Using the core concepts
 Indiana: Indiana Fish and Wildlife held a series of meetings with staff to review the AFWA concepts, resulting in an Indiana 10 Core Concepts. They use the concepts in training volunteer facilitators for Project WILD, Project WET, Hoosier Riverwatch and GoFishIN. All concepts are taught in activities at the Hoosier Outdoor Experience weekend, during both the schools' education day and the public days. A poster of the concepts has been created to hang in office cubicles at the state office building. Email Warren Gartner for a copy of the Indiana 10 Core Concepts.
South Dakota: The education staff at SD Division of Wildlife has adopted the core concepts as the guiding principles of their education efforts in concert with their Wildlife Division mission. The core concepts are an integral part of a new outdoor education center where architects are working with educators to design the facility around the concepts.
Florida: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's education and outreach team are working on a "Floridapted" version of the core concepts that will be launched to all agency staff when completed.
Texas: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has assigned a leadership team to implement the concepts.
Arizona: Kellie Tharp trained Arizona Game and Fish Department Information and Education staff on the core concepts, and they have discussed ways to incorporate the concepts into their existing programs and curriculum.
Let us know how your agency is using the core concepts.
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CE Strategy Survey - Some Outdoor Skills Results
In September 41 state fish and wildlife agencies completed an AFWA survey about some of their conservation education programs including in-school outdoor skills education. The survey asked agencies about barriers they've experienced to in-school outdoor skills education, as well as tools AFWA might provide to help address the barriers. "Lack of staff/agency resources" and "school administrators are not interested" were the top two barriers. "Teacher time for training" and "teacher comfort level with material" were also identified as significant barriers. The two most needed resources identified for helping to incorporate outdoor skills education in the formal school day were "messages to use with school administrators" and "connections to health and/or physical education standards." The Outdoor Skills subcommittee will use these and other survey results to develop products and strategies to increase the presence of outdoor skills in schools.
A complete report of all survey results will be completed and published in January 2010, and will be available on the AFWA conservation education web page.
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NCLI Legislation Update
On December 14 the NCLI Coalition hosted a conference call with Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD) and provided an update on the No Child Left Inside Act (NCLI). Support for No Child Left Inside legislation continues to grow with 84 sponsors in the House of Representatives and 18 in the Senate. Efforts are underway to incorporate the NCLI Act into the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The Department of Education is requesting comments on ESEA as they begin drafting new language for the bill.
Resources from the Children and Nature Network
The Children and Nature Network recently added several new research-related resources including "Children's Nature Deficit--What We Know and Don't Know" and Volume 4 of C&NN's Research and Studies. These and other resources are available from the Children and Nature Network.
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