| Objective: Improve and enhance opportunities for teacher candidates to acquire environmental education academic content and appropriate teaching tools at North Carolina's public and private colleges and universities. Promote student internships in environmental education.
Explanation: Teachers who have not been introduced to hands-on, experiential skills in the out-of-doors will not be inclined to bring environmental education to their classrooms. Teachers who are not comfortable teaching environmental education are not likely to seek in-service training in environmental education. Existing pre-service environmental education courses should be recognized and encouraged among North Carolina colleges and universities statewide. Where these courses are not available, faculty are encouraged to become knowledgeable about existing opportunities and resources.
Action:
Maintain a directory of pre-service environmental education programs and course offerings that incorporate environmental topics, and identify departmental contacts on each campus.
Support statewide gatherings bringing together college and university faculty, DPI curriculum and licensure specialists, K-12 teachers and curriculum coordinators, museum and science center educators and representatives of government and private organizations interested in environmental education to discuss improvement of environmental education programs and course offerings at the state's institutions of higher education.
Modify academic courses in which teachers enroll as well as instructional methods courses for the elementary and secondary levels to include: environmental topics and classroom curricula; hands-on and inquiry-based learning opportunities; use of local environmental and community resources; field trip experiences; and interdisciplinary environmental themes including social studies, science, mathematics and the arts.
Develop additional partnership efforts among colleges and universities, environmental education centers, business and industry and government to include teacher internships.
Investigate the establishment of bachelor's and master's degree environmental education programs. Encourage institutions of higher education with existing programs in environmental studies to share successes and expand opportunities.
Identify opportunities and examine difficulties facing students receiving degrees in environmental studies and who desire to teach. Learn from the experiences of existing programs and their graduates and explore solutions to problems and ways to expand opportunities. |
