National Environmental Education and Training Program

Overview

<p>The purpose of this program is to provide environmental education training and long-term support to education professionals across the U.S. to enable them to effectively teach about environmental issues. Long-term support (e.g., the use of national guidelines that discuss what constitutes quality environmental education materials and what a student needs to know about the environment in grades K-12 to become environmentally literate) is as important as the training itself. Training and support must:</p> <p> </p><ul> <li><span>Provide for both formal and non-formal educators (e.g., classroom teachers and faculty at colleges and universities as well as educators in museums, nature centers and other non-formal venues); </span></li> <li><span>Occur in both pre-service (e.g., for students and faculty in colleges of education) and in-service settings (e.g., for classroom teachers and other practicing educators); and </span></li> <li><span>Reach geographically and culturally diverse audiences across the U.S. to the maximum extent possible.  </span></li> </ul> <p> </p><p>The intermediate outcome is better trained educators and the long-term outcome is a more environmentally literate public. The more environmentally literate the public is, the better they are able to understand complex environmental issues and to make responsible decisions that minimize adverse impacts on the environment. This knowledge and understanding enables the public to take actions that prevent pollution and to become effective environmental stewards.</p> <p> </p><p>Expected outputs:</p> <ul> <li><span>OUTPUT 1: Delivering in-service educator training that builds on existing quality environmental education programs;</span></li> <li><span>OUTPUT 2: Delivering pre-service educator training that enables students and faculty in education departments at colleges and universities to effectively include environmental education in their teaching;</span></li> <li><span>OUTPUT 3: Developing, promoting and/or providing training on the national environmental education guidelines that seek to improve the quality of environmental education.  This refers to the guidelines produced by the National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education (see </span><a href="http://www.naaee.org/"><span>http://www.naaee.org</span></a><span&gt;);</span></li> <li><span>OUTPUT 4: Supporting state “infrastructure” that enables educators to effectively teach about environmental issues (referred to as “state capacity building”);</span></li> <li><span>OUTPUT 5: Developing materials review process that identifies, evaluates, and promotes quality environmental education materials;</span></li> <li><span>OUTPUT 6: Supporting accreditation efforts to include environmental education in college and university teacher preparation programs;</span></li> <li><span>OUTPUT 7: Supporting state educator certification efforts by assisting states that are developing their own certification programs;</span></li> <li><span>OUTPUT 8: Facilitating access to environmental education information and materials by building on existing Internet sites that provide broad electronic access;</span></li> <li><span>OUTPUT 9: Progress reports and a final report will also be required outputs as specified in Section VI (C) of this announcement, “Reporting Requirement.”</span></li> </ul>