In this unique book, curriculum expert Gerald A. Lieberman provides an innovative guide to creating and implementing a new type of environmental education that combines standards-based lessons on English language arts, math, history, and science with community investigations and service learning projects. By connecting academic content with local investigations, environmental study becomes not simply another thing added to the classroom schedule but an engaging, thought-provoking context for learning multiple subjects. The projects outlined in the book further students' understanding of the way human and natural "systems" interact locally and globally, and provide the next generation with the knowledge necessary for making decisions that will be critical to their future--and ours. "For decades, Gerald Lieberman has been at the forefront of environment-based learning. The concept, which has acquired several names over the years, is essentially this: children and young people learn best when their time in the classroom is augmented by experiences in the wider community . . . School should be more than a polite form of incarceration; it should be a portal to a wider world. Gerald Lieberman's ongoing work underscores the right of a whole child to feel and be fully alive." -- From the Foreword by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods "Jerry has been a true pioneer for decades, breaking trail for the rest of us. What makes his work so impressive is that he not only conceives and writes about new K-12 education models, he finds effective ways to actually implement them on a significant scale. This book recounts some of those great adventures, and provides an indispensable map for any teacher or administrator who seeks new ideas for how to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century." -- James L. Elder, director, Campaign for Environmental Literacy Gerald A. Lieberman is the founding director of the State Education and Environment Roundtable, a cooperative endeavor of sixteen state departments of education, which developed the EIC (Environment as an Integrating Context) Model for environmental study. He also served as the principal consultant for the development of California's Education and the Environment Initiative, a curriculum now in use by K-12 classrooms throughout the state.