Maple seeds
  CE Strategy News

      An Occasional Update on the North American Conservation Education Strategy 

 
Issue 1, September 2009      
 
In This Issue
Welcome
Spotlight - Children and Nature Committee
Maryland Completes Children in Nature Plan
CE Strategy at NAAEE
 
 
Core Concepts
Field Investigations Guide
K-12 Scope & Sequence
Stewardship Best Practices 
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CE Strategy Committees
 
Working Group
Judy Silverberg, NH
K-12
Judy Silverberg
Outdoor Skills
Jeff Rucks, CO
Children In Nature
Kellie Tharp, AZ
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Quick Links
 
 
 
 
Welcome
Welcome to the first issue of CE Strategy News. A key to the AFWA conservation education strategy is good communication. This newsletter will keep you up to date on the work of the strategy. The materials, tools and strategies are designed to help us strengthen conservation education efforts in our agencies and organizations. We hope this newsletter will inspire you to use materials developed by this project, and more importantly, to get involved by providing feedback, joining one of the many committees, and providing insight from your agency or organization's perspective.  We are currently focusing efforts in the following areas: outdoor skills in formal education settings, social science and technological connections to field investigations, development and access of outdoor classrooms and schoolyard habitat, connecting with children and nature, and evaluating our efforts. Please send an email or give me a call if you would like to be involved or have comments on how we can best address needs and barriers you face. 
 
Keep up the great work.  Remember the words of Mark Duda "No conservation education = no conservation"
 
Chair AFWA Conservation Education Working Group
603-271-1737 
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Spotlight - Children and Nature Committee 
The Children and Nature Committee is one of three committees working to implement the North Amercian Conservaton Education Strategy through a multistate grant. Over the next three years, the committee will be developing strategies and resources to assist fish and wildlife agencies to connect children with nature. The broad interest in children in nature - from architects to health care professionals to natural resource agencies - provides a unique opportunity to highlight the many outdoor resources fish and wildlife agencies provide. Coalitions and initiatives across the country open up new audiences for our core concepts.  After all, we've been all about getting people outside for decades!  In future newsletters, this column will provide updates on the Children and Nature movement at the national level as well as highlight local agency activities. Let me know if you want to see your program highlighted here.
Kellie Tharp, AZ Game and Fish
Chair, Children and Nature Committee
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Maryland Completes Children in Nature Plan
Recognizing the urgency in ensuring that Maryland's young people have the opportunity to connect with nature and grow to become informed and responsible stewards of our environment, Governor Martin O'Malley established the Maryland Partnership for Children in Nature by Executive Order in April 2008. Co-chaired by Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin and State School Superintendent Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick, the Partnership recently completed a Children in Nature Plan. This plan combines the tenets of fostering a love and connection to nature through outdoor play with the hands-on knowledge benefits of experiential environmental education. It is the comprehensive nature of this approach that the Partnership believes is critical to the success of achieving the Governor's vision of a future Maryland that is loved and cared for by the next generation of stewards. The partnership has also developed a strategic plan that addresses connecting  communitites and families to nature, reaching out to underserved communitites that have the least access to nature, and strengthening sudents' connection to nature during the school day.  
Find out more...

Elena Takaki, Maryland DNR 
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NAAEE Preconference Workshop
Learn how to use AFWA's new conservation education resources at the NAAEE Preconference Workshop:  State Fish and Wildlife Tools for Conservation Education: Let's Work Together!  The session will cover techniques for field investigations, core concepts and best practices for conservation education.  Register today!
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Logo Association of Fish and Wildlife AgenciesContacts
Laura MacLean      Ginny Wallace
202-624-7890         573-418-0604
       
 Conservation Education = Conservation