Environmental Education Resources

NRWA’s professional education staff is available for consultation and to assist you with environmental education program development. Please contact Stacey Chilcoat, NRWA River Classroom Director, at (978) 448-0299, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., for more information.

Environmental Education Professional organizations that provide professional support through conferences, on-line resources, and have on-line research articles (free) include:

1. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education
The International Journal of Environmental and Science Education (IJESE) publishes original research from throughout the world dealing with environmental education and science education. It publishes articles on psychological, sociological, economic and organizational aspects of environment and science education, as well as evaluation studies of curriculum development in these fields.

2. NEEEA: NE Journal of Environmental Education
The mission of the New England Environmental Education Alliance (NEEEA) is to promote quality environmental education across New England in partnership with the state environmental education organizations. NEEEA members include all state organizations in the six New England states. Visit the Member States page for more information. NEEEA is affiliated with the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). As one of its key initiatives, NEEEA publishes an online journal, the New England Journal of Environmental Education (NEJEE). NEJEE is written for practicing environmental educators: teachers, naturalists, program developers and administrators.

3. North American Association of Environmental Education
The North American Association for Environmental Education advances environmental education and supports environmental educators in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. By 2015, the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) will be the premier organization in Canada, the United States, and Mexico providing environmental educators, and the organizations that train, employ, and support those educators with professional development, guidelines for excellence, networking, and advocacy, all within a culture of inclusivity. They provide curriculum standards, guidelines on professional qualifications of educators, and conferences.

4. Massachusetts Environmental Education Society
The Massachusetts Environmental Education Society is dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and improvement of environmental education in the state and region. MEES provides tools for environmental educators, including their annual conference in March, the MEES Observer newsletter, their website, and sponsorship of Project WET.

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Teacher and Youth Leader Training: Educating the Educators

The NRWA is a Massachusetts Department of Secondary Education Professional Development Provider. The best way to extend our outreach to the children of our watershed is through working with teachers, administrators, and youth leaders on ways to incorporate environmental education lessons into their curricula and programs. The NRWA’s professional eduators:

• Provide workshops on science topics for schools and school districts, with science kits purchased by school districts and curriculum projects.
• Run workshops in education pedagogy, such as place-based lessons for a schools or districts which need science assistance. NRWA worked closely with the staff at J.R.Briggs Elementary School, using The EIC ModelTM, to create a school-wide curriculum that integrated environmental education with all disciplines. This program was recognized with an award for Excellence in Environmental Education by the MA Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
• Offer workshops in three national training areas, Project WILD, Project WET and Project Learning Tree, and can design them according to the requirements of the school or group.
• Lead workshops on science topics such as invasive plants, macroinvertebrate collection, forest ecology, and more.
• Help your school design curriculum to utilize a specific conservation property or schoolyard with inclusion of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire science frameworks. These projects also have service learning complements. For example The Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR) Curriculum Model Project which addressed use of the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge in Harvard, MA and “Service Learning in Lunenburg, MA: Fifth Graders Use Math, Science and English Language Arts While Investigating Different Ways to Address Invasive Species.”
• Assist teachers in developing service learning projects that blend with their curriculum and school service requirements. Projects range from trail building and maintenance, to invasive controls, to building pollinator gardens and blue bird nest boxes.
• Collaborate in MITS Museum Institute for Teaching Science for the Merrimac River Valley Region, providing two week summer institutes for teachers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
• Make presentations at conferences of the Massachusetts Environmental Education Society and the New England Environmental Education Alliance.

Occasionally, the NRWA offers 3-credit courses through Fitchburg State University. Our Environmental Education Director, Mary Marro, has Adjunct Faculty status and will set up courses for specific groups or the general public.

For more information on workshops, presentations, curriculum assistance, and service learning projects, please contact Stacey Chilcoat, NRWA River Classroom Director, at (978) 448-0299, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Environmental Education for Professionals

Our education programs for professionals focus on connecting people working in the fields of natural resource protection and environmental education with experts in those fields. Our presentations for professionals have included a land use planning workshop with Randall Arendt, a program on appraising conservation properties with James J. Czupryna, a GIS/GPS map training workshop for foresters, and a Master’s level course for elementary science teachers. Many of NRWA’s professional education programs are approved for professional continuing education credits. Our environmental education staff also work closely with educators on lesson and curriculum development. More about working with educators.

View our schedule of upcoming programs and be sure to sign-up for NRWA Enews to receive our monthly enewsletter with the latest on NRWA’s work and advance notice of programs and events.

For more information about education programs for professionals, please contact Al Futterman, NRWA Land Programs Director, at (978) 448-0299, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Educators interested in working with NRWA staff or professional programs, please contact Stacey Chilcoat, NRWA River Classroom Director, at (978) 448-0299, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..