Advancing Environmental and Energy Education in Alberta

By: Alberta Council for Environmental Education (ACEE)

 

The Alberta Council for Environmental Education (ACEE), a non-profit with charitable status, just celebrated the end of its first decade. Their mission is to work in collaboration with others to advance environmental education in Alberta. In 2005, they engaged the community across Alberta who created the “Framework to Advance Environmental Education in Alberta,” which provided a blueprint for ACEE’s work: annual provincial environmental education conferences convening over 5,000 professionals, in partnership with provincial/national organizations, Alberta Teachers Association, and school boards; annual leadership clinics – a multi-day retreat where schools, NGOs, and municipalities develop goals, receive professional development, produce a plan; a multi-stakeholder Education Task Force to create Curriculum for a Sustainable Future, which proposes content for new Alberta K-12 curriculum to increase 700,000 students’ environmental, energy, and climate literacy; professional development for pre-service and in-service teachers; Alberta Green Schools, to advance environmental literacy; supporting environmental education through Communities of Practice; Get Outside and Play, a program to connect pre-school children with nature; searchable database of resources; robust polling of Alberta families and youth; engaged 3000 youth just last year.