National Environmental Education Week (EE Week), the nation's largest environmental education event held each year the week before Earth Day, inspires environmental learning and stewardship among K-12 students. EE Week connects educators with environmental resources to promote K-12 students' understanding of the environment. EE Week is a program of the National Environmental Education Foundation.

Infographic: STEM & Our Planet

Learn more about our EE Week 2012 theme, Greening STEM: The Environment as Inspiration for 21st Century Learning.

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The 2012 EE Week Photo Blog Contest

Enter your photos and stories by May 31 for the chance to win great prizes! 

 

Submit a photo!

 

Project Noah's Schoolyard Bioblitz Mission Gets Educators and Students Outside for EE Week

Black-tailed Jackrabbit, spotted by Donna Pomeroy
near a school in San Mateo, Calif.

EE Week in partnership with Project Noah and National Geographic Education created the Global Schoolyard Bioblitz mission, which allows teachers and students to share their photos of species in the schoolyard.

The mission, launched ahead of EE Week, has since contributed over 150 photos from across the United States and as far away as India and the Netherlands. Participants who contributed photos to the mission during EE Week earned a limited edition EE Week 2012 patch, in celebration of the Greening STEM theme.

School Spotlights:

• Mr. Chase, a science teacher at Thomas Stone High School in Waldorf, Md. contributed to the Schoolyard Bioblitz mission and also created a new mission dedicated to finding and identifying the species on his school's campus. The school was recognized as a Maryland Green School in 2010.

• Mr. John, an after school teacher from Pittsfield, Mass., contributed to the mission during EE Week and started a new mission for his students to gather and share data about local flora and fauna.

Also during EE Week, Project Noah launched the beta version of their classroom toolkit, called Project Noah for Teachers. Hundreds of teachers from around the world have signed up.

 

EE Week 2012 Webinars

In March, EE Week facilitated a two-part webinar series on taking STEM outside to celebrate our 2012 theme. The first webinar, Technology Goes Wild: New Tools for Connecting Classrooms with Nature, was held on March 14 and featured tips and resources from National Geographic Education and Project Noah on taking technology outside by engaging students a schoolyard or local bioblitz. On March 28, EE Week partnered with the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies and the Pacific Education Institute for the webinar, Field Investigations and STEM, exploring how the schoolyard or local public land can provide students with the opportunity to be scientists using the skills and knowledge of inquiry to collect real-world data. 

Both live broacasts were recorded and are available, along with resources and materials presented or referred to during the webinars, online. Visit our webinars page to access the archives.

 

EE Week 2012

Greening STEM: The Environment as Inspiration for 21st Century Learning

Increasing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) knowledge and expanding STEM education and career opportunities for students is a national priority. Student  achievement in STEM is key to fostering a new wave of innovators who can creatively address complex 21^st century challenges.

The environment is a compelling context for teaching STEM as it provides teachers with a diverse range of real-world challenges  that engage students in hands-on opportunities to apply and reinforce STEM concepts across multiple subject areas. From calculating planting area and productivity in the school garden, to designing model wind turbines, to tracking invasive species with GPS technology, environmental projects inspire students to apply STEM by empowering them to develop innovative solutions to local challenges meaningful to them.

Recognizing the role of the environment as an impetus for STEM learning, EE Week's 2012 theme is Greening STEM: The Environment as Inspiration for 21^st Century Learning. K-12 educators of all disciplines are invited to explore how the environment can motivate students to study STEM across subject areas by taking advantage of:

• Free EE Week planning toolkits with information and grade-appropriate activities that incorporate STEM learning into popular environmental topic areas.
• Two free educator webinars on using the environment as a context for teaching STEM, with school-based project ideas and opportunities for Q&A with experts.
• Discounts, giveaways and special offers from our partners.

Learn more about EE Week's 2012 offerings. 

Register for EE Week 2012. Registration is free and easy and, in addition to the benefits above, connects you to a national network of educators dedicated to increasing the environmental knowledge of K-12 students.

 

2012 Planet Connect Get Green Video Contest: WINNERS

The Planet Connect youth engagement initiative is proud to announce the Grand Prize Winners of the 2012 Get Green Video Contest! Planet Connect asked high school students to Show us how you can Green Your City. What's an idea using Science, Technology, Engineering or Math that can help green your city? Almost 90 high school students from around the country submitted entries, each answering the question in their own creative way. With over 2,500 YouTube "Like" votes and a combined 15,000 views of the 15 finalist videos, this year's contest broke all previous contest records.

View the winning videos.