Environmental Education
Environmental Education
When environmental education is incorporated into the school curriculum, students:
- learn about the environment
- develop skills to investigate and solve issues in the environment
- acquire attitudes of care and concern for the environment
- adopt behaviours and practices which protect the environment, and
- understand the principles of ecologically sustainable development
Schools can use their own School Grounds and the way they use and manage Resources as a context for student learning This makes the school curriculum more integrated with the daily lives of the students, increasing understanding and relevance.
The Environmental Education Unit
The unit is part of the Curriculum K-12 directorate and interacts closely with the coordination and delivery of environmental education at a whole state to a regional to an individual schools basis.
The unit provides policy advice on environmental education to other directorates within the department and to regions. The unit collaborates with the Environmental Education Centres and provides support for conferences, other professional learning events and activities and whole of state student learning events. The unit also directly manages a number of projects including:
Sustainable Schools Project (2002-04) was a joint initiative of the DET and Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) and supports an integrated planning approach to Environmental Education through the new Sustainable schools website.
Schools Climate Change Initiative – Nine Climate Change Learning Communities have been established around NSW. These networks of Primary and High Schools, local councils and local Environmental Education Centres are developing teaching and learning activities that will span the transition between primary and high school. These community’s are developing a range of energy education programs and activities for students across the middle years which will be available to all schools in the future.
NSW Enviro Trust Project Education for Sustainability
– Developing a K-12 Framework. Over the next 10 months the unit will be coordinating a series of events and seminars which will address the questions of ‘what are some of the major threats to sustainability?’, ‘what skills knowledge do we need to understand these threats?’ and ‘what inclination do we need in order for us to act?’
An educational panel will then map out a scope and sequence of activities for students that will enable the graduates from our school system to have the capacity to meet those challenges.
© State of New South Wales through the Department of Education and Training, 2008. All rights reserved.
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