- ECS develops robust, curriculum-focused partnerships with local organizations that specialize in environmental education and standards-based programming.
- Instructional experiences outside of the classroom help to solidify the content knowledge, and build students’ sense of place in the Pittsburgh region.
- Currently serves 320 students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade from 11 different districts in Allegheny County. At capacity, ECS will serve students through eighth grade.
About the Environmental Charter school at Frick Park
· An integrated approach to instruction provides students with a more holistic understanding of the natural, social and built systems that define our community. Using the urban landscape as an extension of the traditional classroom becomes a natural asset to daily instruction, to integration of environment and ecology standards and to the educational experience of every child.
· Curriculum integration is a curriculum design that promotes organization of curricular outcomes around a significant question or “Big Idea,” and that utilizes the content of many disciplines to provide an authentic educational experience for students.
· ECS is pioneering the school lunch reform program, and aligns its menu with its mission. Environmental Charter School Lunch Partners Program, a recognized agreement between ECS and compatible businesses within the Pittsburgh community. The goal of the ECS lunch program is to provide a healthy, delicious, and sustainable (both agricultural and economic) meal within the guidelines of the National School Lunch Program. Currently, Big Burrito Company, Right by Nature Foods and Buffalo Blues supply lunch to the Environmental Charter School student body once a month, in an effort to provide students with a more diverse menu of food.
829 Milton St.
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15218
412-247-7970
Jessica Kester
· Program Manager for The Outdoor Classroom
· Has degrees in Biology/Marine Science and Secondary Education/Biology from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.
· Began her career as a field instructor in coastal marine sciences at the Marine Science Consortium in Wallops Island, VA were she taught both children and adults in a variety of hands-on labs and field excursions.
· Has also taught 3rd-7th grade students from urban and suburban Chicago at the Lorado-Taft Field Campus of Northern Illinois University about general environmental topics and local IL history.
· Joined The Outdoor Classroom staff in February 2006.
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| Mission of the Outdoor classroom |
The Outdoor Classroom (formerly the Regional Environmental Education
Center)
· Provides hands-on, site-based environmental education to southwestern Pennsylvania residents ages 2 through adult.
· Offers something for everyone, including programs for teachers, students, service groups, government officials, business leaders, and community residents.
- Opened in the fall of 2004, a site-based environmental education center.
- Offers events for children, adults, families and community organizations (Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, Community Groups), outreach programs available for preschools, retirement/assisted living residences, community groups
- Mission is to “connect the people of southwestern Pennsylvania with the natural world” through meaningful personal experiences
- In 2010 the Classroom served 10,000+ individuals both in the park and through outreach programs, 2,500 of those were school students from Allegheny and Washington Counties
For more information about The Outside Classroom click the link below to hear this episode.
Sandy Antoinette
- She and husband opened The Wild Bird Center in April of 2007.
- Both graduated from Edinboro, where they met, many years ago.
- Husband is a Geologist, by trade and she is an Environmental Scientist.
- Have worked in a variety of industries over the years from coal exploration, hazardous waste, worked as a regulator and petroleum remediation.
- Husband found an old bird identification book, that her dad had given her and after researching various franchises, they found that The Wild Bird Center best matched who they are.
About The Wild Bird Center of McMurray
- Family owned and operated retail store that specializes in everything for the backyard bird enthusiast.
- Carry a large variety of quality bird feeders, special bird food blends (for this area), bird houses, bat houses, duck boxes, a new line of hardware called Polewise (that offers the consumer much creativity in their backyard), bird identification tools, field guides, binoculars and unique gifts (many from American artists).
- On Saturday May 14th at 8am we will be having a bird walk with Shawn Collins (resident bird guy – he keeps me informed of where all the birds are).
Wild Bird Center of McMurray, 4080 Washington Road, Suite 108, McMurray, Pa 15317
For more information about the Wild Bird Center click the link below to hear this episode.
To hear this episode of Positively Pittsburgh Live in its entirety go to
Delana Flowers is a Positively Pittsburgh Live reporter, an independent writer and owner of Ingenuity by Delana Flowers ©, writing effective copy so you don’t have to. Services include copywriting for newsletters, blogs, ad copy, marketing pieces, articles, reviews, invitations, postcards, flyers and more.
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