Environment and Ecology Standards
The following is a description of the
national guidelines which informed the development of the Pennsylvania Standards for
Environment and Ecology.
Excellence in Environmental Education - Guidelines for Learning (K-12)
This provides students,
parents, educators, home schoolers, administrators, policy makers and the public a set of
common, voluntary guidelines for environmental education. These guidelines evolved
from the United Nation's two seminal documents which founded the field of environmental
education - the Belgrade Charter (1976) and the Tbilisi Declaration (1978) - and share
their goal of "developing a world population that is aware of, and concerned about,
the environment and its associated problems and which has the knowledge, skills,
attitudes, motivations and commitment to work individually and collectively toward
solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones."
Excellence in Environmental Education - Guidelines for Learning K-12)
This is primarily focused on student achievement. The instructional strategies necessary for implementing environmental education are taken up in more detail in another document in this series, Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence (1996).
National guidelines for Environment and Ecology education may be requested from:
Patricia Vathis
Environment and Ecology
Pa Department of Education
333 Market Street
Harrisburg, Pa. 17126-0333
1-717-783-6994
FAX: 717-783-3946
pvathis@northstar.csiu.k12.pa