Happy Earth Day!

Well, I sent my 3-year-old off to school today with her first Earth Day project: A collage of "What Cows Give Us." (And boy, do they give us a lot of our favorite things... cheese, ice cream, whipped cream...)

Many of you have similar, probably much more sophisticated activities planned for the day. For example, a Michigan middle school just sent me news of their new solar panels, installed today as part of the district's switch to sustainable energy. Others are cleaning creeks, planting trees, and... wait a second! Talk about planting trees... One Florida school district is planning to plant 10,450 trees between 11 and noon!

Some of you also may be tracking news of the $100 million "No Child Left Inside Act", which has taken federal legislators on a field trip to a national wildlife visitors center in Maryland today. That legislation would aim to strengthen environmental education through teacher training, program grants, and state-adopted environmental science standards -- and it has the support of NEA. For more information, go here.

Of course environmental education isn't just a one-day affair. Or shouldn't be, anyway. The NEA also is partnering with polar explorer Will Steger to bring global warming to classrooms. (Not literally!) For more information, including lesson plans and video from Steger's ongoing Arctic expedition, go here.

And a few more tidbits that I've collected...

This site has grants for environmental education. Free money!

And this site is looking for nominations for outstanding environmental educators.