United Stales Communication And 21K-1002
Environmental Protection Public Affairs February 1991
Agency (A-107)
&EPA Office Of
Environmental Education
1991 Progress Report
Printed on Recycled Paper
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1991
Progress Report
from the
Office of
Environmental Education
Contents:
I Introduction Page 3
Background 4
EPA Task Force--4
EPA'Environmental Education Strategy - 5
Federal Scientific Workforce - 5
II EPA Education Activities Page 7
Environmental Education Office 7
Environmental Education Curricula 9
Educational Information Clearinghouse 10
Federal Program Liaison 10
Targeted Outreach Efforts 11
Children at Risk-12
Educational Community Outreach 13
Youth Environmental Action Forum - 14
President's Environmental Youth Awards - 15
Cooperative Projects 15
EPA's Regions--16
III Implementing the Law Page 18
Education and Training Program 19
Grants Program - 19
College Internships 20
Environmental Education Awards 20
Education Advisory Council - 21
Environmental Education Foundation - 22
Fiscal Year 1991 Milestones - 22
IV Conclusion Page 22
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I. Introduction
This report represents the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's)
response to the requirement found in the fiscal year 1991 House and Senate
Appropriations report language. Senate Report #101-474 accompanying PL
101-507 requests that EPA provide a progress report on the activities of the
Agency's new Office of Environmental Education.
This document begins with the background against which both the Office
of Environmental Education and the National Environmental Education Act
were created. Next it provides details on the development of an organizational
infrastructure and professional network for the Office of Environmental Edu-
cation and on the recent achievements of the EPA in environmental education.
Finally, it sets forth the specific requirements of the National Environmental
Education Act, and indicates how the Office of Environmental Education
plans to, is, or has responded to each requirement.
At the time of this report, the Office of Environmental Education (OEE) is
only four months old, and there is considerable progress to report. Two
months ago, on November 16, 1990, President Bush signed into law the
National Environmental Education Act (PL 101-619).
If talent, energy and enthusiasm are any indicator, then EPA's environmental
education effort is off to an excellent start. In a factual document such as this
it is not always easy to convey the sense of enthusiasm and commitment with
which EPA has launched its environmental education office. The funding and
workyears to support the office will not be appropriated until fiscal year 1992.
In the meantime, however, the office is staffed with some of the most talented
people in the Agency, most of them on temporary detail from other offices
within the Agency.
As improvements in environmental protection become more dependent
upon the activities of individuals, so grows the need for an environmentally
literate citizenry. Mounting efforts to rectify past environmental problems
and to develop future protective technologies will also increase demand for
people entering the environmental profession. The future of both the environment
and the economy depends upon the quality of future scientific, technical, and
liberal arts students. The need for environmentally literate citizens, backed up
by a solid core of skilled specialists in the environmental sciences, is clear.
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Office of Environmental Education
The goal of the Office of Environmental Education is simple: to foster in
students a sense of concern for, mutual dependence upon, and intimacy toward,
the natural environment. Hence, to instill an environmental ethic that will help
guide individuals to make responsible decisions on issues and activities which
have an effect upon the environment.
Background
Environmental education is not a new subject with EPA. In its early days,
EPA launched a number of programs to improve public awareness of environmental
issues. In addition to dozens of publications on issues from municipal dumps
to the safe use of pesticides, EPA sponsored the Documerica project whereby
dozens of leading photographers snapped images of the nation's environment
in both its pristine best and its contaminated worst.
Recently, the Agency has made an important commitment to increase its
emphasis on environmental education activities. One of the major mechanisms
to increase this emphasis is the National Advisory Council for Environmental
Policy and Technology's (NACEPTs) Subcommittee on Environmental Education
and Training. This subcommittee brings together educators, corporate executives,
researchers and state, local and Federal environmental officials to advise EPA
on environmental education and training policies and activities. The subcommittee
sponsored the Planet at Risk series of public hearings on environmental
education.
Recognizing the need to both focus and augment its efforts in this regard, in
November 1989 the Administrator established an internal Environmental Education
Task Force.
EPA Task Force
This task force drew members from throughout the agency, the EPA regions,
and laboratories. Its mandate was to both review current Agency environmental
education activities and develop a coherent strategy for meeting future environmental
education needs to be implemented by the new Office of Environmental
Education. The resultant strategy represents both a consensus within the
Agency and input from the full range of Agency intellectual resources which
the Agency can bring to bear on environmental education activities.
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Report to Congress, 1991
EPA Environmental Education Strategy
Even before passage of the National Environmental Education Act, the
EPA was soliciting comment from outside of the Agency about its strategy for
responding to many of the requirements of that Act. A draft EPA Environmental
Education Strategy was first issued in the summer of 1990 and has been
distributed to more than 1,000 interested individuals and organizations for
review. Comment period on the strategy ends January 31,1991. Shortly after
that date, the Agency's Office of Environmental Education will consolidate
the comments received, incorporate as many of the suggestions as is feasible,
and release the final strategy document. The final document will:
-Highlight areas where the Agency can, and cannot, apply increased energy
to support improved environmental education activities;
Provide to other Federal Agencies a clear delineation of EPA's intentions
in the environmental education arena and serve as a coordinative mechanism
for Federal programs; and
Represent a "living document" intended to grow and change as need for
environmental education skills and tools evolves.
Federal Scientific Workforce
Like other regulatory agencies, the quality of EPA decisions depends upon
the quality of our science. Currently EPA is facing a critical shortfall in its
technical workforce early in the 21st century. Impending shortages of scientists
and engineers, compounded by the relative absence of women and minorities
in these fields, threaten to compromise the Federal Governments ability in
general, and science-dependent organizations such as the EPA in particular, to
effectively deal with important environmental problems.
This Agency is especially vulnerable to such constraints. More than two-
thirds of the Agency workforce has at least a bachelor's degree. This is more
than twice the Federal average. Fully one-third of the 15,000 Agency employees
are scientists and engineers, and this proportion has remained steady for years.
Given an annual turnover of more than 11 percent, and the fact that the
average age of these scientific and engineering employees is more than 50
years (overall Agency average is 39), the Agency faces replacing nearly its
entire compliment of scientists and engineers within this decade.
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Office of Environmental Education
The Agency has no need for additional reminders that it is in our most
profound interest to stimulate, to the limits of our capabilities, greater interest
in the sciences and engineering. For this and other reasons, EPA has been an
active and enthusiastic participant in the Federal Coordinating Council on
Science, Engineering and Technology (referred to as FCCSET) Committee on
Education and Human Resources. This committee was created to increase the
spirit of interagency cooperation and assist in meeting the expected shortfall in
qualified scientific and technical professionals.
EPA interests coincide with those set for the Federal government-wide
effort: improve education in the environmental sciences for grades kindergarten
through 12; foster an environmental ethic among all citizens; better inform
public, business and government decision-makers on environmental sciences;
and, foster interest in careers in environmental sciences among the nation's
students. The Office of Environmental Education has participated in all of the
Committee on Education and Human Resources' planning meetings, and has
enthusiastically supported the potential for coordinated, multi-dimensional
cooperation in science and technology education.
In addition to EPA's participation on the Human Resources Committee,
also under the FCCSET umbrella, EPA cooperated in developing the Global
Change Research Program. This program, which is central to many of the
most important environmental policy issues of the day, was organized to
coordinate global research being conducted by a number of Federal Agencies,
including EPA.
EPA brings to science and technology education the resources of 5,000
scientists and engineers and 12 national research and development laboratories
nationwide. As you will see in the next section of this report, these resources
are already being applied to a wide range of pre-college and university science
education efforts. These efforts to support environmental education are set
within the larger federal initiative in science and technology education. EPA
efforts are part of a coordinated, Federal-wide initiative to improve both
science and technology education and literacy by the turn of the century.
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Report to Congress, 1991
II. EPA Education Activities
In a June 1990 address entitled Environmental Literacy in the 21st Century,
Administrator Reilly announced his intent to create, within EPA's Office of
Communications and Public Affairs, an Office of Environmental Education.
The new office is to bring into focus a number of scattered programs within
the Agency and coordinate with similar activities in other Federal agencies,
State and local governments, and the private sector.
A few months after this announcement, Congress passed the National
Environmental Education Act, which calls for EPA to establish such an office.
The office was formally created on September 17,1990.
From its inception, the Office of Environmental Education has emphasized
the creation of links with existing networks of environmental educators,
information developers, and students involved in designing EPA's environmental
education agenda. In short, if the activities of the new Office are not directly
useful to these constituencies, then there is little rationale for their pursuit. In
addition, the energies of all sources Federal, state, academia, professional
associations, industry, and public interest organizations are needed to meet
the challenges ahead.
Only through cooperative efforts and partnerships will we be able to
accelerate the development and implementation of environmental education
programs, individual environmental awareness, and the development of a
more scientifically and technically literate workforce.
Hence, a great deal of the Office of Environmental Education's efforts over
its first three months has been aimed at developing a network of strong
interrelationships between itself and its various constituencies. To date, the
Office of Environmental Education has hosted or attended no fewer than 100
meetings with individuals and organizations involved and interested in environmental
education.
As an example of the outreach effort, one of the Office of Environmental
Education's initiatives will be to sponsor, in cooperation with other Federal
Agencies, an Environmental Education Colloquium in 1991. The Colloquium
will help the Office of Environmental Education to refine its role within the
overall environmental education effort, to create a broad-based exchange of
ideas within the federal environmental education community, and to forge
links with external organizations and institutions.
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Office of Environmental Education
While not intended to produce a formal set of recommendations, the Colloquium
will provide a forum which will ultimately benefit the effective implementation
of the National Environmental Education Act. It is part of the substantive
collaboration among the major actors in environmental education and expands
upon the FCCSET initiative. Of course, the near-term priorities of the Office
of Environmental Education which are listed below can be expected to change
over time in response to an evolving set of needs.
EPA Office of Environmental Education responsibilities;
--Establish, maintain, and disseminate a clearinghouse of information about available
and planned multimedia environmental education products.
-Identify gaps tn existing environmental education materials and then work in
collaboration with academia, other agencies, private industry and public interest
groups to fill these gaps with quality products,
-Establish an Environmental Education and Training Grants Program through a grant
awarded to a consortium of universities to support the training of education
professionals Tn teach ing environmental issues.
-Establish an Environment?) Education Grants program (o support the design, demonstration
and dissemination of environmental education materials, practices or techniques.
-Provide for environmental internships through post-secondary level studies with
agencies of the Federal government.
-Establish a National Environmental Education Advisory Council to advise, consult
with, and make recommendations to the Administrator on matters relating to
environmental education activities, functions, and policies of the Agency,
-Establish an Environmental Education Foundation.
-Establish the EPA as the key source for Federal national and international communication
and cooperation in environmental education activities.
-Coordinate and track EPA. environmental education efforts.
Activities of the Office of Environmental Education are currently organized
according to the following functional areas: multimedia product development,
academic programs, information clearinghouse, and youth programs.
Multimedia Product Development activities include cooperative development
-- with other Agency offices, public, private, academic and foreign organizations,
and other Federal agencies - of needed environmental education materials.
Efforts will be coordinated with the awards program called for in Section 7 of
the National Environmental Education Act, and with the National Advisory
Council for Education and Technology, and the Office of Pollution Prevention.
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Report to Congress, 1991
Academic Programs include management of Federal grant assistance to
local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and other not-for
profit organizations as provided for under Section 6 of the National Environmental
Education Act. It also involves administration of the environmental internship
program mandated in Section 7 of the Act.
Education Information Clearinghouse activities include identification and
tracking environmental education information products and activities which
exist, are in development or are needed to fill gaps which have been identified
by the multimedia product development process described above. Functions
include coordinating with other Federal agencies, private, public, academic
and foreign organizations, advising EPA senior management on the Agency's
multimedia products, policies, and working closely with all similar external
activities to ensure that the information is both deliverable and useful to the
ultimate user ~ the environmental educator.
Youth Programs includes management of the EPA youth and scholars
programs, the President's Environmental Youth Awards program, and coordination
of activities regarding the Environmental Youth Forum and the Target Schools
programs.
While only a few months old, the Office of Environmental Education has
initiated an impressive outreach program. The purpose of this program is two-
fold. First, to identify where this office should consolidate and focus its
energies, and, second, to provide environmental educators and other interested
parties with a mechanism for effective information exchange.
Environmental Education Curricula
The National Environmental Education Act seeks to enhance environmental
education by fostering collaboration between the Federal government and
existing institutions such as the media, private industry, schools, museums,
libraries, parks, and recreation facilities. The goal is to foster an environmentally
sensitive public that better understands and appreciates the impact that people
have on the environment and the importance of environmentally responsible
decisions in both personal and professional milieu.
EPA's Office of Environmental Education will pursue cooperative efforts
among Federal and state agencies, academia, private sector, public interest
groups and other concerned organizations worldwide to accelerate the development
and implementation of effective environmental education programs.
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Office of Environmental Education
Educational Information Clearinghouse
One high priority is to develop and make available, in readily useful form,
information about multimedia environmental education products, curricula
and techniques. This involves an effort to tie diverse sources of information
about environmental education into a source which serves the needs of the
educational community. Gaps in available educational materials will be
identified and filled. Working with other agencies and private industry, EPA
has launched curricula development efforts and is investigating alternative
designs for an environmental information clearinghouse.
Current networks and clearinghouses of environmental information, such as
the Educational Resources Information Center and the Association for Environmental
Education's National Network for Environmental Education, are oriented to
supporting teachers who already have the interest, initiative, scientific literacy,
personal time and, in some cases, money to use them. In addition, much of the
teaching material which presently exists tends to focus on a specific environmental
issue or topic. Little is geared to promoting broader and more basic scientific
and environmental literacy. Even less is tailored to fit into the most popular
curriculum categories currently in use or geared to be incorporated into the
teaching of other subjects such as mathematics, language skills and art
In the specific area of pollution prevention, EPA has a major National
Pollution Prevention Environmental Education Project directed by representatives
from each of the Agency's ten regional offices along with the Office of the
Administrator and the Office of Pollution Prevention. This two-year project
has the ultimate goal of producing pollution prevention education materials
for teachers and students. In addition, each of EPA's ten regions supports an
environmental education effort tailored to the specific needs of that region.
Federal Program Liaison
To date, members of the Office of Environmental Education have met with
representatives of the other Federal agencies involved in environmental education.
One of the first products of this coordination is a Memorandum of Understanding
on environmental education activities signed on November 20, 1990, by the
Administrator of the EPA and the Secretary of the Department of Energy.
The Memorandum of Understanding is directed at encouraging more U.S.
students to pursue careers in environmental and energy-related scientific and
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Report to Congress, 1991
engineering fields. In addition, it calls for efforts to raise the general level of
public understanding of energy and environmentally related issues and concerns.
The memorandum will enable the two agencies to work in collaboration to
enhance their individual efforts by strengthening ties between existing programs
that are related to national needs and by developing new cooperative educational
efforts in areas of mutual interest. The director of the EPA Office of Environmental
Education and the director of the DOE Office of Energy Research will be
responsible for the oversight and implementation of the agreement within their
respective agencies.
In addition, in October 1990, the Office of Environmental Education played
a significant role in the 7990 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science
and Mathematics Teaching sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Targeted Outreach Efforts
The Office of Environmental Education is participating in a number of
special efforts to reach specific target audiences including minorities, urban
poor and Native Americans.
Perhaps due to a need for greater concern for more immediate problems,
minorities have traditionally been underrepresented in both environmental
profession and environmental education. EPA has taken steps to help rectify
this situation.
In June 1990, Administrator Reilly created the Minority Academic Institutions
Taskforce to plan implementation of the April 1990 recommendations of the
Administrator's Workshop on Women, Minorities, and Handicapped in Science
and Technology. These recommendations were, in turn, in response to the
December 1989 report Changing America: The New Face of Science and
Engineering produced by the President's Task Force on Women, Minorities
and the Handicapped in Science and Technology.
The EPA taskforce included the director of the Office of Civil Rights, key
executives from the regions and headquarters offices, and representatives
from major academic institutions. The recommendations of this taskforce
focus on how EPA can better support minority academic institutions of higher
education to ensure that a cadre of qualified scientists and engineers be
available to meet future demands.
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Office of Environmental Education
Recommendations of the Minority Academic Institutions Task Force are that EPA:
Work with minority higher education institutions to make environmental science
courses core components,of liberal arts and technical degree programs*
- Coordinate its efforts to increase Interaction between EPA scientists and the
students and teachers at nearby minority academic institutions, and that EPA
encourage its employees to teacher and mentor at minority academic institutions.
-- Establish a formal National Research Scholars Program in Environmental Sciences
which focuses on minority institutions,
Forge additional ties with Industry and universities to organize environmental
activities on minority academic institution campuses.
- Launch a coordinated effort to inform the public concerning EPA activities and to
attract students into environmental curricula.
- Create more effective recruitment aimed at attracting more minority students,
-^Expand its currentsupporlprogtams to include an environmental sciences/Natural
resource managementfellows program,
- Establish partnerships with minority academic institution faculty in an effort to
enhance the exchange of personnel.
Expand its scholarships and augment research grants to minority academic institutions.
EPA's new Office of Environmental Education will be held accountable for
seeing to it that the Agency responds effectively to the major recommendations
of the task force. In fact, next fiscal year the Office of Environmental
Education is expected to assume Agency-wide responsibility for implementing
the recommendations of EPA's Minority Academic Institutions Task Force.
Thus, not only will responsibility for coordinating our environmental education
be focused on the new office, but that role will also include overall responsibility
for seeing that those educational opportunities are designed with outreach to
minority individuals and institutions in mind.
Children at Risk
The Office of Environmental Education is working with several Historically
Black Colleges and Universities to encourage their efforts to develop environmental
programs and to determine how best to use anticipated resources to support
such efforts. In addition, the Office of Environmental Education has forged
links with such dynamic and creative organizations as the Natural Guard. The
Natural Guard, an organization founded by Richie Havens, works directly in
the neighborhoods to involve the often alienated urban poor in creative projects
to improve their local environment.
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Report to Congress, 1991
For the poor, especially the urban poor, the environment is often a rather
unappealing place. As urban poor children grow into adults, their lack of
positive experiences with nature can result in a profound indifference toward
environmental issues. Through meetings with groups such as the District of
Columbia Schools, the Natural Guard, Earth Corps, etc., die Office of Environmental
Education has begun to develop a number of potentially important initiatives
which will help to ensure that the children develop a positive sense of interest
in protecting their natural environment.
Some of the most insightful writings on the meaning of the natural environment
come from great Native American intellectuals such as Chief Seattle and
Black Elk. Native American cultures have much to teach others about reverence
for the land. In addition, they themselves can benefit from the technical and
scientific environmental knowledge which others can provide.
The Office of Environmental Education has also made provisions to include
the concerns of, and support for, Native Americans in its planning. The head
of the Office of Federal Activities, which oversees EPA-Tribal interactions,
has agreed to serve on the internal Environmental Education Advisory Board,
and Office of Environmental Education staff briefed the EPA Interagency
Indian Environmental Discussion Group with regards to the National Environmental
Education Act and planned activities. It is the intent of the Office of Environmental
Education to ensure adequate representation for Native Americans on the
Environmental Education Advisory Council as well.
Educational Community Outreach
The Office of Environmental Education is 'the new kid on the block' with
regard to its mission. For a decade or more, dedicated teachers and artists
have been working to improve the environmental literacy of our citizens. The
clear mandate of the Office of Environmental Education is to rely upon the
expertise of these individuals to ensure the relevance and utility of its activities.
In addition, the Office of Environmental Education has been working with
organizations such as Project Wild and Project Learning Tree. OEE has also
developed a productive working relationship with the North American Association
of Environmental Educators whose membership includes environmental educators
throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Among EPA's ongoing education outreach programs is the Pollution Prevention
Education program which intends to allocate resources in fiscal year 1991 in
grants to local and state groups. The program will support development of
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Office of Environmental Education
primary and secondary school curricula and other environmental education
efforts with an emphasis upon the prevention of polluting activities. Another
project, the National Network for Environmental Education Centers, is being
supported in cooperation with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Alliance
for Environmental Education. This program supports a network of regional
environmental education centers for teacher training, research and community
outreach. EPA also has cooperative education agreements with 64 colleges
and universities under which up to 200 students per year work at Agency
regions or laboratories as part of a formal degree program. This program is an
integral part of efforts to recruit the best and brightest students for a career in
environmental science including EPA.
EPA supports the Federal Junior College Fellowship Program whereby
approximately 150 students receive fellowships annually for work-study towards
bachelor's or associate's degrees. At the graduate level, the EPA-supported
National Network for Environmental Management Studies supports students
through master and doctoral research in areas of priority concern to the
Agency in environmental science, policy and management. In the past three
years, this program alone has funded more than 190 projects/fellowships at
more than 40 universities nationwide.
Youth Environmental Action Forum
In May 1990, several of the individuals who later joined the OEE helped to
make the first International Youth Environmental Action Forum a success.
The forum promotes elementary and secondary student participation in environmental
projects. At the forum, which was co-sponsored with the National Governor's
Association, with major participation from the Departments of Energy, Agriculture,
Interior, Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and
from private industry, young people from 19 countries and 47 states met for 3
days and exchanged information about effective environmental action. The
forum, which included high school students, teachers and state environmental
education coordinators, also developed detailed action plans for projects to be
implemented in the local community when the students returned home.
The individuals who participated in the forum provide a solid core of people
who are willing and able to take appropriate action to improve and protect
their environments. It is our intent to expand the impact of the forum by
encouraging parallel programs at the Regional level with a national event
every other year. The next international forum will be held in 1992.
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Report to Congress, 1991
President's Environmental Youth Awards
Among the first accomplishments of this new office was the recent Presidential
Environmental Youth Awards ceremony held at the White House on November
14,1990. At that ceremony, young people from around the country gathered
to be honored by the President for their role in launching projects which have
led to considerable environmental improvement. This was the second year in
a row that the winners received their awards directly from the President.
Award winners this year included a project to save the rainforest conducted
by members of the Uxbridge High School Student Council in Uxbridge,
Massachusetts. In addition to petitioning the United Nations to protect rainforests,
the students raised funds to purchase and preserve valuable rainforest land in
Belize. Another youth award winner, a student from Port Neches, Texas,
helped to launch a major recycling program, and a student from Fallen,
Nevada, conducted research which led to significant improvements in water
quality at the ecologically threatened Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge.
Reflecting the increased public awareness of environmental issues, one of
this year's award-winning projects, the Protect Our Planet Calendar produced
by middle school students from The Philadelphia School in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, was extensively covered by the national media.
The winners of Presidential Awards are only the tip of the iceberg with
regards to the entire youth awards program. Prior to selecting national
winners, each of EPA's ten regions conducts its own competition and selects
regional award winners. The Regional Administrators then select one winner
to represent that region's best. That winner is invited to the ceremony at the
White House.
Cooperative Projects
There are dozens of public interest groups and private corporations which
are devoting considerable energy and resources into environmental education
projects. The new Office of Environmental Education is working with several
of these organizations in cooperative projects.
For example, early in 1990 General Motors Corporation approached EPA
concerning a project to produce an environmental education video and teacher's
guide for distribution to every elementary school in the nation. A team of GM
and EPA technical personnel worked together to define the project, and EPA
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Office of Environmental Education
provided both technical review for the project contents and wrote most of the
accompanying teachers guide. The resultant package was distributed, free of
charge, by General Motors to 72,000 elementary schools.
Subsequently, in cooperation with the U.S. Information Agency, the video
was translated into Hungarian for the opening of the new Eastern and Central
European Regional Environmental Center in Budapest. This Center, which
was proposed by President Bush in 1989, will help to strengthen emerging
democratic trends in the region by assisting private environmental groups.
The video package is also being used in Poland to teach English to environmental
scientists. It is being translated into Spanish and has already won two major
awards for video productions.
The experience with this project has become a prototype for future cooperative
efforts between EPA and external organizations which benefit both groups
and result in far more effective environmental education products.
EPA's Regions
Much of EPA's environmental education effort is managed by the Agency's
ten regions. Within the past year, the EPA regions have supported more than
60 major educational projects which support the goals of the National Environmental
Education Act. A sampling of these projects follows:
~ Most of our regions are producing directories and guides to help the
public to locate environmental education resources within the region. Our
Seattle office, for example, produced an Environmental Education Resources
Directory 1990 which includes the names, addresses, telephone numbers
and short descriptions of more than 150 regional, state, local, municipal,
private and public interest organizations having major environmental education
activities. This same regional office also produces a compact guide of access
numbers for business and environmental education which can be a valuable
asset to educators seeking environmental information relevant to their specific
local concerns.
-- A number of regions have anticipated the requirements of the new
National Environmental Education Act by establishing in-house environmental
education advisory councils. Our Denver office, for example, has such a
council and has also established a 59-member speakers bureau. Each of the
EPA speakers works with the same students and teacher throughout the year to
provide whatever environmental input is desired.
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Report to Congress, 1991
-- An additional effort to support environmental educators is being conducted
with EPA support through the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education
and the state department of Education. This Project, entitled Directory of
Environmental Education Resources, involves a statewide computer database
of environmental education resources. The database is accessed through local
libraries, colleges and personal computers. The system will include more than
200 environmental education programs, in abstract format, and will be available
through 50 libraries and colleges throughout Colorado.
~ Several of the regions also have aggressive outreach programs to train
school administrators and district science coordinators in major environmental
themes. Our Dallas office, for example, is conducting a series of training
seminars on model recycling programs and how to incorporate source reduction
and recycling into the science curricula through a multi-media approach
involving art, science, mathematics and language. The same region is also
providing technical support to Southern Methodist University in developing a
hazardous waste masters degree program, and intends to work with officials of
the University of Texas at El Paso on a similar initiative.
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Office of Environmental Education
III. Implementing the Law
In both tone and structure, the National Environmental Education Act
demands that EPA make every effort to link into, and rely upon, the existing
network of environmental educators and education resource developers for
guidance and cooperation. Much of the early days of the Office of Environmental
Education has been invested in identifying and forging solid relationships with
interested organizations, both within and outside of government.
In an additional effort to reach out to all individuals and organizations
involved in environmental education, the Office of Environmental Education
is also creating a quarterly periodical Education Notes newsletter. This
journal will serve to both inform interested outside parties concerning Office
of Environmental Education activities and to solicit their advice and experiences
to share with other members of the community.
Education & Training Program
As directed in the NEEA, we are developing standards and procedures for
selecting and awarding a major grant to a consortium of universities to implement
an environmental education and training program nationwide. This program
is aimed at teachers and other educational professionals, and will enhance
their skills with environmental subjects. Because of the central role of this
program in the implementation of the Act, we will award the grant after a
rigorous competitive process which will require the broadest range of technical
talent and outreach experience of the winning grantee.
Grants Program
The National Environmental Education Act provides for grants of up to
$250,000 each to support promising environmental education projects to
higher education and/or not-for profit research institutions. The Act also
requires that 25% of the grants awarded be for $5,000 or less. Such smaller
grants can make a big difference to the scope and success of locally initiated
environmental projects.
There is a considerable lack of educational materials and trained educators
to teach environmental concerns to students in kindergarten through twelfth
grade. Whereas environmental issues pervade every aspect of their daily lives
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Report to Congress, 1991
and environmental protection efforts will determine the habitability of the
planet they will inherit, few students receive even a rudimentary grasp of key
concepts in environmental science, ethics, health or related social sciences.
Without an understanding of the environmental consequences of human enterprises,
future leaders risk making decisions which compound the economic, ecological,
and aesthetic losses caused by environmental contamination.
The situation is equally problematic at the college and university level. For
example, half of the senior scientific and technical staff of EPA will reach
retirement age during this decade. The demographics of the workforce will
contribute to an increasing shortage of environmental professionals at a time
when the need is greatest.
The Office of Environmental Education has begun developing the criteria
and procedures which will regulate the grants program. These criteria and
procedures will be in place by early Summer 1991, to be ready to award grants
once funds are appropriated.
College Internships
The new law calls for the creation of a major internship program and
fellowships for in-service teachers. This effort will place up to 250 interns and
50 fellows per year in environment-related positions within the Federal Government.
The Office of Environmental Education will work with the newly created
Federal Task Force to implement this section of the National Environmental
Education Act. Criteria for this program is currently under development.
Environmental Education Awards
The new law requires that EPA provide for National awards recognizing
outstanding contributions to environmental education. This national awards
program will build upon the success of the President's Environmental Youth
Awards program. EPA's portion of the program will recognize individuals of
national achievement and stature. For example, as called for in the National
Environmental Education Act, this award program shall include:
~ Theodore Roosevelt Award for an outstanding career in environmental
education, teaching or administration;
~ Henry David Thoreau Award to an outstanding contribution to literature
on the natural environment and environmental pollution problems;
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Office of Environmental Education
Rachael Carson Award for contributions in print, film, or broadcast
media to public education and information on environmental issues or problems;
-- Gifford Pinochot Award for outstanding contribution to education and
training concerning forestry and natural resources management, including
multiple use and sustained yield lands management.
The Environmental Education Act authorizes the Chairman of the Council
on Environmental Quality, on behalf of the President, to develop and administer
an awards program to recognize elementary and secondary education teachers
and their local educational agencies who demonstrate excellence in advancing
environmental education through innovative approaches.
Because of the relative newness of environmental education in most curricula,
there is a major opportunity for, and serious need of, creative approaches to
conveying major environmental themes within various academic and informal
educational-contexts. Among the major goals of the awards program are to
both recognize the contributions of individual teachers and schools, and to
foster creative approaches to environmental education problems. These approaches
can then be applied to other areas throughout the nation.
Education Advisory Council
One of the most important aspects of the Environmental Education Act is
that it provides for a mechanism whereby our programs can be shaped to fit
the needs of front-line environmental educators. As called for in the Act, The
National Environmental Education Advisory Council and a Federal Task
Force on Environmental Education will consult with, and make recommendations
to, the Administrator on matters relating to activities, functions, and policies
of the Agency under the Act.
The Advisory Council shall consist of 11 members appointed by the Administrator
after consultation with the Secretary of the Department of Education. Members
shall be drawn from primary, secondary and college-level educators, not-for-
profit organizations, State departments of education and natural resources, and
the business community.
In addition, EPA is creating an internal advisory board to help design and
implement its program. EPA's implementation of the Environmental Education
Act will be determined by the guidance provided to the Agency by the
educational community.
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Report to Congress, 1991
Environmental Education Foundation
The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation called for
in Section 10 of the Act will facilitate and coordinate contribution of private
gifts for the benefit of environmental education activities. The Foundation
will also participate with foreign governments to further environmental education
and training worldwide, foster an open and effective partnership among all
entities involved, and stimulate environmental awareness.
The Administrator has invited all of those interested in the Board to submit
their credentials to EPA. The Administrator will announce, in the Federal
Register, appointments of directors to the Board in 1991. The Board will
adopt a constitution and bylaws consistent with the purposes and provisions of
the National Environmental Education Act, and shall appoint officers and
employees of the Foundation. In addition, as noted in the President's signing
statement on the National Environmental Education Act, the Administration
will submit legislative language to correct provisions in the Act related to the
Environmental Education Foundation and the Advisory Council that raise
constitutional questions.
FY1991 Milestones
Due to the urgency of the need and the high level of demand for results, the
Office of Environmental Education is committed to a number of accomplishments
prior to the end of fiscal year 1991. By October 1, 1991, EPA plans to have
the following processes, structures and programs operational and ready to
support full implementation of the National Environmental Education Act:
~ A fully operational Environmental Education Advisory Council and
Federal Task Force.
An active internal EPA Environmental Education Advisory Board.
~ An interagency environmental education colloquium.
A prototype environmental education information clearinghouse including
information on all related EPA activities and products.
Criteria and procedures for applying to, and selecting winners of, national
environmental education grants.
Procedures for awarding National Environmental Education Awards.
Procedures for selecting and awarding a major grant to support the
Environmental Education and Training Program.
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IV Conclusion
Sustained environmental improvement requires more direct involvement on
the part of the general public, both in terms of personal behavior and in terms
of the impact of professional actions on the environment. This, in turn,
requires a better informed and better motivated generation of young people
who will implement the environmental ethic in their daily lives and be better
prepared for careers in which the environment plays an increasingly important
role. The greater the individual's commitment to environmental protection in
daily activities, the less of a burden formal environmental protection programs
will pose on our regulatory, governmental and economic structures.
The Office of Environmental Education faces a tremendous task. The
platform EPA is constructing will serve well to support a successful and
effective program to implement the National Environmental Education Act.
Relying upon the good counsel of many groups, especially those of Congress
and Congressional staff, the Office of Environmental Education will continue
to craft a leadership role as envisioned in the National Environmental Education
Act. Both that role, and the other requirements of the Act, will be firmly in
place by the start of fiscal year 1992.
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