Sec. 2. Findings

392 words·~2 min read·/bill/118/hr/2784/ih/section-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress finds the following: Hands-on experiences in nature help build stronger, smarter, and happier children. Children and young adults are increasingly disconnected from the natural world around them, spending less time outside playing, exploring, and learning. Quality education for students includes regular opportunities to make connections outside of the classroom. Environmental education, when integrated across the curriculum, has positive impacts on the development of important skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and citizenship and leadership skills.

Every student should have the opportunity to participate in residential outdoor education programs or comparable outdoor education programs. Outdoor and environmental education programs have been shown to build critical thinking skills and leadership skills, and can improve student attendance and retention rates. Colleges, universities, and higher education associations play a critical role in cultivating the next generation of scientists, engineers, educators, planners, and business leaders for 21st century careers in the public and private sectors.

Environmental education, as part of the formal prekindergarten through grade 12 school curriculum, has positive impacts on student achievement in all subjects, and especially in science, reading, mathematics, and social studies, and improves critical thinking skills, enthusiasm for learning, stewardship, and healthy lifestyles. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning identified environmental literacy as one of the key interdisciplinary themes critical to helping students to acquire the skills, knowledge, and expertise necessary to succeed in work and life.

The Programme for International Student Assessment

(PISA)rankings find that the United States is falling behind other nations in preparing students with the educational tools necessary to compete for the growing opportunities in the sciences, including careers related to the environment, natural resources, and energy. Forty-six States have developed, or are in the process of developing, environmental literacy plans to effectively integrate environmental education into the prekindergarten through grade 12 curriculum and to ensure that students graduate from high school environmentally literate. Support from the Department of Education is needed to help State and local educational agencies, and the partners of such agencies, implement environmental literacy plans and advance State curriculum frameworks for environmental and natural resource education that meets new State academic content and student achievement standards. Federal science agencies, natural resource agencies, and other agencies have important resources, including Federal lands and laboratories, content experts, data, and programs, that can inform and support State and local environmental literacy policies and programming.