The Environmental Philosophy with Children program is a unique collaboration between undergraduate and graduate students at the University of North Texas aimed at bringing weekly philosophy sessions to local public-school students. Since 2024, the program has been implemented at Newton Rayzor Elementary School. For the 2026-2027 school year, the program aims to expand to other Denton ISD schools.  

The purpose of this program is to foster philosophical skills alongside increasing awareness of current environmental issues and topics and familiarizing students with their local ecology. UNT students serve as facilitators, teaching and modeling philosophical skills and utilizing a range of media such as art, books, poetry, films, and outdoor engagements. 

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EPWC sessions include a range of creative and critical activities depending on the grade level. During sessions, students learn and practice valuable discussion skills such as active listening, asking clarifying questions, identifying assumptions, developing claims with supporting reasons, and working as a group to think deeply and respectfully together. Through ongoing group and individual reflection, students also practice evaluating their personal and collaborative inquiry.  

Additionally, students engage with local, national, and global environmental questions and analyze ethical dilemmas from a variety of standpoints, including from other-than-human plants and animals. By doing so, this program seeks to not only promote student’s critical thinking and reasoning skills but also provide them with the skills necessary to be active citizens within their multispecies communities.  

This program is generously funded by a grant from the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization. 

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Past projects and funding 

 

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2024-2026: PLATO Gerler Fellowship  

PhD candidate Shoshana McIntosh’s received the Gerler Fellowship from the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization for two consecutive years. This fellowship supported Shoshana’s development of the EPWC program at UNT and in Denton ISD. Read more about Shoshan’s work on the PLATO blog. 

2019: Environmental Explorers Summer Camp 

UNT graduate and undergraduate philosophy and art education students led a week-long Environmental Explorers Summer Camp. The camp involved outdoor learning, art-making, a field trip to the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area, and philosophical discussions centered around topics including local ecology, animal agency, habitat loss, conservation, and Indigenous relationships with land. This camp was funded in part by the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization and the Onstead Institute. 

2018-2019: K-12 Philosophy  

UNT graduate and undergraduate students led weekly PWC sessions with high school and elementary students. 

PhD Candidate Rika Tsuji implemented P4C with English-Language-Learners. 

PhD students Rika Tsuji and Benn Johnson taught at the Biocitizen School, in Northampton, MA, a summer camp which implements a new form of "field environmental philosophy," to educate students about their environments through "deep biotic immersion".