Environmental Education Initiative in California Schools
Teresa “Tree” Lees is leading a workshop at CCB on Teaching Students to Care About Their Environment. A new program, the Environmental Education Initiative (EEI) is no longer a vision but is becoming a reality in California schools. EEI is a K-12 curriculum designed to inform the next generation of “environmental stewards” about the massive human impact on the natural world. On the Environmental Protection Agency’s website the Initiative is described as “a national model designed to prepare today’s students to become future scientists, economists, and green technology leaders.”
Atascadero High School has a Green Academy that will be using the new EEI curriculum this year in both Science and History/Social Science courses that the “Greenhound” will take. The Greenhounds will be attending the Central Coast Bioneers Conference. Look for their booth in the Green Marketplace. In Lees’ workshop at the conference Sunday afternoon we will learn the specifics of the Initiative and curriculum, and receive tools to support our local schools in implementing EEI.
Lees works at the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education and is the CREEC Coordinator for the Central Coast, a communication network of environmental educators in California. The goal of CREEC is to provide teachers with resources to increase environmental literacy in the classroom. Lees received her Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Cal Poly SLO.
