What Is Environmental Education
Environmental education is a resource that transcends the classroom—both in character and scope. Regardless of where, how or to whom it’s provided, the end goal is the same: environmental literacy. More than ever, children and adults need to know how ecological systems work and why they matter. Some people have become so disconnected from the natural resources that sustain them, they don’t know where their food comes from or where they get their drinking water. People require knowledge, tools and sensitivity to successfully address and solve environmental problems in their daily lives. The health of the environment is inseparable from humans’ well-being and economic prosperity.  Environmental education is a lifelong process for the learner. Those who provide environmental education in classrooms and who serve the public at parks, museums and nature centers are a powerful presence in North Carolina. The state has long been recognized as a leader in the field of environmental education, and we want to continue that legacy. By supporting environmental educators in North Carolina, we can multiply efforts to help young people and adults understand their connection to the world around them.  We continually seek the most efficient, effective ways to deliver knowledge and to inspire academic excellence.

"We often forget that all education is environmental education - by what we include or exclude, we teach the young that they are part of or apart from the natural world. An economist for example, who fails to connect our economic life with that of ecosystems and the biosphere has taught an environmental lesson all right, but one that is dead wrong. Our goal as educators ought to be to help students understand their implicatedness in the world and to honor mystery." - Dr. David Orr

The Case for Environmental Education
In the classroom and beyond, the desired outcome of environmental education is environmental literacy.1 People who are environmentally literate understand how natural systems function and how humans and the environment are intertwined. To that end, environmental education strives to provide learners with sound scientific information and the vital skills of problem solving, critical thinking and decision-making. At one time or another, individuals will be compelled to address and solve complex environmental problems affecting the economy, public health or shared natural resources. Environmental education provides the necessary tools. The National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education noted that “in the coming decades, the public will more frequently be called upon to understand complex environmental issues, assess risk, evaluate proposed environmental plans and understand how individual decisions affect the environment at local and global scales. Creating a scientifically informed citizenry requires a concerted, systematic approach to environmental education.”2

For Children and Students
In the PreK-12 classroom, environmental education takes it cue from children's natural curiosity about animals, plants and other elements of nature. Teachers report that environmental education captures their students' attention more readily than many other topics. In addition, environmental education has consistently engaged students who are hardest to reach.3 Its value is not limited to students - environmental education reduces burnout among educators and invigorates their teaching.4

Environmental education holds great promise for improving the quality of learning in America's classrooms.5 When teachers use the environment as a context for learning, they report better student performance on standardized measuresments of academic achievement in reading, writing, math, science and social studies; reduced discipline and classroom management problems; increased engagement and enthusiasm for learning; and greater pride and ownership in accomplishments.6

Environmental education in schools can help produce motivated students, high-performance lifelong learners, effective future workers and problem-solvers, thoughtful community leaders and individuals who care about the people, creatures and places that surround them.7

For Adults and Families
American adults, many of whom have missed opportunities to receive environmental education in school, have a hunger for environmental literacy. In a survey of 2,000 American consumers ages 18 and older, half said they "do not have the information to be personally involved in increasing their green behavior."8 Forty-nine percent state they would do more for the environment if they only knew how. Fifty-two percent of respondents said that they seek environmental education so they can protect their personal/family health; an equal number said that they want the information so they can "personally protect the environment."9

A 2001 survey commissioned by the National Environmental Education Foundation found that the public's top environmental concern is the protection of health and family health. Sixty percent of adults responding said that the main reason to protect the environment is to keep people safe from pollution.10

Environmental education is a promising conduit for reducing obesity, particularly among children. Besides its immediate benefits, physical fitness can help children develop lifelong healthy habits. "Children in America are suffering from the effects of obesity and inactivity an unprecedented levels," says Chris Fanning, executive director of the Outdoor Foundation. "Teaching youth the benefits of a healthy, active, outdoor lifestyle wil ensure healthier children, healthier communities, and healthier businesses."11 The Centers for Disease Control asserts that parks and nature have potential for improving and maintaining physical, mental and social components of the health of children and adults."12

A nationwide survey study published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2004 found that exposure to natural settings in after-school and weekend activities significantly reduced the symptoms of ADHD in children ages 5 to 18 who had been diagnosed with the disease.13 Green outdoor activities reduced symptoms significantly more than did activities were matched across settings. The study authors suggested that daily doses of "green time" could alleviate or reduce symptoms of ADHD.

For the Workplace
Environmental edcuation can provide hands-on environmental learning experiences that translate into job skills - whether or not this knowledge applies to a career in science. Charles O. Holliday Jr., chairman and former CEO of DuPont, declared that "an environmentaly sustainable business is just good business, given the growing concern for environmental problems across America. A key component of an environmentally sustainable business is a highly educated workforce, particularly involving environmental principles."14

For the Community

Environmental literacy gives individuals the tools to be good stewards of the environment in their neighborhoods and communities. Educated citizens are vital engines for addressing, preventing and solving local environmental problems - be it through monitoring local streams for pollution or participating in strategic planning for sustainable development. Environmental education also frequently spurs interest and participation in public service and leadership projects with multiple beneficiaries, e.g., schools, faith-based organizations, public parks, impoverished neighborhoods, senior citizens.

The Definition, Principles and Goals of Environmental Education
The field of environmental education owes its origins to two United Nations-sponsored meetins held in the 1970s and the two seminal documents that emerged. The International Workshop on Environmental Education, held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1975, produced the Belgrade Charter, which stated a single goal for enviornmental education. In 1977, delegates to the Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education in Tbilisi, Georgia (USSR) built on the Belgrade foundation in adopting the Tblisi Declaration.

The Belgrade Charter state a single goal of environmental education:
To develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated probelms and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones.

The Tblisi Declaration expressed three broad goals for environmental education:

1. Foster clear awareness of, and concern about, economic, social, political and ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas.

2. Provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, commitment and skills needed to protect and improve the environment.

3. Create new patterns of behavior among individuals, groups and society as a whole toward the environment.

According to the Tblisi principles, environmental education should:

• Consider the environment in its totality - natural and built, technological and social (economic, political, cultural-historical, ethical, aesthetic.)
• Be a continuous lifelong process, beginning at the pre-school level and continuing through all formal and nonformal stages.
• Be interdisciplinary in its approach, drawing on the specific content of each discipline in making possible a holistic and balanced perspective.
• Examine major environmental issues from local, national, regional and international points of view so that students receive insights into environmental conditions in other geographical areas.
• Focus on current and potential environmental situations while taking into account the historical perspective.
• Promote the value and neccessity of local, national and international cooperation in the prevention and solution of environmental problems.
• Explicitly consider environmental aspects in plans for development and growth.
• Enable learners to have a role in planning their learning experiences and provide an opportunity for making decisions and accepting their consequences.
• Relate environmental sensitivity, knowledge, problem-solving skills and values clarification to every age, but iwth specail emphasis on environmental sensitivity to the learner's own community in early years.
• Help learners discover the symptoms and real causes of environmental problems.
• Emphasize the complexity of environmental problems about thus the need to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Utilize diverse learning environments and a broad array of educational approaches to teaching, learning about and from the environment with due stress on practical activities and firsthand experience.
  

Key Characteristics of Environmental Education18

• Relates to an environmental topic or issues.
• Uses the outdoors as a learning environment.
• Is a lifelong learning process.
• Is interdisciplinary and draws upon many fields of study and learning.
• Is relevant to the needs, interests and motivations of the learner.
• Is based on accurate and factual information.
• Presents information in a balanced, unbiased manner.
• Inspires critical thinking and decision-making.
• Motivates people to take responsible action.
• Improves learner achievement and outcomes.
  
  

1. Awareness and sensitivity to the environment and environmental challenges
2. Knowledge and understanding of the environment and environmental challenges
3. Attitudes of concern for the environment and motivation to improve or maintain environmental quality
4. Skills to identify and help resolve environmental challenges
5. Participation in activities that lead to the resolution of environmental challenges (UNESCO, 1978)