The TREE

Teaching Resources for Environmental Educators

The KAEE Teaching Resources for Environmental Educators (TREE) was developed to serve as a means for connecting formal educators with professionals who can assist with the integration of environmental concepts into all content areas. Within this portal you'll find Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS) resources, KAS correlated units of study based on environmental education, connections to environmental educators across the state, a database of funders focused on environmental education for teachers, and more.

ee Units

ee Resources

ee Connections

EE UNITS

Anchor 1

In 2016, KAEE began the work of developing workshops that were correlated to the Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS) for science. We quickly realized the value environmental education has to offer teachers when it comes to KAS, and we wanted to do more. KAEE invited environmental educators across the Commonwealth to collaborate on this project, building EE units entrenched in the KAS for classroom teachers. We worked with formal and non-formal educators, training them to read and understand KAS for Science, and giving them the tools they needed to develop these EE Units of Study.

Elementary

Little hands are meant to get dirty! Designed for grades K-5, these units get students outside and can integrate seamlessly into your science curriculum.

Middle

Middle school students face a number of distractions. You'll find ways to keep students engaged and interested in learning with our EE Units.

High

Get your students off their iPhones and engaged in the world around them with our interactive, engaging units for grades 9-12.

We would like to thank Melinda Wilder and Vivian Bowles for their time and expertise on the creation of these units. Many thanks to Rae McEntyre with the Kentucky Department of Education for her diligent review and support of this process. Finally, we would like to recognize the following volunteers for serving on the NGSS Working Group responsible for designing these units: Joanna Ashford, Jennifer Beach, Billy Bennett, Grace Downey, Brittany Fisher, Jackie Gallimore, Sagan Goodpaster, Emily Hogue, Annie Holt, Susan Lewis, Ashley Osborne, Karen Pratt, April Reefer, Henrietta Sheffel, and Danny Woolums.

Anchor 2

EE RESOURCES

Correlating Resources

Environmental education experiences are highly suited to support NGSS and utilize the three dimensions of science. Our team has put together presentations and resources outlining this connection. These resources provide background knowledge on NGSS, our process for correlating, and past presentations supporting the connection between EE experiences and the three dimensions.

Three Dimensional Tasks

KAEE's Three Dimensional Tasks (TDTs) are environmental education activities, fully correlated to the three dimensions of NGSS. You’ll find these activities similar to the Through Course Tasks (TCTs) in that these will provide evidence of students’ abilities to utilize the science and engineering practices and the cross-cutting concepts. TCTs are a component of the Kentucky Academic Standards for Science (KAS) for science assessment system.

Workshop
Agendas

KAEE specializes in training facilitators to deliver EE workshops that are correlated to KAS for science. If you're wondering what a KAS EE workshop might look like, take a look at the past agendas below. KAEE is here to connect you with a facilitator that will work with you to design a workshop to meets the needs of your school or district. Contact brittany@kaee.org for more information.

EE CONNECTIONS

Anchor 3

At KAEE, we are all about making connections. If we don't provide what you need, then we'll connect you to someone who does.

Facilitators

KAEE Facilitators are educators who are certified by KAEE to host trainings in one of our curriculum programs.

Funders

Review our database of funders who may be able to help you meet your funding goals.

Members

Become a KAEE member and join our extensive network of educators across the state.

Social

Connect with the EE community through our social accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Our Partners

KAEE is proud to partner with diverse organizations across the state of Kentucky in order to achieve our vision of an environmentally literate society committed to a sustainable future. These partnerships and collaborations are essential to the success of our organization and the work we are doing. We would like to give special recognition to our statewide partners who also assisted in the development of this site and these resources.