Marijke Hecht
Contact Information
Assistant Professor
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Areas of Expertise
- Informal and out-of-school learning
- Urban environmental education
- Science & environmental identity development
- Relational processes between human and more-than-human beings
- Learning ecosystem theory and design
| Marijke Hecht is Assistant Professor of Environmental Education in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on urban communities where she works collaboratively with educators and youth to understand and develop pathways for people to learn about and care for the natural world we are all a part of. She explores questions of environmental identity, environmental literacy about complex ecological issues, and the structure and function of learning ecosystems. Prior to her work in academia, she taught middle and high school math and science in NYC public schools and spearheaded urban environmental restoration projects in Pittsburgh, PA. These community-based projects include advocating for the Nine Mile Run aquatic ecosystem restoration, one of the largest urban stream improvements in the U.S., and managing the design and construction of the award-winning Frick Environmental Center, a public education hub, welcome facility and park gateway that received LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge certification and is net-zero water and energy. As Director of Education for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, she led the organization in successfully broadening participation in outdoor parks-based science education in partnership with local K-12 educators. She received her PhD in Learning Sciences and Policy from the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Science in Botany from the Field Naturalist program at the University of Vermont. |