CREEC Network

EE Curriculum Resources and Libraries

There are many curricular resources available to teachers today.  Check out some of the programs listed below to help you teach about the environment in your classroom!

Have you heard about the Compendia Project? It is a powerful tool in evaluating EE curriculum. A great deal of material exists on all aspects of environmental education, but many fail to meet high standards. Benefit from the years of work CDE put into evaluating thousands of curricula. Soon you will be able to search the compendia on our Searchable Database to get exactly the lessons you need!

EE-Link provides numerous environmental education links to sites on the internet. Look up any aspect of environmental education here.

Education and the Environment:  Strategic Initiatives for Enhancing Education in California, commonly referred to as the State Plan for EE in California was completed in 2002.  The Plan outlines six strategic initiatives and provides direction and priorities to legislators, funders, and educators for building a foundation for high quality environment-based education in California.

A Child's Place in the Environment (ACPE) is an interdisciplinary series of six grade-level curriculum guides for elementary school teachers that integrates science, English/language arts, and selected children's literature using the environment as a theme. The lessons in each unit have been correlated to California's content standards. Topics of units include: living things, soil, ecosystems, water, natural resources, and sustainable communities. All units culminate with student projects which enhance their environment and provide experiences in service learning.

ARKive - Images of Life on Earth
ARKive gathers together, into a centralized digital library films, photographs and audio recordings of the world's species, creating a record of the world's biodiversity.  The Web site features photographs of endangered and protected species worldwide, and includes information on habitat, status, descriptions, threats and biology.  For more information, check out http://www.arkive.org/.

Closing the Loop:  Waste Management & Resource Conservation

Developed by California Integrated Waste Management Board, this curriculum helps educators incorporate waste prevention, recycling and composting in the classroom.  The curriculum is interdisciplinary and action oriented, adding to student appeal.  Appropriate for K-6 students and educators this is a FREE download.

ECO Journey's Program Through Creative Education
Creative Education provides hands-on experiences to teachers and students that focus on the interrelations between people and their natural environment.  Their goal is to inspire exploration, conservation and the integration of broadened perspectives in local communities and daily lives. ECO (Explore the Culture and Ocean) Journeys are four to 14-day field programs where students snorkel coral reefs and mangroves, assist researchers with fish surveys and aquaculture projects, work the waters with a local fisherman and much more. ECO Journeys are available to public, private and charter schools, family groups, home schools, community groups and teacher groups. Creative Education creates long-term relationships with the groups that participate in the programs, providing continuity, depth of content and long-term impact. For more information, check out http://www.creativeed.org/ECOhome/fieldprograms.htm.

A Resource Guide for Oceanography and Coastal Processes
The Oceanography and Coastal Processes Resource Guide has been developed and rigorously field-tested by the 1993-1997 Operation Pathfinder participants. The Operation Pathfinder project was funded by the U.S. Navy, Sea Grant and the Department of Interior.  After multiple publications, the Guide was redesigned for delivery via CD-ROM and made interactive using NOAA and Navy data sets; the contents of the CD are also posted on the COAST Web site.

 This Resource Guide is aligned with National Science Education Standards. There are 81 lesson plans, each complete with basic scientific background information, educational objectives, materials lists, instructions, evaluation and extensions for further learning. There are lesson plans and activities for both elementary and middle school and high school. The Web site has served as a guidebook and primer providing major resources that have been widely used in classrooms across the nation by both teachers and students. You can access resource guide from two Web sites by going to http://www.coast-nopp.org/toc.html or http://www.usm.edu/aquarium. While on USM's Scott Aquarium Web site, click on resources to access the COAST Resource Guide. While you're there, check out the Coral Reefs Resource Guide.

 The Birdhouse Network There is an excellent opportunity for schools to participate in The Birdhouse Network of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. The web site provides information about cavity-nesting birds, habitat requirements, how to construct or select a good nest box, and much more.  You can receive a subscription to Birdscope, the Lab's quarterly newsletter. For more information about The Birdhouse Network, visit their web site (above), call (800) 843-2473, or email them at birdhouse@cornell.edu.

Exploring the Environment, part of NASA's Classroom of the Future Exploring the Environment provides tools to help teachers make students more environmentally aware and to acquire the values and attitudes necessary for sustainable development. Modules encourage collaborative groups of students to conduct research in environmental areas and to generate products which demonstrate understanding. (Grades 6-12.)

KidMAX for California's Schools - CalMAX

Developed by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, the program offers schools FREE and/or bargain-prices materials.  Educators can obtain a variety of materials, donated by industry.  Materials found might include science supplies, art supplies, bucket, computers, binders or fabric.

Project Learning Tree (PLT) is an environmental education program for educators working with students in preK-12th grade. PLT helps students gain awareness and knowledge of the natural and built environment, their place within it, and their responsibility for it.

Project WILD is a nationwide environmental education program. Facilitators conduct teacher workshops and training materials to be used with students in grades K-12. There are over 800 workshop facilitators and over 39,000 teachers who have attended a Project WILD workshop in California.

Project WET is a great source of water education materials and resources, sponsored by the Water Education Foundation.

Smithsonian Lesson Plans
Smithsonian lesson plans emphasize inquiry-based learning using primary sources and museum collections. Each plan is print-friendly and provides you with all the materials you need -- photographs, reproductions, handouts, activities, suggested strategies, standards information and additional online resources. The searchable database allows you to browse lesson plans by subject area or search by grade levels and keywords. Check out Ocean Planet: Marine Science Activities.

Energy Information Administration A good source of information for elementary school students. Helps them gain an understanding of what energy is and includes a quiz, fun, games and additional resources.

The California Environmental Resources Evaluation System - CERES An incredible library of information! Developed by the California Resources Agency to facilitate access to a variety of electronic data describing California's rich and diverse environments. The goal of CERES is to improve environmental analysis and planning by integrating natural and cultural resource information from multiple contributors and making it available and useful to a wide variety of users.

Education Planet is an excellent K-12 education portal. Try searching this site for some environmental education lesson plans!

GLOBE is an international environmental education and research program which brings scientists, teachers, and students together to collect and analyze data about the earth. The entire teachers guide is available online to anyone who wants to use the lessons in it, and all of the GLOBE data is also archived on this site for study by anyone.

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