Eastipedia: Environmental Education

The Environmental Education class has been at East since 1986. Mr. James Lockard brought the program to East from Shawnee Mission South and with it he brought a broad range of animals.

“Who doesn’t love messing around with animals,” senior Andrea Rutledge said. “Everyone always just gets out animals during class or when we are taking notes or lecturing.”

The class is incredibly focused on animals, much more so than the AP Environment Science class Lockard also teaches.  One of the most popular animals is Terrance, a leopard gecko. The rabbit, Moo, is also a favorite of the students.

Beginning in the second semester, the classes show and teach elementary students about the different animals. Multiple schools in the district, such as Belinder and Prairie bring their kindergarteners on field trips get an interactive learning experience about each animal. The favorite animals among the kindergarteners are the many snakes, or the assortment of mammals in the shows.

Lockard is popular among the majority of his students, they say he makes the class more enjoyable.

“You don’t feel like you are learning things over and over again,” Rutledge said.

The class obviously has a strong base around animals, but there are other reasons students take the class.

“Quite a big number take it because they like interacting with kids during the shows,” senior Jackson Dalton said. “Some just take it as seniors to have an easier class rather than chemistry or physics.”

Different from the second semester, the first semester focuses on learning biologically about animals and the human relationship with the environment. In the second semester, the focus is more on the environment and teaching others about it through the shows.

The program has grown over the years, and Dalton believes it is because of teacher Mr. Lockard.

“Mr. Lockard does a really good job,” Dalton said. “[Lockard] is definitely one of the most underappreciated teachers at East. He does lots of cool things that go unnoticed and he brings his own sort of style of teaching to East.”