Other Organizations Offering Resources for Sustainability Education

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Alliance for Childhood: Reports and recommendations for coloring childhood green in holistic, developmentally appropriate ways, such as through outdoor adventure play; for innovative approaches to technology literacy that prioritize social and ecological sustainability; and for other steps to promote a healthy, joyful childhood for all children.

Association for Experiential Education: A membership organization focused on expanding and serving the experiential-education community, including regional and annual conferences, a thoughtful blog, and, for paid members, a peer-reviewed quarterly journal.

Center for Ecoliteracy: A rich selection of lessons, articles, and principles for holistic approaches in ecological teaching and learning that are developmentally appropriate.

Children and Nature Network Research Library: Detailed summaries and citations for peer-reviewed research articles, and links to those that are publicly available, or to publishers’ websites when not publicly available.

Children and Nature Network’s Tools and Resources: Collection of free toolkits, reports, infographics and advocacy tools to help connect children, families, schools, and communities to nature. Specific tools for educators and others for parents, as well as for young adults and other advocates for children.

David Suzuki Foundation Resources for Educators: Free downloads available for The Nature as a Classroom guide, which answers common questions about how to make outdoor learning fun and accessible, and The Connecting With Nature guides, which include comprehensive classroom and outdoor lesson plans for kindergarten through Grade 8.

Educate the Whole Child offers an alternative to the accountability paradigm in public schools. It calls for “a commitment to nature and community.” And it offers links and resources on its website.

Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale’s “Resources for Educators”: The international Forum, at Yale University, focuses on creating a new academic field of study that brings world religions into dialogue with ecology and other disciplines, to enrich environmental policy and environmental humanities. It explores religious worldviews, texts, ethics, and practices to broaden understanding of the complex nature of environmental issues. Its Resources for Educators include syllabi, speakers list, and video and CD-ROM lists for classroom use; a bibliography of research on environmental education; and listings of professional development opportunities.

Global Oneness Project: An initiative of the Kalliopeia Foundation, this project offers free multicultural stories and accompanying lesson plans for high school and college classrooms. Its curriculum content explores cultural, social, and environmental issues with a humanistic lens and includes films, photo essays, and articles. Each month, it releases a new story and accompanying lesson plan, and its content is aligned to National and Common Core Standards.

National Wildlife Federation Programs to Connect Children and Nature: Designed to inspire children to get outdoors, help wildlife, and become more aware of the nature in their neighborhood and community.

Online Waldorf Library: A project of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education, this site is a rich source of articles, online books, and more for educators seeking both professional development and practical examples of methods, curricula, and class projects that can integrate holistic, Goethean approaches to educating for sustainability from early childhood through high school education. Its database is searchable by title of resource and also by subject. Searches for “biology,” “ecology,” and “environmental science” are a fruitful way to start.

Orion Magazine Connections for Educators: Orion’s mission is “to inform, inspire, and engage individuals and grassroots organizations in becoming a significant cultural force for healing nature and community.” Its special resources for teachers include its Nature Literacy Series of books, other book-length anthologies of past writing from the magazine, and Orion Readers, some of which include helpful Teacher Guides.

Teaching for Tolerance Resources for “Take It Outside”: Teaching for Tolerance is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. For additional Teaching for Tolerance classroom resources supporting early childhood through high school education for social and environmental sustainability, visit www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources and search for “environment.”