The Forum | TEEP | Current Forum Projects | Forum/TEEP Workshops and Reports | Evolved Projects
The Forum is a network of environmental educators and environmentally related professionals working to create and implement systemic projects that establish environmental/sustainability education in schools and non-formal settings.
The Forum has its roots in a historical process that began with EEAC, the Council on the Environment of NYC (now GrowNYC) and the Environmental Action Coalition developing a statewide initiative to infuse environmental concepts into the State Education Department's Syllabus, Curriculum and Regents Exams in most subjects.
It was the general conclusion of those in the statewide coalition that the infusion led to a modest increase in the teaching of environmental education (EE) in schools throughout the state, especially in science subjects at the secondary school level.
It was clear to us, however, that a majority of teachers were not prepared to teach environmental subject matter and would either attempt to ignore environmental content or would not teach it in an effective manner.
TEEP (Teacher Environmental Education Preparation)
EEAC launched the Teacher Environmental Education Preparation (TEEP) project in December 1999. The purpose of TEEP is to motivate more colleges of education in New York State (NYS) to include EE in their teacher prep programs.
Despite many successful workshops and meetings, and some movement by the State Education Department in support of more EE in teacher prep programs, many colleges of education in NYS have resisted infusing more EE into their curricula.
At TEEP workshops from 2016-19, participants began to generate new ideas to expand EE in the state. The Forum emerged from the TEEP workshops at the suggestion of EEAC steering committee members. Forum workshops are held every year or two to generate new project ideas.
Forum Projects
Current Forum projects: Syllabi Bank | Weather Stations in Schools | The Right to Learn How Nature Works | How Things Work – Youth Conference
Syllabi Bank
An online syllabi bank which contains a collection of courses in environmental education available for those colleges of education and other teacher training institutions that want to expand the infusion of environmental concepts into their teacher preparation programs. The syllabi bank is the main manifestation of the original TEEP effort. As of this writing approximately 4,000 downloads of courses have occurred from educational institutions throughout the U.S and Europe, although only a few NYS colleges of education have used the resource.
In order to review and/or download courses go to Syllabi Bank.
To contribute a course, please send your syllabi, no more than 6-10 pages in PDF format, to teep@eeac-nyc.org.
Weather Stations in Schools
A project to install weather stations in schools. The project is coordinated by the NOAA Cooperative Science Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Learning at The City College of New York. The Forum aids in identifying and reaching out to schools. Weather stations, which are used to help youth understand climate change, have been installed in 25 NYC public schools with more on the way.
The Right to Learn How Nature Works
The precept that "all persons have the right to learn how nature works" was formulated at Forum Workshop 5. The Forum committee responded by creating a multi-faceted project which included motivating a significant number of people to vote for the environmental rights amendment to the New York State Constitution which states that "Each person shall have a right to clean air and water and a healthful environment." The amendment was overwhelmingly approved by the voters in November 2022.
Another aspect of the "learn how nature works" project is participation in the Climate Resilience and Education Task Force's (CRETF) development of an online platform on climate change education that can be accessed by schools, teachers, students, policy makers and citizens throughout NYS. A Forum representative has been active on the platform committee and has been effective in ensuring that more climate change education in teacher preparation programs is included in the platform recommendations. The platform is now accessible and the Forum will help CREFT secure political support for its proposals. The platform has led to the creation of climate change education legislation in the New York State Legislature. The bill has many sponsors and is currently in committee in both the State Assembly and the State Senate.
How Things Work – Youth Conference
A youth conference on "how things work," modeled after the original YouthCaN conferences held at the American Museum of Natural History is a fourth Forum project. The first "How Things Work" conference was held at City College on March 5th 2024 and was attended by 200 students (grades 6–college) and their teachers who observed 16 exhibits manned by 50 environmental education professionals who guided the youth in exploring environmental systems such as a solar collector, a hydrogen fuel cell bus, a green roof, and a weather station.
A report on the conference has been produced and it will be distributed widely. The report will help schools and community groups to replicate the projects and/or the entire conference.
Forum/TEEP Workshops and Reports
TEEP Workshops/Reports 1-4 describe the original TEEP workshops and some of the initiatives that resulted.
Forum Workshops/Reports 5-6 review Forum workshops 5 and 6 respectively after the Forum evolved from TEEP, the projects that emerged from them and some of the results of those efforts.
See details of the Forum/TEEP Workshops and Reports >
Projects that have evolved from the TEEP Workshops:
EE Professional Learning Opportunities (EE Clearinghouse database) [January 2021]