Teachers Set to Learn the Ropes of Environmental Education

In observation of Friday’s Earth Day celebration, the California Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC), along with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, have organized and scheduled an Environmental Education Resource Fair. 

The event will be on May 10 at the Office of Education in Santa Cruz from 3:30 p.m. - 7 p.m., and will be open to local educators (public, private, home school) to give them tools to amp up their environmental education curricula for kindergarten through 12th grades.

More than 25 organizations from four counties (Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara) will have tables at the event, as will large government agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and smaller groups like Save the Frogs.

“We’re trying to provide good resources to make sure that environmental education is included here,” said Amity Sandage, South Bay region coordinator for CREEC.

The fair is meant to service multiple educational needs.

“Some teachers are looking for ways to get out of the classroom,” Sandage said. “They have students who don’t have the opportunity to go to the woods. They can connect with groups to get kids on field trips or special programs with experience in the outdoors.”

In-class education tips will also be available at the fair.

“Other teachers need a strong curriculum to add to what they are already using,” Sandage said. “There will be an actual curriculum that the teachers can take in hand with them and bring it to the classroom.”

According to Sandage, the last event of this kind in the South Bay region attracted a few hundred teachers. She hopes attendance will at least hit that mark this year.

For more information on CREEC, visit the network’s official Web site.