The AE.org Educators' Resource Center offers a comprehensive archive for teachers, parents, and individuals who are looking for activities, exercises, and worksheets relevant to soundscape-oriented learning. Included are practical ways to integrate CDs, listening in your own home places, and a cross-cultural awareness of listening practices into your programs.

Peruse the links (below or to the right) to get a sense of the ways that you can bring soundscape awareness into your classroom. We'd like to facilitate a sense of community among teachers doing this work, so please, be in touch!

"I hear the soundscape as a language with which places and societies express themselves. In the face of rampant noise pollution, I want to be understanding and caring of this 'language' and how it is 'spoken.' I compose with any sound that the environment offers to the microphones, just as a writer works with all the words that a language provides. It is in the specific ways in which the language is selected, organized, and processed that composition occurs. . . . I like to position the microphone very close to the tiny, quiet, and complex sounds of nature, then amplify and highlight them: to make them audible to the numbed urban ear. Perhaps in that way these natural sounds can be understood as occupying an important place in the soundscape and warrant respect and protection." Hildegard Westerkamp

Short introductions from AE.org - Three short overviews to get you oriented: Acoustic Ecology in the classroom and the field, Simple Exercises in Acoustic Ecolog, and Using soundscape recordings in the classroom. [GO]

An introduction to acoustic ecology - a journal article by Kendell Wrightson which provides an in-depth introducton to the history and scope of the field of acoustic ecology. [GO]

An introduction to oceanic acoustics - Web presentation by Lisa Walker [GO]

Ear training exercises - written and audio samples of sound walks and sound journals [GO]

Ecoacoustics study guide - college level readings for an introductory course on acoustic ecology and listening. [GO]

The impacts of sound on harbour porpoises - A five-lesson curriculum from Stream to Sea, offered by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. [GO]

Kids Ear Page - special web site designed for students age 7-14, from the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. [GO]

Melting Ice and Stranded Penguins: A Story of Global Warming - Listen to an 8 minute radio journalism piece by Kathy Turco, reporting from Antarctica. [GO]

Books by R. Murray Schafer - Online catalog from the first champion of acoustic ecology. [GO]

EarthEar Classroom Collection - Collection of CDs from producers worldwide specially selected for classroom use. [GO]

Quick guides to tracks on two EarthEar CDs- Why do Whales and Children Sing?: A Guide to Listening in Nature, and The Dreams of Gaia [GO]