Berk and Elleen, I agree that the three visit per year is unrealistic for many schools. I live in NE Washington State and the schools have very little money. Right now our program is only one visit for every 2nd and 5th grader (In the Colville School Dist) and that takes up four days for the volunteers. Our staff is so small they can only…[Read more]

Sandy K Mickey uploaded new file(s): draftenvironmentaleducationstrategicplan_sandy-mickey.pdf to Environmental Education

I agree with Berk on the 3 visits to a Refuge. Many, many schools will not be able to give the time nor have the funds for 3 visits. This could be altered by staff making visits to the schools and giving follow-up activities for the teachers and students to implement.

Also, in some states the Next Generation Science Standards are not being…[Read more]

Thanks everyone. I hope this is where I should offer my comments. If so, her they come…
What a tremendous amount of effort went into creating this draft. If the nation’s children (and adult visitors too) find EE programs as envisioned by the team at National Wildlife Refuges, they will have a much better understanding of conservation and nature…[Read more]

Friends of Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge is planning a new children’s “Creative Nature” camp for two weeks (one week for 8-10 and one for 11-13 year-olds) this summer. We have our Environmental Coordinator working with a group of volunteers to develop the curriculum, plan publicity, work out logistics, etc. While we do a lot of EE…[Read more]

An interesting TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2012-08-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email. What an inspiration for getting ideas like green-schools started. How do we get more schools involved in green-brown space activities?

New (or old) was of thinking about Environmental Education: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6929/
Do you remember building forts as a child?