Environmental Education For All

The online training offered by EEI was very helpful and took me through the materials and resources I will be getting once I order the unit. The content was clear and well organized. Thank you for your time and the valuable materials you are providing teachers. I can't wait to start.

The EEI Curriculum is great! The objectives are clear and reasonable, the lesson plans are easy to follow, and the learning activities are engaging because they appeal to a variety of learning modalities.

I incorporated an EEI unit into my language arts class to support students’ learning of ancient Chinese civilizations. My students were so engaged and genuinely excited to bring their new learning into other classrooms, thus allowing for clear connections to the content in history. Teaching the students the significance of ancient civilizations and their influence on modern society has become easier through the use of EEI.

The major difference between the EEI Curriculum and our adopted curriculum is that the EEI unit had more elements of Common Core. EEI focuses more on critical thinking and writing…the direction in which education is evolving.

When we finished the EEI lesson, the students asked if we could do another one. The materials were engaging, grade appropriate, and really beautiful. The curriculum tied into our fictional reading as well as social studies. A great “whole package.”

The Common Core State Standards are asking kids to do performance-based tasks rather than just multiple-choice testing. The EEI Curriculum gets kids to look at data, read passages, review pictures, and study vocabulary and then put that all together and make thoughtful answers. At the end of the day, kids not only need to show what they know, but also what they can do with that knowledge, and the EEI Curriculum is built to do this.

In my 28 years as a teacher, I have found that learning about science and the environment are synonymous for children. Sadly, education about the natural environment (and human impacts on, and interactions with the environment) is still missing from much of science instruction today. I am hopeful that the new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, and Mathematics will allow for greater integration of environmental education into science instruction and the classroom.

I think it's a really revolutionary approach that could only be facilitated by a group like Ten Strands. You're the right group for the job at the right time. The state is lucky to have you in this leadership role.

As a Teacher Ambassador for a program that Ten Strands supports, the Education and the Environment Initiative, I am sharing my passion for this environmental curriculum with other teachers to try and get their involvement. My involvement as a Teacher Ambassador makes me feel that I can contribute and make a difference, because the most important thing teachers can do is teach children about the environment. So this has given me an opportunity to follow through with my passion.

I have been using various aspects of the EEI Curriculum for at least 2 years now. I've used the California Natural Regions reader in the introductory unit for social studies, California Indian Peoples in the second unit for social studies, the ecosystems and decomposers units for science, and Witnessing the Gold Rush for social studies and science. I've incorporated the food chains science section into the social studies regions of California. I'm using the gold rush information for social studies to lead into our science unit on minerals and rocks. Even though I have class sets of only a few of the EEI Curriculum units, I use them over and over. I've used the vocabulary cards and pictures in various ways—most effectively as a scavenger hunt to open or review a unit. These units are wonderfully effective in relating science and social studies. Please keep us supplied with these valuable units of study!

Ten Strands has been immensely helpful to our efforts. From supporting immediate teacher needs for professional development to helping build the long-term capacity of our program, they have provided expertise and resources to get high-quality environmental education into California's classrooms. Their energy, passion, and expert practical assistance are helping us reach our goals quickly, effectively, and inexpensively. They have surpassed our expectations.