Wilke part of national effort to improve environmental education

Richard Wilke, an international leader in the field of environmental education and distinguished professor in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, is playing a leading role in crafting recommendations to improve environmental education across the nation.

Following Wilke’s keynote speech at last winter’s National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., he worked with other national leaders last winter and early spring to synthesize their findings into 10 public education recommendations for Congress and federal agencies to consider. The National Council for Science and Environment report was first released on Earth Day (April 22) with the final briefing held at the National Academy of Sciences last Friday (May 18).

Wilke’s working group on public education made the following recommendations:

1. The Bush Administration ought to make environmental education a top priority

2. Congress should reauthorize the 1990 Environmental Education Act (EPA) and increase funding

3. The Department of Education, National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies should support research on the best methods to reach nontraditional and diverse audiences through environmental education

4. Federal agencies should encourage and support pre-service teacher training in environmental education for all teachers

5. Federal agencies should increase support for environmental education curriculum and dissemination through nonformal education programs such as scouting, 4-H, nature centers, museums and other institutions

6. Federal agencies should support research to make environmental education more effective.

7. The Department of Education and EPA should provide block grants to states for environmental education programs.

8. Federal agencies should cooperatively develop and implement a yearly assessment of public environmental knowledge.

9. The EPA and Department of Education should assist states in integrating environmental assessments in their on-going state assessments in order to develop baseline data on environmental literacy.

10. Federal agencies should promote the dissemination and use of the North American Association of Environmental Education "Guidelines for Excellence."

"Environmental education is no longer in its infancy and the time has come for the nation’s federal agencies, educators and scientists to move forward and better deliver environmental education to not only young people, but to the nation as a whole," said Wilke. "Better teaching materials, improved assessment and greater accountability will in the long run benefit environmental educators throughout the nation. My hope is that President Bush, the Congress and key federal agencies will move quickly to implement these recommendations."

During the conference, 14 separate working groups put together recommendations for Congress and key federal agencies. Other areas within the report include biodiversity, global environmental change, higher education, human health and the environment, pollution prevention and waste management, population, sustainable resource management and others.

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