KAEE and EKU welcomed twenty-three educators to Maywoods Environmental and Educational Laboratory to EE Bootcamp—an immersive, two-day, environmental education workshop. This year’s participants included 9 EKU students from its Teaching In the Outdoors course (REC 590/790) and 14 formal and nonformal educators from across the state.
Participants in EE Bootcamp learned how outdoor learning and environmental education can support classroom learning and academic standards by participating in curriculum activities from the perspective of a student and as an educator. As students, they learned how to build a raft for an egg, make a meal over a campfire, construct their own nature journal, and more.
As educators, participants explored how these activities and EE can be incorporated into all subjects, including science, social studies, reading and writing, math, and more; and how these lessons support student learning and the Kentucky Academic Standards.
On day two, the educators were able to put their knowledge to use to plan and lead an experience using activities from nationally-acclaimed curricula Project WET, Project WILD, and Project Learning Tree. The participants walk away from EE Bootcamp trained in each of these aforementioned programs, as well as the K-12 Environmental Education: NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence.
EE Bootcamp is an annual workshop that is hosted by the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education in partnership with EKU Division of Natural Areas. This event was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under §319(h) of the Clean Water Act and in partnership with the Kentucky Division of Water as the state host for the Project WET program. Additional support was provided by the Kentucky Sustainable Forestry Initiative State Implementation Committee for the Project Learning Tree program.
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