Bridget Lewin holds an MA in Education with an emphasis in Instruction and the Use of Technology. She has been passionate about Environmental Education ever since she was a senior at UCSB in Environmental Studies. Before graduating with a BA in Environmental Studies-emphasis in Environmental Sciences-she co-organized an ES course with 9 other seniors and Dr. Rod Nash, in which she planned, taught, and assessed students in a discussion section on Environmental Education. This section included ES students planning and leading interpretive hikes for 60 local sixth graders during their local 3-day EE camping trip. Bridget then received a Single Subject Teaching credential (UCSB) in Life Sciences. After working as an educator in an Environmental Science Center in Houston, she returned to Santa Barbara to be a high school teacher for Anacapa School, teaching Ecology, Advanced Environmental Issues, AP Biology, Algebra and electives in Outdoor Leadership, Ultimate Frisbee and Sewing. While attending UCSB again to receive her MA, she began teaching the Secondary Science Methods and Procedures courses. After being asked to teach the Elementary Science Methods course, she worked closely with other instructors to combine the elementary methods courses within an integrated context. This became the subject for her PhD in Education—studying the UCSB Elementary Teacher Education Program as a Learning Organization and how change develops, is managed, and sustained.
In 1996, Bridget’s became a mother of a daughter and put her research on hold, while continuing to teach the Elementary and Secondary Science Methods courses. In 1993 she was asked to teach the Environmental Education course with the ES Program at UCSB (the class she had campaigned to create when she was graduating). She has been honored to teach this class and has continued to teach ES 127: Introduction to Environmental Education at UCSB ever since. In 2014, ES 127B was added to this course to provide students with a solid understanding of the theory of EE as well as continuing the opportunity for students to apply this understanding to their EE Practicum. This involves students planning, teaching, and assessing a complete EE unit in a local placement and with an audience of their choosing. Within this course, the definition of EE is broad; therefore ES 127 students have taught in a variety of placements, to a variety of audiences, and addressed a variety of environmental issues. Currently, Bridget also owns her own business and is a Science Education Consultant. She is currently working with Santa Barbara Unified School District as their elementary science consultant. She volunteers in her children’s schools and is a member of the Executive Board for the Wilderness Youth Project.
Education
M.Ed., University of California, Santa Barbara