Educating for the Environment

Maine is blessed by natural beauty that is admired by many, with Acadia National Park, beautiful fall leaves, miles of rocky coastline, and numerous picturesque views all across the state. But many people who live in the state of Maine, especially children, lack the means to experience this beauty. The Maine Environmental Education Association (MEEA), “is dedicated to working to raise funds to support quality environmental education programs for ALL Mainers.” They work to connect children to the outdoors by helping to improve environmental education and literacy, and connecting teachers to the resources they need.

MEEA has been working for over 30 years to connect people and environment. They are considered an affiliate organization of the North American Association for Environmental Education, (NAEE); this links them to other organizations like themselves throughout the country. Almost entirely volunteer run, with one paid staff member, there are many people who keep the organization running. The board of directors is comprised of environmental education leaders, and represents almost every large environmental education nonprofits in Maine. The MEEA has been working hard to achieve their goals, and in 2015 the organization was honored by being awarded the North American Affiliate of the Year from NAEE.

Goals in the MEEA

According to the organization, their primary goal is “…building healthy, resilient, sustainable communities in Maine and supports the work of all educators who are using nature and the out-of-doors in teaching and learning.” The president of the organization, Ms. Olivia Griset, laid out a list of strategic goals that break down the primary goal of the organization, creating a clear picture of how they are trying to achieve this goal.

The first goal is the empowerment of emerging environmental change-makers, which is backed by the second goal of supporting, developing, and promoting climate change education. The third goal is to lead Maine efforts in building a more inclusive and fair environmental movement; this means bringing more people to the discussion, and helping ensure that people from all levels of society are listened to, helped, and unharmed by environmental actions.

The next set of goals focus on environmental education. They aim to “facilitate collaborative partnerships between community partners and preK-16 education” in order to both increase and improve place-based learning in schools. They are also advocating for environmental education on both state and federal levels, as well as helping their membership understand how they can assist these efforts. Another goal is helping Maine Environmental Education through fundraising, to allow those who are not in the financial position to experience Maine’s natural world to experience what the state has to offer.

The final goal is promoting environmental education. They host a conference each year to celebrate their successes, showcase different methods of environmental education, and show teachers how to apply it their students and their curriculum. They also present awards each year to Maine people and organizations who have done excellent environmental work.

Advocating & Connecting

The two major components of the MEEA are their efforts in advocating for environmental education and connecting people with the resources they need to teach children about the environment. For advocating, Griset stated that “there are a few ways we are involved with advocacy work,” and listed the three primary ways they advocate.

The first form of advocacy she described is participating in NAAEE policy. They are closely connected to people who work in D.C. full time on environmental education, and implement their suggestions in Maine. Griset described the MEEA as “a very active part of a national grassroots advocacy framework for environmental education.” Following that same basic principle, the second way they advocate is by assisting the state’s environmental education policy and participating when possible.

The third advocacy method that she described was their work with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). “We have a seat on the Maine STEM collaborative so we represent the voice of environment-STEM and green-STEM in that group.” This position enables them to encourage young people to work on environmental sciences and encourage the development of school programs to ensure that the next generation gets the best education in environmental science possible.

When it comes to connecting people, President Griset described the MEEA as the “connecting hub.” This means that if a teacher contacts them, they can link the teacher to both resources and people. They also work with other organizations such as the Maine Audubon and UMaine 4-H at Tanglewood.

One of the most public acts to connect people and organizations with resources and experts is the annual MEEA conference. This event showcases different efforts and methods of environmental education. For this year’s conference, they have more than 30 presentations and workshops set up for educators to attend. Their keynote speaker is Lisa Purcell — the executive director of the Four Winds Nature Institute — on improving resilience. There will also be a special short course on multi-solving climate change with Coleen O’Connell, who is the Director/Faculty of the Ecological Teaching and Learning MS Program in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Awards & the Future

But perhaps their most famous actions are the awards that they give. Each year, they hand out five awards to honor people and organizations who have done important environmental work. They recognize a green business, a student, an educator, a school, and a teacher of the year. They also award lifetime achievement awards, a separate form of recognition for people whose careers have left a lasting impact on environmental education. These awards publicly demonstrate the success of environmental work, and provides models for others to follow.

When asked where the MEEA would be in ten years, Griset stated “In ten years we will be an instrumental lead organization in the work in Maine to connect people from diverse backgrounds to the natural world.” Should MEEA succeed, they will be instrumental in preserving their state’s natural beauty, by creating environmental activists and admirers of Maine’s beauty from the next generation of citizens.

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