Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan: Building a Network
by Traci Price
In 2009, the Oregon Legislature passed the No Oregon Child Left Inside (NOCLI) Act that established an eleven-member task force charged with developing The Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan: Toward a Sustainable Future[1](OELP). The OELP, accepted by the Oregon Legislature in 2010, articulates a vision for education in Oregon where every student experiences a continuum of place-based, outdoor learning opportunities and becomes a lifelong steward of his or her environment and community, prepared to address challenges with sound decisions for our future.
The OELP’s five learning strands have been comprehensively aligned with Oregon Academic Standards and Essential Skills. You can find a crosswalk of this alignment work on the Oregon Department of Education’s website: http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=2886. Consider using the OELP crosswalk for your own programs to help get teachers outside! (more…)
1. Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators
The Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators Program, a partnership between the CEQ and the EPA, recognizes outstanding K-12 teachers who employ innovative approaches to environmental education and use the environment as a context for learning for their students. Teachers from each EPA region will be selected to receive the award. The deadline for application is January 31, 2013. http://www.epa.gov/education/teacheraward/
2. Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge
The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is a national environmental sustainability competition for grades K–12. Students learn about science and conservation through project-based learning. The website offers tools to help integrate the challenge into their curriculum. The deadline for entry is March 5, 2013. http://www.wecanchange.com/
3. edudemic
This website offers a platform dedicated to what’s next in learning by connecting technology, emerging trends, social media, and culture. The website focuses on social media applications, flexible learning frameworks, and more. While the website is packed, the article headlines offer a good summary of what you’ll find – often a numbered list such as The 18 Best Free Web Tools Chosen By You, or The 5 Biggest Ways Students Actually Want To Use Technology. Check out 10 STEM Apps To Teach About The Environment. http://edudemic.com/
4. GLOBE Citizen Science Campaigns
Two GLOBE Citizen Science Campaigns include GLOBE at Night, an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution, and GLOBE Student Climate Research Campaign, which aims to engage students in measuring, investigating, and understanding the climate system in their local communities and around the world. http://www.smdeponews.org/programs-events/globe-phenology-and-climate-project-through-june-30/
5. Mystery Class – Exploring Sunlight and the Seasons
Teachers and students are invited to participate this winter and spring in Journey North’s Mystery Class project, January 28-May 10, 2013, in which students try to find ten secret classes hiding around the globe using the changing sunlight at each site as the clue. http://www.learner.org/jnorth/mclass/fall2012/update120112.html
6. National EE Week
The theme for National Environmental Education Week 2013, April 14-20, 2013, is Greening STEM: Taking Technology Outdoors. Register to take advantage of this year’s offerings and to learn more about the theme. Check out the suggested Top 10 Apps for Taking Tech Outside. http://www.eeweek.org/
Action for Nature seeks applications from students ages 8-16 for its International Young Eco-Hero Awards Program. The awards program recognizes the individual accomplishments of young people whose personal actions have significantly improved the environment. Projects must concern advocacy, environmental health, research, or protection of the natural world. The deadline for application is January 15, 2013. http://www.actionfornature.org/eco-hero-awards/201-application-guidelines
2. Advancing Informal STEM Learning Grants
The National Science Foundation is encouraging proposals that capture the creative and innovative potential of informal STEM learning for the future, and potentially forge new connections across all STEM learning communities. The deadline for application is January 14, 2013. http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12560/nsf12560.htm
3. Apprentice Ecologist Initiative
The Apprentice Ecologist Initiative engages youth, parents, and teachers from around the world in environmental stewardship and conservation projects. The goals of the initiative are to elevate young people (especially at-risk and low-income kids and teens) into leadership roles by engaging them in environmental stewardship projects, empower volunteers to rebuild the environmental and social well-being of our communities, and improve local living conditions for both citizens and wildlife. The deadline for entry is December 31, 2012.
>a href=”http://www.wildernessproject.org/volunteer_apprentice_ecologist.php”>http://www.wildernessproject.org/volunteer_apprentice_ecologist.php
4. Celebrate Urban Birds Mini-Grants
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers mini-grants to help fund neighborhood events or projects featuring activities involving birds, community service, art, greening, and science. The deadline for application is February 15, 2013. http://celebraeurbanbirds.org/
(from NAAEE) — New England, New Mexico, Kentucky, Oregon and Utah have joined California, Colorado and Maryland as part of the EECapacity State Consortia network. (more…)
PEI recently created multiple guides as part of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Conservation Education Strategy Toolkit. These include the Project Based Learning Model, Field Investigations, Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills, Sustainable Tomorrow, Landscape Investigation Guidelines and Schoolyard Biodiversity Investigation Educator Guide. These guides are free to download! Contact PEI to find out more about how they can work with you through professional development opportunities.
http://www.pacificeducationinstitute.com
2. From LaMotte: The Water Quality Educator
Teach your students and volunteer monitors all about Natural Water Quality Monitoring. Use this CD to plan and implement a special long-term service project, community outreach program, environmental course, and classroom and field trip pre-lab activity to test water quality in rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, estuaries, and other natural bodies of water.
http://lamotte.com/component/option,com_pages/lang,en/mid,/page,182/task,item
3. Christopher Columbus Awards
The Christopher Columbus Awards for Middle School Students is a community-based STEM program. Students work in teams of three to four, with an adult coach, to identify a problem in their community and apply the scientific method to create an innovative solution to that problem. The deadline for submission is February 4, 2013. http://www.christophercolumbusawards.com/
4. Climate Change Curriculum
Stanford University has developed climate change curriculum units for middle and high school students. The lesson plans include both teacher-centered and student-centered activities with lectures based on provided slideshows, teacher-led demonstrations, student-led investigations, and group analysis of data. Underlying these activities is a philosophy of learning by inquiry as well as justifying claims with evidence. https://pangea.stanford.edu/programs/outreach/climatechange/
5. PBLU Schoolyard Habitat Project
The PBLU Schoolyard Habitat Project is a collaboration between the Buck Institute for Education, the Pacific Education Institute, and the National Environmental Education Foundation. In the Schoolyard Habitat Project students become engaged learners as they research, design and implement a plan to enhance their school campus by creating wildlife habitat, planting native plants or even removing weeds and invasive plants from the school grounds. Elementary teachers are encouraged to participate in either the summer or fall courses. A Schoolyard Habitat Project for secondary teachers will be available in time for the fall course dates. Sign up to take a free series of online classes designed to walk you through the PBL essentials. Learn how to apply PBL to a capstone project and engage students in practicing math and language arts skills while enhancing the wildlife habitat of their school campus through low or no cost strategies!
http://www.pblu.org/projects/schoolyard-habitat-project
by Traci Price
The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is a national environmental sustainability competition for grades K–12. Students learn about science and conservation through project-based learning. The website offers tools to help integrate the challenge into their curriculum. The deadline for entry is March 5, 2013.
Two GLOBE Citizen Science Campaigns include GLOBE at Night, an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution, and GLOBE Student Climate Research Campaign, which aims to engage students in measuring, investigating, and understanding the climate system in their local communities and around the world.
Teachers and students are invited to participate this winter and spring in Journey North’s Mystery Class project, January 28-May 10, 2013, in which students try to find ten secret classes hiding around the globe using the changing sunlight at each site as the clue.
The theme for National Environmental Education Week 2013, April 14-20, 2013, is Greening STEM: Taking Technology Outdoors. Register to take advantage of this year’s offerings and to learn more about the theme. Check out the suggested Top 10 Apps for Taking Tech Outside.
2. From LaMotte: The Water Quality Educator
