Resources :: Teaching Sustainability
The National Wildlife Federation created Schoolyard Habitats to assist schools in developing outdoor classrooms where educators and students learn how to attract and support local wildlife. These wildlife habitats become places where students not only learn about wildlife species and ecosystems, but also outdoor classrooms where they hone their academic skills and nurture their innate curiosity and creativity.
The Eco-Schools program is an internationally acclaimed program that provides a framework to help educators integrate sustainable principles throughout their schools and curriculum. Their goal is to help teachers and their schools model environmentally sound practices, provide support for greening the curriculum, and enhance science and academic achievement.
The Zerofootprint Foundation is a not-for-profit whose mission is to apply technology, design, and risk management to the massive reduction of our environmental footprint. Their latest initiative, the Zerofootprint Challenge, engages students and schools to measure their electricity, gas and water consumption through an interactive software tool. The fun begins as schools challenge one another to achieve the largest percentage reduction and engage their communities and governments to match their efforts.
The Center for Ecoliteracy promotes education in the values, skills and knowledge needed to Create sustainable communities. Its current programs include Rethinking School Lunch, a planning framework for integrating curriculum with school lunch, campus gardens, kitchen classrooms and public policy. Their incredibly informative website provides a 175-page sustainability guide and an ongoing series of essays by leading educators and activists.
CES works in partnership with schools, universities, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, natural history museums and science centers worldwide to protect wildlife and nature. Their website provides learning guides that invite you to explore rainforests and coral reefs with students to find the connection to saving wildlife and wild places forever.
The Center for Environmental Education
The Center for Environmental Education (CEE) works with K-12 schools to address climate-change issues and to cultivate healthy lifestyles. They believe that children learn best through experience-- If their schools are green, children will learn to live that way.
Project Learning Tree is an environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation. Their comprehensive website offers award-winning environmental education programs designed for teachers and other educators, parents, and community leaders working with young people from preschool through grade 12.
Yosemite National Institutes (YNI) is a national organization dedicated to teaching science and environmental education in nature’s classroom to inspire a personal connection to the natural world and responsible actions to sustain it. Their project NatureBridge has introduced almost one million students to national parks through residential environmental education programs over the past 40 years.