Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence Virtual Workshop

Join the Arkansas Environmental Education Association for an interactive, virtual workshop.  

Description: 

We invite classroom teachers, non-formal educators, curriculum developers, and program administrators to join us for an interactive, virtual workshop exploring the characteristics of high-quality environmental education materials. The guidebook Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence comprises a set of recommendations for developing and selecting environmental education instructional materials. 

These guidelines

• aim to help producers of activity guides, lesson plans, and other instructional materials create high-quality products
• provide educators with a tool to evaluate the wide array of available environmental education materials.
• draw on our best thinking honed by scholars and practitioners across a variety of fields and settings, including formal and nonformal education, curriculum development, instructional design, early childhood education, and adult education

This is the first time for the Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence workshop to be offered in Arkansas. It will be facilitated by Tara Poelzing, who recently served as the Virginia Association for Environmental Education’s Director of Professional Learning. With more than 25 years of experience in both formal and nonformal settings and across age groups, Tara adds this background to her extensive experience with the Guidelines for Excellence to build dynamic workshops that meet attendees’ needs. rs.

Facilitator:

This is the first time for the Environmental Educator Knowledge & Skills: Guidelines for Excellence workshop to be offered in Arkansas. It will be facilitated by Tara Poelzing, who recently served as the Virginia Association for Environmental Education’s Director of Professional Learning. With more than 25 years of experience in both formal and nonformal settings and across age groups, Tara adds this background to her extensive experience with the Guidelines for Excellence to build dynamic workshops that meet attendees’ needs.

Audience:

This workshop is open to all educators and administrators. It is specially helpful to those who are developing curriculum or vetting materials already in place. It is designed for those working with PreK through adult learners.

Background:

The National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education, initiated by the North American Association for Environmental Education in 1993, developed a series of guidelines that set the standards for high-quality environmental education. Each of the six publications was developed by a diverse team of professionals, and each has gone through a substantive review by thousands of professionals prior to its publication.

Environmental Educator Knowledge and Skills: Guidelines for Excellence, published in 2025, represents a major revision of Professional Development of Environmental Educators: Guidelines for Excellence which was first published in 2000 and revised in 2019.

The guidelines deliver a set of balanced, scientifically accurate, and comprehensive environmental education programs and materials. Quality environmental education programs help develop an environmentally literate citizenry that can compete in our global economy; has the skills, knowledge, and inclinations to make well-informed choices; and exercises the rights and responsibilities of members of a community.

Date & Time: 

Tuesday, September 15, 6:00 – 8:00 pm 
Thursday, September 17, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Professional Development:

Participants will be eligible for four hours of professional development.

Location: 

This workshop will be held over Zoom. After payment is received, login information will be sent with a confirmation. For participants who are unable to attend both sessions, we can record the main discussion of the workshop, however, this workshop might include breakout rooms for discussion that will not be recorded. Attending the workshop live is preferable.

Cost:

AEEA members: $15
General public: $20

Attendees will receive a physical copy of Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence.

Questions:

Contact Sophia Stephenson at director@arkansasee.org or 501.773.1107 for questions.

Registration:

Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Payment must be received by Monday, September 14th at noon.To register for this workshop, see Professional Development Opportunities on AEEA’s website.