3.1 Integrated Environmental Education: Environmental education is integrated throughout the curriculum.

About

Integrated environmental education (EE) transforms sustainability from an isolated, optional subject into a foundational lens through which students analyze the world. Rather than restricting environmental concepts to standard life science modules, integration weaves ecological literacy into mathematics, history, language arts, and the arts. This systemic approach is critical because today's students face complex, interconnected socio-ecological challenges—such as climate volatility and localized water pollution—that cannot be solved by a single discipline alone (North American Association for Environmental Education [NAAEE], 2025). By grounding abstract academic concepts in the tangible reality of their local ecosystems, schools foster critical thinking and spatial awareness, helping youth understand how human systems and natural systems continuously influence one another (Project Learning Tree [PLT], 2016).

Vision and Benefits

When integrated environmental education is perfectly executed, a school functions as a living laboratory where learning naturally transcends the four walls of the traditional classroom. In this ideal state, a third-grade math class might use schoolyard rain gardens to calculate water runoff volume, while an eleventh-grade civics class analyzes municipal waste data provided by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency ([MPCA], 2026) to draft mock local ordinances. Teachers across all grade levels and disciplines collaborate intentionally, utilizing shared frameworks like Minnesota’s Environmental Literacy Scope and Sequence to scaffold ecological concepts from kindergarten through graduation. The campus infrastructure—from solar arrays to compost bins—is fully mapped to the curriculum, ensuring that the physical school facility itself acts as an active teaching tool that reinforces daily classroom instruction.

The multi-faceted benefits of an integrated EE framework span academic, psychological, and regulatory domains. Peer-reviewed analyses indicate that students in schools with integrated EE consistently outperform their peers on standardized tests in reading, math, and writing, as real-world problem-solving intrinsically boosts student engagement and information retention (NAAEE, 2025). Furthermore, embedding outdoor experiential learning into the curriculum significantly reduces symptoms of attention deficit disorders and stress, promoting overall psychological well-being and a healthy lifestyle among youth (National Environmental Education Foundation [NEEF], 2024). Financially and logistically, this cross-curricular model helps districts satisfy state academic benchmarks simultaneously across multiple subjects without requiring costly standalone programs, while simultaneously cultivating the civic-minded leadership required to meet regional environmental stewardship goals.

Current Leaders in Integrated Environmental Education

Explore the Progress Steps Dashboard to see examples of schools leading on this best practice. 

School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, MN, received a 2013 Green Ribbon School award. Some of the ways they integrate environmental education into their curriculum include:

• • Outdoor classroom, with garden, rain gardens, composting, hiking trails, pond, amphitheater, 

  • Courses in Nature based photography and Ornithology

  • Students must know 100 native and invasive animals and plants before graduating

  • Art classes regularly outdoors or at MN Zoo

  • Basic and complex math based on environmental issues and measurements of collections

  • Students expected to keep a "house" journal about observations outdoors

There are many other examples and because integrated environmental education is often embedded in  meeting other standards, it is not as easy to extract the environmental education aspects in coursework. If you have a good example, please contact MN GreenStep Schools for how you can share what you are doing to inform and inspire others while gaining recognition.

Implement Best Practice Actions in a Project

• Select Best Practice Actions (BPAs) to work on and complete. 

• Review the list of actions that can be taken to shift your district or school toward Integrated Environmental Education. Start by documenting the practices already being done at the school. Choose the practices that best fit the school's opportunities and other considerations.

A. Assessment and Planning Actions: 

Creating a management plan will help you stay organized, set informed goals, and prioritize objectives. Management plans offer numerous benefits, including increased efficiency and productivity by providing schools with the tools to manage funds and resources effectively, define evaluation criteria, and develop contingency plans. Trust us, you won’t regret it! 

A.1 Conduct Baseline Assessment 

• Conduct a baseline assessment of existing conditions and practices specific to Integrated Environmental Education

• Conduct a school-wide curriculum audit using the NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence to identify where environmental concepts already exist and where gaps remain.

A.2 Establish Management Team 

• Allocate time and responsibilities to a person or team to regularly maintain data, management systems, and records.

B. Overall Performance and Impact

B.1 Establish a Performance Monitoring Practice with Baseline

• Looking at performance metrics for this best practice that are used at the school and other potential metrics, establish a baseline reference year and a regular practice (at least yearly) to monitor the performance of this best practice.

Performance Metrics to Consider:

• The total number of academic hours students spend participating in outdoor, place-based environmental learning per semester (Target: Minimum 15 hours per student).

• Documented integration of environmental topics across a minimum of four core subject areas (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts) per grade level. 

B.2 Track and Improve Performance

• Using the established baseline and performance monitoring practices, track performance improvements over time relative to baseline use. Where possible, identify the relationship between actions and overall impact improvements. 

B.3 Complete Performance Planning 

• Conduct an analysis of current performance and the impacts and set a strategic plan for how to transition the school over time to bold goals for ideal performance and identify the direct and indirect impacts considering environmental impacts, cost impacts, health, and educational benefits.
  
  

B.4  Implement Vision Backcasting

• Gather the green team and representatives from staff, students, the community, and resource organizations to imagine how improved [BP NAME] could help us reach our fully sustainable vision for the district and its schools. Make this scenario engaging with sketches or models. Engage youth. 

C. Implementation Actions

• Utilize local lesson resources, such as the MPCA Get the Lead Out program, to anchor scientific and ecological lessons in regional conservation efforts.

• Partner with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to train facilities managers and teachers on how safely and effectively to utilize school grounds as outdoor classrooms.

• Incorporate pre-vetted, multidisciplinary lesson guides from national providers like Project Learning Tree to easily map environmental assignments to state math and reading standards.

Or contact us with your ideas!

D. Youth Club Actions

As part of school green teams, youth can be part of any best practice. Here are ideas for actions that may be particularly suitable for youth club leadership.

D.1 Schoolyard Living Lab

• Design and execute a "Living Lab" mapping project where students create signage and digital QR codes explaining the ecological functions of campus features like rain gardens, solar panels, or waste stations.

D.2 Mentoring in Elementary Schools

• Launch a peer-to-peer environmental mentoring program where high school eco-club students design and deliver interactive sustainability lessons to elementary classrooms.

D.3 Behavior Change Campaigns

• Organize school-wide environmental theme weeks (e.g., Waste-Free Wednesdays) and track behavior change data to present to the school board.

Online Resources:

• See links in text above for resources relevant to specific actions, also see resources consulted or cited for sources.