AS STUDENTS AND TEACHERS head back into classrooms, school districts are looking for ways to provide more hands-on, project-based learning. Environmental education offers a rich context for just that, with the added benefit of helping students develop important skills and mindsets.

The Superintendent’s Environmental Education Collaborative (www.sups4ee.org), a national partnership that I co-chair, provides tools and resources to assist districts with integration of high-quality environmental education across the curriculum. More than 60 superintendents participate in SEEC, sharing examples of what is working in their districts.

Creating and sustaining an environmental education program has a few key aspects.

»Form a team and make a plan. One strategy is to form a leadership team in the district that can identify the most appropriate places for environmental education to support learning and address academic standards. To ensure the district’s approach is robust and widely supported internally and externally, I recommend including content supervisors, principals, teachers, facility managers, parents, county or local agencies and environmental education providers to create a comprehensive plan jointly.

A K-12 plan for environmental literacy provides an organizing framework for standards-aligned, age-appropriate experiences for every student every year. A plan ensures that content and experiences build toward developing knowledge and skills needed by students to identify and solve local environmental problems.
Additionally, the planning process provides an opportunity to identify gaps, eliminate duplication of programs and develop strategies for providing professional development and equitable delivery of programs.

Maryland was the first state in the nation to approve a graduation requirement for environmental literacy in 2011. Every public school system must provide a comprehensive, multidisciplinary environmental education program infused with curricular offerings and aligned with Maryland environmental literacy standards.
Recently, Queen Anne’s County, Md., Public Schools produced a new environmental literacy plan for K-12 that includes outdoor experiences at every grade level.

»Find partners. Community partners can be a valuable resource for integrating environmental education into the curriculum. Whether providing in-the-field learning for students, standards-based curricula or teacher professional development, partners play an important role in a vibrant program. Identify partners that may have a particular area of content expertise, enrichment opportunities for specific age groups and capacity to offer immersive experiences.

Queen Anne’s students are enthusiastic in learning about the local environment by building shoreline protection projects to enhance fish habitat and oyster restoration efforts on the Chesapeake Bay. Students are placing reef balls in the water outside the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center over two years with support from the Coastal Conservation Association Maryland, ShoreRivers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Students are learning by doing and protecting our natural resources due to the generous contributions of expertise, funding, time and energy of our teachers, community members and partners.

»Resources and funding. There are many resources and funding opportunities to support a school district program. These include professional development, best practices for integrated K-12 programs and research on student outcomes.

Several federal grant programs support environmental education, and some state agencies and private funders provide financial support. Grant programs administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have enabled systemic integration of environmental studies in Maryland. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Education has a grants program.

Further, school districts don’t always realize they are eligible for funds under Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act for providing a “well-rounded” education.

ANDREA KANE, former superintendent in Queen Anne’s County, Md., is professor of practice in education leadership at University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education in Philadelphia, Pa. Twitter: @AndreaKanePGSE