Bay Area
Serving Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Solano Counties

Education and the Environment Initiative

http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Education/EEI/

Education and Environment Initiative (EEI) EE Provider Workshops

• 5/5/08, 10-1:00 Richardson Audubon Bay, Tiburon
• 6/3/08 tenatively 10-1:00 Crissy Fields Center, SF
• 6/5/08 10-1:00 Sonoma County Water Agency
• 6/9/08, 10-2 Stopwaste.Org, Oakland
• 6/26/08, 2-4:00, Children’s Discovery Museum, SJ
• Solano/Napa TBD
  

•     Learn how to use the CREEC Network
•     Update on EEI
•     Review the EEI Model Curriculum
•     Use the audit tool to align your programs to EEI

Education and the Environment Initiative: Background

The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) are implementing the Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) pursuant to AB 1548 (Pavley, Chapter 665, Statutes of 2003-PDF) and AB 1721 (Pavley, Chapter 581, Statutes of 2005-PDF). These laws mandate the development of a Unified Education Strategy to bring education about the environment into California’s schools. Other key partners include: the Office of the Secretary for Education, Curriculum and Supplemental Materials Commission, State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, and the California Resources Agency.

Key Elements of EEI Include:

• Development of California’s Environmental Principles & Concepts, (EP&Cs) - completed
• Alignment of the EP&C’s to California’s Academic Content Standards - completed
• Development of a Model Curriculum to teach the EP&C’s to California’s K-12 students – in process. Field testing of the EEI Curriculum is occurring in districts throughout California in 2007 – 2008 and will be followed by pilot testing of the curricula. In Orange County, the O.C. Dept. of Ed’s “ACCESS” program was invited, and accepted, to be part of the field and pilot testing process.
• Incorporation of the EP&C’s into criteria for instructional materials adoption in science, history/social science, English/language arts and, mathematics – occurring
• Alignment of state agency’s diverse environmental education programs and materials with the EP&C’s – occurring

Environmental/Science Education Providers:

When the EEI Curricula is released in final format, teachers will be looking for support from local organizations to help them address the Environmental Principles & Concepts that will be integrated into their textbooks.

Now is the time to audit your existing programs to look for ways to incorporate the EP&Cs and align new programs to them.

Recommended Steps to Follow

1. Download the EEI Model Curriculum Plan available at . This document lists the five Environmental Principles and Concepts. More importantly, it describes specific EEI Learning Objectives that lead students to mastery of specified standards while addressing the EP&Cs.
2. Become very familiar with the EEI Model Curriculum Plan.
3. Explore the other resources available at the EEI website. Drafts of the units being developed are available for review.
4. Use the EEI Planning Pages to develop a big picture plan for incorporating the EP&C's and the EEI Learning Objectives into your program curricula.
5. Use the EEI Audit Tool to analyze each of your lesson plans in relationships with the EEI Learning Objectives.
   
   Obviously this process has been distilled to just its essentials!

   Please contact me if you have questions or want specific support.