Educators in Colorado are taking an inventory of environmental learning and finding gaps where more is needed. A Colorado Environmental Education Plan is being drawn up to evenly spread these kinds of lessons to students across the state...and two local non profits are involved. Aspen Public Radio’s Marci Krivonen reports.
Representatives from the Roaring Fork Conservancy and the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies are serving on the first-ever Colorado Environmental Education Leadership Council. The council’s goal is to advance environmental literacy.
It’s using a strategy called the Colorado Environmental Education Plan. The state education board adopted it in 2012. It calls for an increase in field experiences for students and better access for teachers to environmental materials, among other things.
Hillary Miziachairs the Council working on the plan. She says environmental education is synonymous with good education.
"Good environmental education programs connect not just to science, but building strength of character, bringing a social awareness, geography, math and English. Good programs tie these things together."
The next step will be to build regional council groups whose members do on-the-ground research around environmental education. Sarah Johnson is an educator with the Roaring Fork Conservancy. She’s examining what’s being done right and what could be improved in Northwest Colorado.
"This includes everything from after-school programs at recreation centers that are doing environmental education to programs like what we’re doing at Roaring Fork Conservancy. Experiential education happening at Grand Junction schools are considered too. The plan is to get a robust inventory of what’s currently happening and then as a state, we can figure out what’s lacking," she says.
The inventory will form a baseline and from there, educators can grow environmental education efforts in areas where it’s needed most. The regional council group serving Northwest Colorado met for the first time in August.
