Featured Project: Portland Public Schools' Environmental Middle School
Students at the EMS work in a garden
EMS Founders
A student project
The Foundation has funded the development of a middle school curriculum resource guide documenting Portland Public Schools' Environmental Middle School. The EMS curriculum teaches young people the core principals of environmental conservation through class and community work.
Excerpt from resource guide: "Characteristics of Environmental Education."
- Environmental Education incorporates a human component to exploring environmental problems and their solutions. These solutions are not only scientific - they include historical, political, economic and cultural perspectives.
- Environmental Education rests on a foundation of knowledge about social and ecological systems.
- Knowledge lays the groundwork for analyzing environmental problems, resolving conflicts, and preventing new problems from arising.
- Environmental Education includes the affective domain: the attitudes, volues, and commitments necessary to build a sustainable society.
Ecoworks Foundation is now working with the creator of this resource guide to investigate the possibilities in promoting this successful curriculum more broadly.