HomeMy WebLinkAboutP 138 CUR - Environmental Education
POLICY P 138 CUR
TITLE: ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Date Authorized: 24 June 2010
Last Revised: 29 April 2025 (Tier 1 Minor Housekeeping Edits)
Last Reviewed: 29 October 2024
COMMITMENT TO INDIGENOUS RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND EQUITY
The Board recognizes its responsibility to ensure that OCDSB policies and procedures promote and
protect Indigenous, equity, and human rights and to seek to address and eliminate racism and
structural and systemic barriers for students, staff, and the community.
1.0 RATIONALE
To deliver effective environmental education and model environmentally responsible practices.
2.0 DEFINITIONS
Please refer to Appendix A for a list of definitions used in this Policy.
3.0 GUIDING PRINCIPLES
3.1 The Board supports staff, students, and school communities to become informed about,
advocate for, and follow environmentally responsible practices through its commitment
to teaching and learning, student engagement, community connections, and
environmental leadership.
3.2 By exercising environmental responsibility in its decisions, the Board can serve as a
model of corporate citizenship for students and the broader community, ensuring
coherence with the environmental messages conveyed by the curriculum.
3.3 The Board believes environmental education enables students to develop the
knowledge and skills they need to become environmentally active and responsible
citizens who can affect long-term change.
4.0 SPECIFIC DIRECTIVES
4.1 The District shall integrate sustainable environmental practices into relevant policies
and procedures as well as academic and operational services, and recognize this policy
with respect to the implementation of existing policies and procedures.
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4.2 The District shall provide students with learning opportunities in the classroom, the
community, and the natural world to acquire knowledge, skills, and perspectives that
foster understanding of their fundamental connections to each other, to the world
around them, and to all living things.
4.3 In support of Teaching and Learning, the District shall:
a) use relevant curriculum resource documents to support the implementation of
revised curricula, as appropriate;
b) support staff and students in linking environmental knowledge and related skills
and activities to the teachings of diverse communities, including First Nation,
Métis, and Inuit peoples, and to principles of responsible citizenship;
c) foster collaborative opportunities for educators to develop and share activities,
integrated approaches, and action research projects related to environmental
education; and
d) encourage innovative interdisciplinary programs that focus on the environment
and include field components.
4.4 To foster student engagement, the District shall enable students to become active
participants in shaping their future through:
a) active participation of all students in sustainable environmental practices;
b) a strong student voice in decision making, and involvement in the school and
community in meaningful ways; and
c) engaging students in environmental projects that build links between schools and
communities.
4.5 In support of Student Engagement and Community Connections, the District shall:
a) engage student leaders in the design and delivery of environmental education
projects at the district level, as well as communicate and share school and
student projects across the district that demonstrate engagement in
environmental stewardship;
b) encourage environmental learning for all students inside and outside the
classroom, and support students, on a system-wide basis, as they develop skills
and act as decision-makers to effect positive environmental change;
c) offer community-linked experiences and programs, such as a Specialist High
Skills Major focused on the environment, or cooperative education and work
experience opportunities that are relevant to environmental education;
d) encourage district stakeholders to provide advice on the implementation of
environmental education;
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e) share information about local resources that support environmental awareness
and protection, energy conservation, waste management, protection of the
biosphere, and outdoor education; and
f) share links and partnerships with community organizations (such as nonprofit
organizations, businesses, farms, and industries) to help extend engagement in
and responsibility for environmental education to the broader community.
4.6 In support of Environmental Leadership, the District shall,
a) strive to increase the capacity of system leaders to implement evidence-based
environmental education programming, practices, and operations;
b) embed the importance of sustainable environmental education and
environmental protection into the district’s planning processes, and operations as
required, including the Board’s strategic plan and/or operational practices (action
plans);
c) review existing district recognition programs for opportunities to include
recognition and communication of responsible environmental leadership;
d) integrate in-service opportunities related to environmental education into staff
development for all employee groups;
e) encourage all district personnel, district stakeholders, students and
parents/guardians to adopt and promote environmentally appropriate practices;
and
f) implement programs, procedures, strategies and practices to reflect the
directions of this policy and protect and conserve the environment, while
ensuring that schools and workplace environments are safe and healthy.
Examples include but are not limited to environmentally responsible practices
with respect to capital planning, construction and facility renovations, and
purchasing, while considering fiscal constraints, quality, price and service.
5.0 APPENDICES
Appendix A: Policy Definitions
6.0 REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow: A Policy Framework for Environmental Education in Ontario
Schools, Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009
Environmental Education: Scope and Sequence of Expectations, The Ontario Curriculum,
Grades 1 to 8, Ontario Ministry of Education, 2017
Environmental Education: Scope and Sequence of Expectations, The Ontario Curriculum,
Grades 9 to 12, Ontario Ministry of Education, 2017
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Ready, Set, Green! Tips, Techniques, and Resources from Ontario Educators, Ontario Ministry
of Education, 2007
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APPENDIX A: POLICY DEFINITIONS
In this policy,
Board means the Board of Trustees.
District means Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
Environmental education means education about the environment, for the environment, and in the
environment that promotes an understanding of, rich and active experience in, and an appreciation
for the dynamic interactions of:
a) the Earth’s physical and biological systems;
b) the dependency of our social and economic systems on these natural systems;
c) the scientific and human dimensions of environmental issues;
d) the positive and negative consequences, both intended and unintended, of the interactions
between human-created and natural systems.
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