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Mark Ericson

CBE and SHP
HS Academics
Santa Fe, NM

I have a B.A. and many hours of post-graduate work. I have taught at SFIS for over 25 years. At SFIS, I teach Community Based Environmental (CBE) Science and Field Studies Senior Honors Project (SHP). In my work with students, I try to facilitate interdisciplinary learning experiences that are current, relevant and important. Community environmental issues are the core of the curriculum, and the coursework gives the students experiences on which to base their interests. Approaching issues from historical, local, and global perspectives helps students develop foresight capabilities, which they can use to explore how their communities can best prepare for and deal with the many challenges which a changing world presents.
Some of my most memorable experiences at SFIS come from watching my students learn about important issues from community members, learning that many former students have gone on to pursue higher education in related fields, and return to work and become contributing members of their communities, and watching students as they share what they have learned with others.
Although all of the values reflected in the values tree are important, I believe that cultivating respect and reverence for the natural world, or developing environmental values, knowledge and experience, engenders growth in all of the rest of the core values deemed important by the SFIS community—integrity, culture, traditions, caring and giving back, empathy and acceptance, humility and patience, responsibility and wisdom, humor, courage and perseverance, health and resiliency, and so on. This is the fundamental aim of the curriculum we try to deliver through community based environmental studies.
Currently, I am very interested in developing effective curriculum that emphasizes four related areas—an appreciation for the life-sustaining services that the natural world provides; the understanding that the greater the biodiversity of an ecosystem, the healthier and more resilient it is, and protecting, maintaining and promoting biodiversity is key to the survival of humanity; the roles that special ‘keystone’ species, such as the magnificent landscape engineers—the Beaver and the Prairie Dog - play in increasing biodiversity, slowing down and increasing water supply, and creating fertile soil; and using geography, mapping, and spatial thinking to enhance all lessons. I am also interested in developing more effective and student friendly ways of teaching chemistry and nuclear science.
My passions are my family, helping endangered species and promoting reverence for nature through music, helping young people realize that they are capable and have much of value to offer, and keeping abreast of the rapid changes taking place on our planet. I want for our students to have interesting and meaningful educational experiences from which they can develop their interests, and which give them a sense of accomplishment.