The Utah Society for Environmental Education (USEE), in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is in the process of conducting an inventory of environmental education efforts across the state. By way of teacher needs assessments, teacher focus groups, and student assessments, our goal is to identify key concepts and pedagogy for environmental literacy and to develop a formal Environmental Literacy Plan for Utah.

Utah Environmental Literacy Planning emphasizes four main components of environmental literacy:

• Knowledge: a basic understanding of earth systems and the social aspects of environment
• Competency: the ability to understand, interpret, and criticize information presented about the environment
• Disposition: Affective or value-based understanding of socio-ecological concepts
• Behavior: the application and implementation of knowledge in a day-to-day setting
• Place-based understanding: a basic knowledge of local ecology and the dynamics of environment and society at city- and state-levels

USEE is in the process of developing and piloting an environmental literacy survey to be distributed among Utah 12th graders. Informed by teacher assessments, the instrument is intended to highlight gaps in studentsʼ understanding of the environment. Results of this survey and insights from educator focus groups will serve as the primary resources for creating a draft Environmental Literacy Plan. Visit the website linked on this page for the results of the student assessment and draft of the Utah Environmental Literacy Plan - available Spring of 2015.