About Us
The mission of The Environmental Charter School at Frick Park is to educate each student to high academic learning standards using a themed curriculum that will foster knowledge, love of and respect for the environment and the will to preserve it for future generations.
The school began with grades K-3 in September, 2008 and grew to include fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grades by the 2012/2013 school year. The school will continue to grow by one grade a year to grade 8. The school fills a gap in local education programs as the first environmentally-themed public school in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
How is the Environmental Charter School Different?
As the world changes and becomes increasingly more complex, global citizens will need to be equipped with skills that allow them to be flexible thinkers, creative problem solvers, and effective leaders.
ECS offers a program that develops students into critical thinkers, thoughtful innovators, and well- rounded scholars. We provide students the tools and educational foundation to become tomorrow’s global citizen, and we strive to teach students how their choices impact the world around them. By using environmental content as a lens for instruction, ECS provides students a context in which to explore ideas and observations, to practice inquiry and to actively problem solve. Throughout their academic career at ECS, students build core skills across all disciplines, and then actively apply these skills to support the impact of learning.
Our Unique Program
Using the Environment as an Integrating Context (EIC), our Lower School (K-3) and our Upper School (4-8) provide a vertically-aligned program that builds developmentally in providing place- based, inquiry-centered learning.
As students explore, discover, question, and learn through the lens of a scientist, the curricular areas of reading/language arts, mathematics, social studies, and the arts and humanities are increasingly experienced through connections with a child’s sense of place and through authentic learning experiences in the field. An integrated approach to instruction provides students with a more holistic understanding of the natural, social, and built systems that define our community. Using the urban landscape as an extension of the traditional classroom becomes a natural asset to daily instruction, to integration of environment and ecology standards, and to the educational experience of every child.
