EE Collection: Review of Resources

The Environmental Education Collection:
A Review of Resources for Educators Volume 1

With literally thousands of education materials to select from, knowing which ones may be the best for a particular group of students can be a daunting task. The Environmental Education Collection — A Review of Resources for Educators Volume 3 is designed to help educators find curricula, multimedia resources, and other educational materials that can enhance teaching environmental education in a variety of settings. It is our hope that this resource guide will assist educators as they plan, develop, and implement creative and effective environmental education programs. The Environmental Education Collection is part of a series of resource guides, each providing background information and reviews of some of the most widely available environmental education materials.

Why Environmental Education?

Environmental education is effective education. Environmental education is learner-centered, providing students with opportunities to construct their own understandings through hands-on, minds-on investigations. Learners are engaged in direct experiences and are challenged to use higher-order thinking skills. Environmental education supports the development of an active learning community where learners share ideas, expertise, and prompt continued inquiry. Environmental education provides real-world contexts and issues from which concepts and skills can be learned.

Environmental education recognizes the importance of investigating the environment within the context of human influences, incorporating an examination of economics, culture, political structure, and social equity as well as natural processes and systems. Ultimately, the goal of environmental education is to develop an environmentally literate citizenry. Through comprehensive, cohesive programs, learners:

Environmental education often begins close to home, encouraging learners to forge connections with and understand their immediate surroundings. The awareness, knowledge, and skills needed for these local connections and understandings provide a base for moving out into larger systems, broader issues, and a more sophisticated comprehension of causes, connections, and consequences.

For each environmental issue there is not just one right answer or solution—there are many perspectives and much uncertainty. Environmental education cultivates the ability to recognize uncertainty, envision alternative scenarios, and adapt to changing conditions and information.

These knowledge, skills, and habits of mind translate into a citizenry that is better able to address its common problems and take advantage of opportunities, whether environmental concerns are involved or not.

How Was The Environmental Education Collection Developed?

In order to collect a broad range of educational materials (e.g., curriculum guides, CD-ROMs, laser discs, video tapes), letters were sent to commercial publishers, not-for-profit organizations, government agencies, and other organizations that produce environmental education curricula asking them to submit materials for review. Curriculum guides and other educational materials included in The Environmental Education Collection — A Review of Resources for Educators were evaluated by teams of classroom teachers, content experts, and environmental educators. Each set of materials was reviewed by at least three people. In those cases where reviewers disagreed, the materials were evaluated by at least one more person. Quite obviously, it would not be practical to review all of the environmental education curriculum materials that have been produced. Consequently, the materials included in this resource guide represent a small sample of resources available.

Curriculum materials included in this compendium were evaluated using the Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines For Excellence developed by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). The Guidelines provide a set of criteria for developing and selecting environmental education materials. These guidelines aim to help developers of activity guides, lesson plans, and other instructional materials produce high-quality products, and to provide educators with a tool to evaluate the wide array of available environmental education materials. Developed through a process of critique and consensus, the Guidelines for Excellence are grounded in a common understanding of effective environmental education. Over 1000 individuals and organizations (e.g., teachers, educational administrators, environmental scientists, curriculum developers) participated in its development.

The Guidelines for Excellence points out six key characteristics of quality environmental education materials. A series of guidelines are listed for each of these characteristics. Finally, each guideline is accompanied by several indicators, which suggest ways of gauging whether the materials being evaluated or developed follow the guidelines. The complete Guidelines For Excellence can be ordered from the NAAEE Publications and Membership Office in Washington, DC.

Summary of the Guidelines

#1 Fairness and accuracy: EE materials should be fair and accurate in describing environmental problems, issues, and conditions, and in reflecting the diversity of perspectives on them.
      1.1 Factual accuracy
      1.2 Balanced presentation of differing viewpoints and theories
      1.3 Openness to inquiry
      1.4 Reflection of diversity

#2 Depth: EE materials should foster awareness of the natural and built environment, and an understanding of environmental concepts, conditions, and issues, and an awareness of the feelings, values, attitudes, and perceptions at the heart of environmental issues, as appropriate for different developmental levels.
      2.1 Awareness
      2.2 Focus on concepts
      2.3 Concepts in context
      2.4 Attention to different scales

#3 Emphasis on skills building: EE materials should build lifelong skills that enable learners to prevent and address environmental issues.
      3.1 Critical and creative thinking
      3.2 Applying skills to issues
      3.3 Action skills

#4 Action orientation: EE materials should promote civic responsibility, encouraging learners to use their knowledge, personal skills, and assessments of environmental issues as a basis for environmental problem solving and action.
      4.1 Sense of personal stake and responsibility
      4.2 Self-efficacy

#5 Instructional soundness: EE materials should rely on instructional techniques that create an effective learning environment.
      5.1 Learner-centered instruction
      5.2 Different ways of learning
      5.3 Connection to learners' everyday lives
      5.4 Expanded learning environment
      5.5 Interdisciplinary
      5.6 Goals and objectives
      5.7 Appropriateness for specific learning settings
      5.8 Assessment

#6 Usability: EE materials should be well designed and easy to use.
      6.1 Clarity and logic
      6.2 Easy to use
      6.3 Long lived
      6.4 Adaptable
      6.5 Accompanied by instruction and support
      6.6 Make substantiated claims
      6.7 Fit with national, state, or local requirements

Using The Environmental Education Collection

As a set of review criteria, the Guidelines for Excellence offer a standard to aim for when considering materials, and a set of ideas about what a well-rounded environmental education curriculum might be like. It is not reasonable to expect that all environmental education materials will follow all of the guidelines. For example, a set of materials might not present differing viewpoints, as outlined in guideline #1.2. This shortcoming does not necessarily mean that the materials should not be used. An instructor could work them into a larger set of activities that explores different viewpoints and helps learners discern opinion and bias in individual presentations of the issue. Likewise, a curriculum project that focuses on the science behind water ecology might not include a discussion of social issues, but may still be used effectively as a science resource within a larger unit on water-related issues.

The write-ups included in The Environmental Education Collection — A Review of Resources for Educators were designed to point out the variety of factors an educator may wish to consider when deciding which materials are most appropriate for a particular group of students and how those materials might be used most effectively. Of course, no set of evaluations can be complete, and some important considerations are bound to be missing. Although the reviewers made every effort to evaluate the materials using their professional judgement and their best understanding of the Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence, it should be understood that the reviews are not perfect. Given this, The Environmental Education Collection — A Review of Resources for Educators should be used as a tool to inform decisions, contributing to more effective environmental education.

As you review the write-ups, keep these things in mind:

About This Collection

The first section of this resource guide highlights approximately 50 environmental education curriculum materials. Entries are listed in alphabetical order. Each entry contains a summary of the curriculum (In a Nutshell), information about grade levels, subject areas, author, publisher, and price, comments specific to the six key characteristics (What the Reviewers Said!), and a sample of quotations from the reviewers' evaluation sheets (The Bottom Line). The second section contains an annotated listing of support materials. Following this section is a matrix that cross-lists all of the materials and various characteristics (e.g., grade level(s), topics covered, subjects).