Boulder County has launched a first-of-its-kind collective made up of schools, teachers, and environmental educators who will use a set of guidelines to ensure all students graduating in Boulder Valley School District and St. Vrain Valley School District participate in meaningful and age appropriate environmental education. After years of collecting data, crunching numbers, and hours of work by Cottonwood Institute staff, alongside many others on the Boulder County Environmental Education Collaborative steering committee and the sub-committee to write the guidelines, Cottonwood Institute is incredibly proud to be part of this E Movement.

What separates the E Movement from other environmental education collectives is the E Guidelines, a living document which suggests specific learning outcomes for various grade levels making sure to educate the whole student both inside and outside of the classroom.

“The E Guidelines were created by and for educators,” says representatives of the sub-committee that created them. “They are designed to create a continuum of meaningful experiences educating the head, heart, hands, and feet of each student as they traverse from early childhood education all the way through high school.”

Boulder County is an environmental education hot-bed with more than 20 third-party organizations operating in the region and many teachers holding awareness and implementing environmental education. Cottonwood Institute has its longest running Community Adventure Program in Boulder County as well as four other programs serving Boulder County youth. E Movement will build deeper connection and continuity within this existing work by making it easier for teachers and schools to connect with resources including pre-approved third-party educators, such as Cottonwood Institute, providing training and support, evaluating efforts, and recognizing schools and educators for their successes.

The development of the E Movement has been a multiyear project initially led by the Boulder County Environmental Education Collaborative (BCEE) and then developed by the BCEE, Boulder Valley School District, St. Vrain Valley School District, and Boulder County Sustainability Office. The E Movement is currently receiving applications from third-party environmental education providers and registering schools and teachers for the 2017/18 school year pilot. Learn more at www.eMovement.org.