Environmental Progress - Fall 2000

Educational Packet Has Brand New Look

New name, new format, new content for fifth, sixth grade educational tool

The IEPA's 14 year-old education tool, formerly called Air, Land & Water, will go into fifth and sixth grade classrooms this school year with a whole new content, a new look and a new name. It is now Environmental Pathways -- Youth Investigating Pollution Issues in Illinois.

The new packet was designed to meet the North American Association for Environmental Education's Guidelines for Excellence. It is correlated to the Illinois Learning Standards.

The spring poster and poetry/prose exhibit will continue to be an important component of the program, which this year will have the theme "The Land We Depend On." Focus will be on the importance of protecting the land, and how everyday activities can affect it. Teachers who sign up will receive a free packet of materials including a teacher's guide, posters for display in the classroom, and information on the statewide poster and poetry/prose exhibition.

Packets are scheduled for distribution in late December, so fifth and sixth teachers can incorporate the materials in their classrooms during January. At the conclusion of the classroom work, students will create posters or written materials (prose or verse) illustrating what they have learned. Each school may submit to the IEPA for judging two entries in each category (poster and poetry/prose), for a total of four entries per school. The Illinois EPA must receive these entries by February 23, 2001. From the initial entries, a panel will select 50 finalists, and another judging panel will then select the top six winners. In the spring, finalists, their families and teachers are invited to an awards reception in Springfield. Winners receive U.S. savings bonds, ribbons and specially inscribed environmental books for their school libraries. Top entries remain on display at the Illinois State Museum for a month and are posted on the Agency's web page. Previous year's winning entries can be seen on the Illinois EPA's web site.

Additional information about the program can be obtained from Kristi Morris-Richards at 217-524-8358.