Friday, November 16, 2007

Moving on in Pima County


AAEE held its annual conference in Tucson, October 25-27, at the University of Arizona campus. Educating for Sustainability attracted over 100 educators and students. Area experts on climate change, permaculture, water conservation, and local food production offered hands-on classes and field trips that advanced participants’ knowledge about principles of sustainability. Guidelines for Excellence was held on Saturday morning to help educators identify effective environmental education materials correlated to national and state education standards.

The Conference culminated in the Livin’ la Vida Verde Festival, held in conjunction with Sunnyside Unified School District. Over seventy green vendors provided opportunities to learn about new energy and home building technologies. Honor of the Frog certificates (Green Frog News) were awarded to outstanding students and schools working on sustainability projects.
AAEE Awarded Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust Grant
The Arizona Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) received a grant of $45,000 from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust on November 16 to support conservation and environmental education in Tucson and Pima County.

During the project year, a Sustainability Coordinator will write grants to support the efforts of Sustainable Tucson.

The current funding supports a Models for Sustainability workshop to take place in Phoenix during 2008 that will feature Sustainable Tucson while inviting groups from around Arizona to come learn and to share what they are doing. The workshop will link sustainability efforts in Arizona cities and counties providing web site points of contact and downloadable resources to any community working toward sustainability goals.

AAEE will continue to provide regular professional development workshops such as Guidelines for Excellence in Environmental Education as well as other workshops and opportunities for networking that support environmental educators’ efforts to promote environmental literacy.

For more information on the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust: http://www.nmpct.org/