Henry David Thoreau has been called the patron saint of the environmental movement and the father of nonviolent resistance. He was a writer, a scientist, a seeker of truth, and a fighter for maintaining our nation’s first principles.
Environmental Education
Environmental stewardship curriculum and education opportunities such as school gardens and outdoor learning experiences.
Young leaders around the world are creating lasting change for both people and the planet. EE 30 Under 30, a program of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), shines the spotlight on these changemakers who demonstrate passion, commitment, and leadership using environmental education (EE).
Integrating Career Technical Education (CTE) and core academic instruction represents a major step toward modernizing teaching and learning at the secondary level. This integration aligns education with the evolving workforce, helping learners connect classroom concepts with real-world applications and develop transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving, and digital literacy.
Outdoor learning is increasingly being adopted to provide positive, healthful, and effective learning opportunities, improving the physical, emotional, and mental health of educators and learners alike. Outdoor learning also addresses other key social and environmental issues, such as the climate crisis, the rapid loss of biodiversity, nature-deficit disorder, and the obesity epidemic.
Creator of memorable animal characters such as Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, and Mr. Jeremy Fisher, the children’s book author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) rooted her fiction in the natural world.
Each year millions of tons of wearable clothes end up in landfills, many taking centuries to decompose. But students can interrupt this cycle of waste. With just a few simple, easy-to-learn skills, students can repair, refresh, and reimagine the clothes they already own—adding a personal flare to each piece while reducing waste.
“In winter things are down to their essence and bare bones,” says David Lamon, manager of the Field Pond Audubon Center in Holden, Maine. Have you ever stopped to look closely at nature during wintertime? What did you notice?
In many ways every child is born a scientist—exploring their world, leading small experiments, asking questions, searching for answers. That innate curiosity and drive to inquiry is what nature conservationist and author Rachel Carson called a sense of wonder.
Dr. Jane Goodall spent years in Tanzania’s Gombe wilderness living among the chimpanzees. In doing so, she observed behavioral patterns never before recognized in primates that fundamentally altered our understanding of humanity’s place in the world.
There are many ways to work with animals and help save wildlife species around the globe. The video series “Other Duties as Assigned: The Secret World of Zoo Jobs” highlights four staff members from the Smithsonian National Zoo and explains how their jobs help provide the best care for the animals at the Zoo and support wildlife conservation.