3.4 Teacher Training: Environmental education training is offered to teachers.

About

Integrating environmental education (EE) into the K-12 curriculum requires instructional staff to be explicitly trained in specialized pedagogical strategies that translate complex ecological topics into age-appropriate, actionable learning. Formal professional development in EE shifts teachers from standard lecture formats to place-based, experiential, and inquiry-driven instructional models (North American Association for Environmental Education [NAAEE], 2021). This training is critical for building a school community that understands systemic environmental challenges, such as climate impacts and resource conservation, while motivating students to engage directly with local ecosystem solutions. Without deliberate teacher training, environmental topics are often siloed, underrepresented, or delivered without the interdisciplinary rigor needed to foster true environmental literacy.

Vision and Benefits

When this topic is perfectly executed, a school district possesses an active, culturally responsive, and multidisciplinary environmental education framework where teachers across all grade levels and subject areas confidently weave ecological principles into their standard curricula. Classrooms regularly expand beyond four walls as educators utilize school grounds, local parks, and the school forest as active, living laboratories (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources [DNR], 2026). Professional development is standardized and continuous, ensuring that new and veteran staff alike have access to certified workshops, collaborative peer-learning circles, and localized environmental data. In this ideal state, teachers are fully equipped to blend Western scientific inquiries with local Indigenous knowledge systems and historical perspectives, meeting state standards while fostering deep student connection to the regional environment.

Investing in formal teacher training for environmental education yields substantial academic, cognitive, and institutional dividends. Research indicates that when trained educators implement structured outdoor and environmental curricula, students demonstrate marked improvements in academic performance, higher intrinsic motivation to learn, and enhanced critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills (National Environmental Education Foundation [NEEF], 2025; Stern et al., 2014). For school districts, a robust EE training program supports compliance with updated state academic standards—such as Minnesota’s integrated science standards—while fostering a positive school climate centered on stewardship. Furthermore, highly engaged student bodies often lead resource conservation projects that significantly lower a district's operational costs regarding waste, water, and energy usage.

Current Leaders in Teacher Training

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

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 Teacher Training. 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 Teacher Training.  

• Conduct an annual baseline audit of current teaching staff to track prior environmental education certifications, specialized training (e.g., Project WET), or personal professional interests in sustainability.

A.2 Establish Management Team 

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

A.3 Identify Curricular links to Professional Development Needs

• Evaluate current district curricula using the NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence to identify gaps where environmental literacy can be embedded into existing math, science, language arts, and social studies benchmarks and identify areas that may need teacher professional development.

A.4 Create a Professional Development Plan

• Establish a multi-year professional development plan that allocates dedicated calendar hours and funding specifically for environmental and outdoor education workshops.

A.5 Plan for Fair and Realistic Long-term Support and Maintenance

• Include a maintenance cost plan, so that ongoing operation of gardens, equipment, or programs doesn’t fall on teachers and volunteers to provide without anticipating that. If a program will rely on volunteers and donations after initiation, make that clear and estimate the value of that time and materials. 

• Plan for how programs will be sustained after the champions who initiated and operated those programs leave and how new leaders will be trained in those initiatives.  

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:

• Target a percentage all instructional staff certified or trained in a validated EE curriculum (e.g., Project Learning Tree) within a time frame.

• Track and log the total number of professional development hours completed by staff annually under the "Environmental Education/Sustainability" designation.

• In coordination with performance metrics for 3.1 for integrated environmental education, measure student environmental literacy and engagement metrics via pre- and post-unit surveys to evaluate the classroom impact of teacher training interventions. 

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 Teacher Training 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

C.1 Implement Established Training Programs

• Coordinate with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to host on-site, district-wide professional development days utilizing Project Learning Tree, Project WET, or Project WILD facilitators.

• The Green Classroom Professional certificate program "provides pre-K-12 educators and school staff with the knowledge to identify what supports or impedes healthy, resource efficient and environmentally sustainable learning spaces. Earn the certificate by participating in a two hour course and a 30 question concluding exam, both accessible online."  This knowledge also provides a good foundation for teachers toward integrating the physical school environment with environmental education.

• GreenStep Schools Learn GIS Modules support place-based environmental inquiry and actions integrated with technology. They provide a certificate and are self-paced. 

C.2 Incentivize Advanced Credentials

• Incentivize educators to pursue advanced credentials, such as the Hamline University Environmental Education Certificate or the University of Minnesota Duluth Post-baccalaureate Certificate, through continuing education CEU credits or district stipends.

C.3 Provide Toolkits and Classroom Resources

• Integrate regional environmental datasets and climate toolkits from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency directly into lesson-planning templates for teachers. 

C.4 Provide Recognition

• Provide recognition for teachers who advance their learning and practice

C.5 Support Grant Applications

• Support teacher’s initiatives, like applying for outdoor education grants or schoolyard improvements

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.

• Design and deliver a "Youth-Led Teacher Workshop" where student club members present local environmental data or showcase specific outdoor campus features (e.g., a native rain garden) to faculty during staff meetings.

• Partner with trained teachers to co-develop interactive, student-guided field trips or nature walks on school grounds for younger grade levels.

• Establish an advocacy campaign within the school's Student Council to request student-identified sustainability topics be included in future teacher-training priority lists.

Online Resources:

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

Also:

• GreenStep Schools Learn GIS Modules

• MN GIS Education Hub (offers teacher support and educational opportunities for training in GIS tools and apps free to K-12 schools)

• U.S. Green Building Council - Minnesota Center for Green Schools has a library of resources

• University of Minnesota Duluth, Center for Environmental Education

• Hamline University Center for Global Environmental Education - Professional Development and Graduate Programs

• NAAEE Professional Development of Environmental Educators: Guidelines for Excellence

• National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF)

• North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), including EE program evaluation guidance