Week of "Educational Preparation" for Earth Day 2005.

Every year, millions of students and educators participate in the annual observance of Earth Day.  Recognizing this, the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation and its many outstanding environmental education partners, including PLT, elected to enhance the educational impact of Earth Day through the creation of a full week of educational preparation in K-12 classrooms, university campuses, and informal settings such as nature centers, zoos, aquariums, and museums.  

The following PLT activities are scheduled in communities across the country.

* North Carolina is partnering with the NC Office of Environmental Education to present programs to local first graders, including a visit from Stellaluna.
* Michigan – Earth Day event using PLT activities.
* Arkansas is doing Forest Awareness Day programs with three schools at the Pinnacle Mountain State Park near Little Rock on April 12 and April 14.
* Mississippi will present PLT activities as part of Nature Fest programs at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, MS; Clinton Nature Center in Clinton, MS; and Lynn Meadows Discovery Center Children’s Museum in Gulfport, MS.
* In Oklahoma, PLT will hold a workshop in cooperation with Project Wild, and Project Wet in conjunction with OSU Extension 4-H leaders and the OK Master Naturalist program.
* In New York, PLT will conduct a six hour kindergarten-12 workshop in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.  The workshop is hosted by Friends of Van Cortlandt Park.

Strength in numbers:
The participation goals for 2005 are:
400,000 educators
15 million students
150 million hours of learning
10,000 Earth Day service projects

A time of urgent need:
There hasn't been a time in the past 35 years when we needed the added "push" of National Environmental Education Week so much.  Recently, broad education policies have emphasized high-stakes, standardized testing.  This means that environmental education, an elective subject, is being squeezed from many of America's classrooms. Moreover, field trips and visits to off-campus learning centers are being scaled-back.

Increasing the amount and quality of American EE.  National EE Week is more than ceremonial.  It will help capture and focus educator and student enthusiasm for Earth Day on increasing the number of hours applied in schools to environmental learning and in demonstrating the high levels of educational value and professionalism that have emerged in EE over the past two decades.

To participate: or sign your organization up for National EE Week, please visit http://www.eeweek.org/index.html