NJ Environmental Educators Meet, Network, Strengthen Schools

 

By Hugh M. Carola

 

The Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE) hosted its 19th annual conference in January at Rider University to bring providers and users of environmental education curricula together for workshops and networking. The theme of this year’s conference was “Building the Future: One Green Brick at a Time,” and was designed to highlight the role of schools as active community learning centers and the ways in which the environmental community can help.

 

Hackensack Riverkeeper was a presence in the exhibit hall as well as in the workshop schedule with a presentation entitled “The Meadowlands as a Classroom: the Message from the Marsh.”

It’s our job to be a resource for teachers as well as our fellow nonformal educators. With the Meadowlands as our “living classroom,” we’ve helped expand on what they learn from textbooks by bringing them to a living salt marsh and allowing them to see for themselves what it’s really like.

 

Throughout the year, Hackensack Riverkeeper works with some of the most talented and conscientious teachers in New Jersey. They are the ones who explain nature and make it real for their students, many of whom only know the natural world from what they see on the Discovery Channel.

 

During the conference’s Awards Banquet on Jan. 9, ANJEE President Rebecca Lesko asked Captain Bill to share the previous day’s good news. To thunderous applause, he announced the Master Plan victory (see page 1) and thanked all those present for having stood with Hackensack Riverkeeper over the years to tell the story of the Meadowlands to the children of New Jersey.

Anyone wishing more information about ANJEE can visit their website at www.anjee.net.