The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
In 1991, the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education was established legislatively to offer professional development for teachers and schools across the state as well as provide materials for students on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Campus.
Housed in Albertson Hall but a part of the College of Natural Resources, WCEE primarily focuses on outreach to K-12 grade teachers. They also administer the Green and Healthy School project where they currently support sustainability practices of 357 schools throughout the state.
Due to advances in technology and higher availability of e-books, there have been many changes with Albertson Hall on campus and libraries in general. The truth is that less people want or need to walk into a library when they can access the same resources online.
Susan Schuller, senior outreach specialist at WCEE for the past fifteen years understands this shift in society and wants to be able to provide resources in the best avenue possible for everyone, which means moving.
“This allows us to really meet the needs of the teachers where they’re at, in giving them resources that are more easily accessible than books,” Schuller said.
Schuller explains that it has been difficult to reach the different schools statewide with physical resources, mainly due to transportation. She is content with the move because the WCEE has not added new materials to their collection and as a result has seen a decline in participants in the last three years.
Teachers and students will still have access to a large selection of the resources as in the past. The majority of curriculum resources will be cataloged and go to the instructional material in the school of education section on the third floor of Albertson Hall. The benefit of this change means that students will have more access to these materials than they had before because they are not limited to the WCEE office hours.
“I’m really excited about the change because although I have a great love for books and this kind of collection, our capabilities of servicing teachers in other ways are opening up,” Schuller said.
The WCEE has approximately twenty educational trunks and kits, their highest used item because they provide teachers with a complete lesson plan and necessary materials to promote immediate hands on learning and fun for their students. Lessons include the topics of forestry education, energy biking to generate power, water kits, and enviroscape.
WCEE hopes to maintain trunks and kits because elementary aged students have fun while learning about math, physics, and natural resources. Advancing the lending program is best because it is the most used section of the center.
“Being an outreach specialist for the campus, I think we have the ability now to really shift in focus and have greater impact,” Schuller said.
The WCEE had everything cataloged in their collection for easy access by having materials organized and color coded based on topic and grade level. The usability of that collection for specific needs of the teacher will be lost where they do not necessarily have everything at their fingertips.
Susan Mory, Library Service Assistant Advanced Lead Cataloger, mentions that WCEE was previously on the UWSP catalog system, however she recently had to withdraw specific WCEE materials from the catalog that will no longer be available because they might be outdated.
“It is sad that resources will not be available to students and that our clientele will not be able to check for resources they have available,” Mory said.
The items that are not kept at the WCEE office will be entered into the collection at the library as a part of the environmental education section, so students and teachers will be required to do more searching themselves.
Albertson Hall is developing into more than just a library, so the move makes sense. The WCEE will be able to fulfill their mission in assisting classroom teachers better because of this change. The space will be made the new home of an inclusive support office for faculty and students.
“I’m really optimistic. I’ve had my sad moments but there are a lot more positives in this move,” Schuller said. “It really is for the better. I really think this will be good for our outreach programming.” The WCEE can be found in TNR 110 and will be moving to SSC 201 where their trunks and kits program will be available.
Kaitlyn Wanta
Reporter
kwant593@uwsp.edu
