A total of 26 teachers from Los Angeles area schools, including several from South L.A., in grades 4-12 participated this spring semester in an intensive three-Saturday institute on environmental education.
The institute covered a number of important environmental topics including water sources and supply, water conservation, water quality, energy sources as well as energy conservation related to gas and electricity.
A unique aspect of this 24 hours of training was that each topic was introduced by experts from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) or the Gas Company. Then these presentations were followed by instruction on specific nationally recognized classroom lesson materials from Project WET, WILD or Learning Tree.
Also, teachers received up-to-date information on the latest teaching methodologies and on the new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core.
In addition to participating in the three-day institute, teachers were required to conduct environmental stewardship projects with their students, share information about these activities with fellow faculty members at their schools and present PowerPoint or videos on the last day of the institute.
Stewardship projects ranged from development and implementation of water saving gardens to trash and water recycling projects. Some teachers had projects that covered several topics.
The institute convening organization was the California Environmental Education Foundation. The institute was held at the LADWP downtown headquarters. Sponsors included the LADWP, the Gas Company, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the California Department of Water Resources, Sandia National Laboratory/California and Lockheed-Martin.
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