The Environmental Literacy Assessment Summit was held at the Lied Center in Nebraska City, June 10-13. The EPA Region VII received a grant to move forward the work ICEC started three years ago when we wrote our environmental literacy plan. Laura Downey, Executive Director of the Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education, and Bora Simmons, lead author of the NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence, led the summit. Those on the Iowa team included, Tom Neppl, Craig Edmonsen, Stacey Snyder, Kris Kilabardi, Tina Popson, Linda Zaletel, and Barb Ehlers. Those attending the summit were charged with developing a plan for assessment of environmental literacy in Iowa, and began with revising ICEC's vision statement for environmental literacy. 

Since the EE Summit, portions of the Iowa Core have been dissected to determine how existing goals and objectives align with the NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence, particularly as it relates to math and science curriculum. A second “culling” was done also for nonformal education (naturalists and interpreters) to serve as an initial road map for aligning programs and activities with the Iowa Core.

Because of the diverse stakeholder group for Iowa, there was consensus to expand the scope of an Iowa ELP to pre-K – 16 as grade levels. This is primarily due to the early childhood/head start program representatives and also members of the higher education community involved in the planning process. A “Phase II” of this effort will also align Iowa Core Curriculum with nonformal education programming to make for a more comprehensive State Plan.

This project was made possible through support from the US Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Education Grants Program, NE 83408701.