The earth conservation corps (ECC) team, under the guidance of the national wildlife federation, will provide a series of training workshops in which they will present an introduction of the…

The Earth Conservation Corps (ECC), under a $133,333 Environmental Protection Agency Region 3 Project Grant from the Environmental Education Grants Program (CFDA 66.951), will provide teacher training workshops on the Eco-Schools USA program curriculum and philosophy. Teachers will then implement the Eco-Schools program with their students, challenging them to evaluate their school's sustainability and design conservation-focused campaigns. Teachers will also participate in additional ECC-supported training and planning to implement a second Eco-Schools module focused on a different conservation topic. This will allow teachers to gain expertise that embeds sustainable practices in their classrooms through June 2023. The grant supports designing and disseminating environmental education practices to advance the National Environmental Education Act.

The earth conservation corps (ECC) team, under the guidance of the national wildlife federation, will provide a series of training workshops in which they will present an introduction of the philosophy and curriculum of the ECO-schools USA program. Upon completion of the initial training, the teachers will implement the ECO-schools program with their students. Students will be challenged to work in cooperative ECO-action teams to evaluate the sustainability of their school and use their critical thinking skills to design and implement a sustainability campaign around a conservation topic in their school. Teachers will then participate in additional training, reflection and planning, supported by the ECC, to plan and implement another ECO-schools module focused on a different conservation topic. This will allow teachers to gain a high level of familiarity with the curriculum, embedding this action-oriented sustainability model in their practice at their schools.