The Mountain Goat is a beautifully illustrated, bi-lingual Spanish/English
children´s book that uses Gunter Pauli´s ZERI* Education model to teach
children science. The book includes a teachers and parents guide and hands on
activities that help children apply what they have learned. Gunter Pauli´s
ZERI* Education model proposes that children, adolescents and young adults
learn science in a way that gives them a more profound academic understanding
at the same time that it helps develop their emotional intelligence, eco-
literacy, and artistic/creative capacities. If children are to learn how to
think, design, create, and dream in systems, then they must be exposed to
systems thinking at an early age. Critical concepts become part of the child´s
long-term memory and the student gains an intuitive grasp of the big picture.
Then the learning of the specific tools, concepts, and principles involved
become far more appealing. When students start with a story that integrates
ethics, economics, biology, and mathematics, they will be drawn to studying
those disciplines later on. Pauli´s work in sustainable manufacturing and
agricultural became the catalyst for a major educational reform in Colombia.
The strife and violence that exists in this country spawned an urgent desire on
the part of college students to rebuild their society. The professors and
engineering students at University EAFIT in Medellin, Colombia, eagerly
embraced an integrated educational approach, including a compulsory course in
biology for engineering majors. As the concept spread to other universities,
the need to mold the earlier educational tracks in this new direction became
apparent; first in a High Schoolin Manizales where ZERIs coffee and bamboo
projects have taken off, and then in elementary schools which asked for a
version of this program adapted to their level, comparable to the Garden School
projects of the Center for Ecoliteracy.
