30 July 1992 International Praise for Lincoln Environmental Initiative

Environmental education vacation schools run by Lincoln University have won kudos for Canterbury from the editorial panel of a top international academic journal.

The American-published Journal of Environmental Education, the leader in its specific area of education, has just published an article by Lincoln University's Dr Graeme Buchan, who has co-ordinated three vacation schools in environmental science at Lincoln since 1990 – two for pupils, one for teachers.

The schools have brought several hundred secondary students from throughout New Zealand to Christchurch and the Lincoln campus. All have been full of praise for the programme.

In the article, which was published as the leading piece in the current edition of the journal, Dr Buchan describes the environment as the educational growth area for the future.

"Rescuing the planet from human excess requires new mechanisms for propagating environmental understanding, an ethical outlook, and community action," he says.

Dr Buchan points out that the communication link his university has developed between scientists, senior secondary students and teachers has been highly successful in stimulating environmental appreciation in schools nationwide.

He presents Lincoln University's vacation school concept as a model which could be adopted by universities and similar institutions elsewhere in order to ‘propagate’ environmental awareness.

The article was received by the journal with warm comments from the editor and the panel of referees who evaluated it for publication.

The Journal of Environmental Education is published in association with the North American Association for Environmental Education.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand