April 12, 2010
Contact: Dan Seligson, communications director, National Environmental Education Foundation,
202-365-5568
Students, Educators Celebrate National Environmental Education Week
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Millions of students and thousands of teachers across the country will take part this week in National Environmental Education Week (EE Week), the largest environmental education event in the United States held annually during the week leading up to Earth Day.
EE Week, a project of the National Environmental Education Foundation, runs from April 11-17, features field trips, class exercises, outdoor classrooms, school garden planting and other activities at schools, nature centers and museums. This year’s focus on the connection between water and energy will help K-12 students better understand how usage of each affects the other and empower students to come up with strategies for conservation.
In the United States, generating power consumes 3 percent of our nation's water annually and 13 percent of the energy produced in this country each year is used to treat, transport and heat our water. Conserving water saves energy, and vice versa. The water-energy connection is complex, but it provides an excellent opportunity to get students thinking about the interrelatedness of ecological and environmental concerns.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, in a message to educators said EE Week will “engage young people from every grade level and help lead us to the 40th anniversary of Earth Day later this month.” “Whether it’s taking students to explore nature, planting native species gardens to prevent runoff, or developing in-school recycling projects, these creative activities can make a positive – and lasting – difference,” Jackson said.
Diane Wood, president of the National Environmental Education Foundation, said this year’s theme provides timely lessons to students. “Water conservation and learning about the water-energy connection engages students to take an active role in problem solving,” Wood said. “Their learning, whether in classrooms, on field trips or through activities on school grounds spark ideas for solutions for conserving resources, saving water, saving energy and ultimately having a real impact in their schools and their communities.”
A seven-day lead in to Earth Day, EE Week features class outings and activities focused on the understanding and protection of the natural world. Last year, more than 2,500 partners – including schools, zoos, aquaria, nature centers and museums – took part engaging an estimated 4.5 million students around the country.
This year’s focus, “Be Water and Energy Wise” includes focused lesson plans, quizzes, water measurement kits and nature journaling exercises. The materials cut across all academic areas, from math to language arts and art to science.
In North Carolina, there are hundreds of environmental education events and programs this week, as well as numerous Earth Day events across the state. For more information on EE Week in North Carolina, contact the N.C. Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs at 919-733-0711. View EE Week and Earth Day events on the office's statewide EE Calendar,
http://www.eenorthcarolina.org/.
Several new grants have been added to the N.C. Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs grants listing. Several expire in May, so be sure to check them out before it is too late. There are a wide variety of grants for environmental education centers, schools and various community development projects that are related to or would support environmental education or related programs.
The North American Association for Environmental Education has a new interim executive director. Many in the North Carolina environmental education community will find the name familiar! Linda Rhoads, who recently took the position after the departure of Brian Day, once lived in North Carolina and worked for the North Carolina Office of Environmental Education (N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources). Linda will serve as interim while NAAEE searches for a new executive director. This comes at an exciting time, as Linda will be serving during the planning for the NAAEE Conference, which will held in Raleigh October 12 - 15, 2011. Linda has already been back in North Carolina, working with the Environmental Educators of North Carolina and the N.C. Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs. 
Michele Aydlett, a member of the N.C. Environmental Education Advisory Council (EEAC), was recently inducted into the state’s Order of the Long Leaf Pine. The EEAC advises and makes recommendations to the NC Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs on its educational efforts and strategic direction and informs the Office on trends in education, government, business and the non-profit sector. The Council is comprised of representatives from the academic, business, cultural arts and environmental communities. 
After the passage of Maryland's requirement to incorporate environmental education in the public school curriculum, a "loophole" was proposed that would have allowed schools to bypass the EE requirement by showing students were proficient in science and social studies. News outlets now report that the loophole has been removed:
