K-12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence Training

Who: K-12 teachers and informal educators

When: Wednesday, June 21 from 11-2:30 pm with a lunch break 12-12:30 pm

Where: in-person Kellogg Biological Station, Auditorium, 3700 East Gull Lake Dr., Hickory Corners, MI 49060 (link to directions) AND/OR online via zoom webinar (9-10:30am each morning)

This training is hosted within the KBS K-12 Partnership Summer Institute, click here for full event and registration info.

Click here to register!

In this participatory workshop you will gain understanding of the best practices of environmental education for K-12 students. Together we will unpack the guidelines and learn how to build environmental education into your current lessons and curriculum. Participants will receive free copies of the K–12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence and the Executive Summary for the Guidelines for Excellence project. This workshop and the Guidelines booklets are part of the National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education. The Project is an effort of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) to establish guidelines for the development of coherent and comprehensive environmental education materials and programs. 

Workshop Background

This workshop will introduce you to K–12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence which provides students, parents, educators, home schoolers, administrators, policy makers, and the public a set of common, voluntary guidelines for environmental literacy. The guidelines support state and local environmental education efforts in this way: 

• Set expectations for achievement in fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades
• Suggest a framework for effective and comprehensive environmental education programs and curricula
• Demonstrate how environmental education can be used to meet standards set by the traditional disciplines and give students opportunities to synthesize knowledge and experience across disciplines
• Define the aims of environmental education

 Workshop Objectives

• Gain understanding of environmental literacy and how it can be woven into existing curriculum
• Learn to identify the strands of environmental literacy
  • 1: Questioning, analysis and interpretation skills
  • 2: environmental processes and systems
  • 3: skills for understanding and addressing
  • 4: personal and civic responsibility
• Analyze a selected lesson or curriculum for alignment with the Guidelines

Presenters from the Michigan Guidelines Trainers Bureau

Kara Haas, K-12 Partnership Coordinator

Misty Klotz

Lauren Westerman 

Coordinated by Misty Klotz, Lauren Westerman and Kara Haas (Michigan representatives of the Guidelines Trainers Bureau)

More about the K-12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence