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Have you Voted Yet? How the Candidates for Governor Come Down on Environmental and Sustainability Education
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- Navigate this page:
- Congratulations Governor-Elect Jay Inslee! Washington State’s 2013 Election Results Bode Well For Environmental and Sustainability Education
- Opportunities for Students Abound!
- E3 Washington Congratulates Sally Jewell, Newly Appointed Secretary of the Interior
- Kittitas E3 Focus Region work
- Pilot Educator 2 Educator (E2E) Workshop A Big Success: Initiative Off to a Great Start!
- Imagine Tomorrow: Innovative Students Present Ideas and Score $100,000
Have you Voted Yet? How the Candidates for Governor Come Down on Environmental and Sustainability Education 
E3 Washington is a nonpartisan education association. In the spirit of an informed electorate, we sent a questionnaire to both Gubernatorial Candidates, Jay Inslee (Democrat) and Rob McKenna (Republican) several weeks ago. Additionally, in order to provide you with a comparative analysis, we provide links to Gubernatorial Forum transcripts from two E3 Washington partner organizations the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition and the Partnership for Learning. Transcript of Gubernatorial Forum presented by Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition Side by Side Chart of Candidates Educational Plans presented by Partnership for Learning Following are Candidate Inslee’s responses to our questionnaire. We hope to hear back from Candidate McKenna’s office soon and will similarly print his responses in the E3 Weekly Digest reaching over 9,000 Washington voters. We appreciate how busy the schedules of both candidates are and are grateful for their responses.
A deliberate emphasis on STEM education is vital to prepare our students for the careers of tomorrow. As part of the development of a clean energy economy, we must focus this STEM knowledge base on environmental sustainability and clean technology research and development. E3 Washington: What specific policies and programs would you like to see happen in Washington State to support environmental and sustainability education in early childhood programs, K-12 schools & higher education? Jay Inslee: In my P-12 and higher education platforms, I call for increased partnerships between education and private industry. By connecting our classrooms (at every stage of learning) with leaders in our state’s sustainability workforce— leaders who are at the cutting edge of environmentally sustainable innovation—we can inspire students to pursue careers in environmental stewardship. Further, I will work with industry leaders and Washington State University to establish a Biofuels Center of Excellence. The Center will facilitate research, feedstock growth, sourcing, processing, and the deployment of commercial scale production.It is also imperative we find a way to keep our state parks open. Parks are not only hubs of recreation and tourism, but provide educational opportunities for students and families. E3 Washington: How do you see the connection between the economy, the environment and environmental and sustainability education? Jay Inslee: In 2007, I co-authored Apollo’s Fire: Reigniting America’s Clean Energy Economy. The Great Recession has provided Washington State the opportunity to rebuild our economy with environmental sustainability and clean energy as a focal point. Clean technology is one of the seven major industry clusters I focus on in my job creation platform, First Steps to Building a Working Washington. Harnessing the innovative spirit that defines Washingtonians, we can drive our state to the cutting edge of environmental science and renewable energy. As governor, I will ensure that our students are well-prepared to enter a top-flight workforce pool—equipped with the knowledge and resources they’ll need to compete. This means providing quality STEM education, a pathway to accessible higher education, and the workforce training that will guarantee that Washington State’s clean energy industry does not have to import new hires. E3 Washington: How do we ensure that people of all cultural, income and regional backgrounds receive a quality education infused with environmental and sustainability education? Jay Inslee: The drop-out rates and opportunity gap for students of color in our state is unacceptable. Now, more than ever, we must focus on ensuring that every Washingtonian student receives a world-class education and my top priority as governor will be to restore funding to both K-12 and higher education.
E3 Washington congratulates Jay Inslee, Washington’s new Governor-Elect! Jay Inslee made education, environment and economy three leading campaign themes and we look forward to working with him to link and leverage all three in the next four years. Stated Inslee during his campaign: A deliberate emphasis on STEM education is vital to prepare our students for the careers of tomorrow. As part of the development of a clean energy economy, we must focus this STEM knowledge base on environmental sustainability and clean technology research and development. E3 Washington also congratulates Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn and Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldsmark on their re-election. In addition, we look forward to the leadership of newly elected and returning legislators from both sides of the aisle working with the private and non-profit sectors towards a high quality of life for all Washington residents.
E3 Washington is excited to showcase an amazing opportunity for students and teenagers to engage in the environmental and sustainability conversation and to address issues that directly affect them. Sustainable Showdown… Hack Your School Green! Guerrilla Green is calling on a growing community of frustrated teens (hard to believe) to step up and reinvent the spaces where they spend most of their time: their schools. Over $30,000 in cash grants will go directly to empowering students to green their schools. This isn't monopoly money. Its actual cash for students to implement and scale their ideas for some of the most neglected spaces in our country. Let's give these future eco-revolutionaries a voice, room to explore fresh ideas and the tools they need to make real projects and a real difference. These are your schools. You know them best and what they need. So we are keeping rules to a minimum, you set the stakes, we support 'em. Just submit your ideas for making your school more eco-friendly. Whether it’s a small change in the garden, a new crazy window system, or a program for your teachers we want to see it all. Remember: this is not just another ideas competition, this is an implementation initiative. If you win we're giving you cash to build or organize your idea. So keep that fact in mind. So go ahead and hack your school into a better, safer and more sustainable space! SUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 3, 2012
Washington State business leader Sally Jewell, President and CEO of REI, has been appointed by President Obama to head the U.S. Department of the Interior. Ms. Jewell emceed the first E3 Washington state-wide summit in 2007 and has been a longtime supporter of environmental and sustainability education in Washington and beyond. Stated E3 Washington Executive Director Abby Ruskey, "Sally is imminently qualified for this post and is someone who truly loves and understands open spaces and ecosystems and how these nourish our souls, bodies and economies." Fawn Sharp, President of the Quinault Indian Nation and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians was also pleased. "I receive the word of President Obama's appointment of Ms. Jewell with confidence and great anticipation that she will do an exceptional job for not only tribal nations but all people and for the wondrous natural heritage of our great country." Sally Jewel spent three years working with Mobil Oil before moving back to Seattle in 1981 to work for Rainier Bank and later joined Washington Mutual. In 1996, she became an REI board member and since 2000 she has served as their Chief Operating Officer. Stated Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of League of Conservation Voters "As the CEO of a major outdoors company, we think she has a unique appreciation for public lands." E3 Washington congratulates Sally Jewell and anticipate innovative leadership in the stewarding of our public lands for this and future generations, including continued support for environmental and sustainability education. - Information courtesy of the Seattle Times and Steve Robinson
Through support from the EPA, Boeing, and many other partners and sponsors, E3 Washington has been expanding its initiative to build capacity for environmental and sustainability education (ESE) around its Get Together Goal: “Join schools, campuses, and community resources for student achievement and a sustainable future”. This is one of the five E3 Washington State Goals, and a goal in which school districts, informal education organizations, businesses, tribes and others in E3 regions from across the state are synergistically working to implement. The Kittitas E3 Region’s project related to this goal is to link formal and informal educators, across the school year. Their contribution to this work across the state will be to design and conduct a community opportunity assessment to match classroom student learning with resources in the community, based on the state ESE standards. Partners at the table have a desire for increased connections between the community and schools, leading to greater levels of environmental and economic stewardship and citizenship. Local partners—including Central Washington University, the Cascade Land Conservancy, Forterra, Puget Sound Energy, The City of Ellensburg, and the Cle Elum/Roslyn School District—have teamed together to develop a community asset map of local informal education opportunities such as Puget Sound Energy’s Whitehorse wind farm, City of Ellensburg alternative energy programs, watershed education through the Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group, and many more. E3 Washington will assist in the design and dissemination of this resource to facilitate it’s use in other regions, in the effort to create facilitated parings between schools and local assets, leading to sustained linkages for learning and cross-community involvement. Additionally, Cle Elum Roslyn High School senior students will develop a scalable and portable senior project model based on the community asset project, incorporating the school district’s continuing vision to foster a “Stewardship of Place” among its learners and educators. Learn more about E3 Wahsington’s “Get Together” Goal, and how you can become involved, at http://www.e3washington.org/goals/get-together.html. For more information, contact Amber Richards at arichards@e3washington.org.
“Curious, Hopeful, Intrigued, Inspired, Excited and Empowered” were only a few of the words participants used to describe their experience at the Educator to Educator South Sound Conference in Tacoma WA. On March 15, 2013, community-based informal educators and teachers (formal educators) learned together with session leaders at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for the first pilot Educator 2 Educator (E2E) event. The purpose of the event was “building strong and diverse leadership communities of practice in service of student learning for sustainable communities” by working towards bridging the gap between classroom and informal educators. Following the E3 Washington Statewide Summit in January 2013, the E2E initiative is a key statewide strategy towards achieving the E3 Washington “Get Together: Linking Learning” goal. New to the environmental education field, one attendee commented “As a recent grad, I came to this workshop to learn more about environmental education. I believe it was a valuable resource for me & a chance to learn more about opportunities in WA.” The workshop design and development itself was a model of a community of practice. In this case, E3 Washington partnered closely with the Pacific Education Institute, Washington Department of Ecology, Service Adventure Education (SEA), Everett School District, Puget Sound Partnership, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, NatureBridge, Padilla Bay National Estuarine Reserve, the Tacoma and Tahoma School Districts and Woodland Park Zoojavascript:mctmp(0); to plan and hold the event. Major sponsors of the event included The Russell Family Foundation, the Boeing Company and the USEPA. (Additional sponsors are listed at the bottom of this article.) Educator 2 Educator is a professional development event that is a redesign of the original (and still going strong in North Sound!) “Storming the Sound” gatherings for informal educators in the Puget Sound region. Stated Ann Butler, formerly with People For Puget Sound and the regional coordinator for Storming the Sound over the years, “It was a relief not to be in charge of every aspect of the event as in the past, and the results were so much more powerful as a result of the combined skills and resources convening partners brought to the table.” The workshop started with a welcome from Tacoma City Councilwoman and President of the Tacoma Urban League Victoria Woodards. Ms. Woodards spoke about the initiative she has begun with other Tacoma leaders and E3 Washington to truly “walk the talk” and model equal access for students of all cultural and income backgrounds to quality environmental and sustainability learning. “Working with E3 Washington, we can and will tackle this discrepancy here in Tacoma”, stated Ms. Woodards. Mike Town, award-winning teacher from Redmond, WA, spoke of his dismay that Lake Erie where he grew up was dying again years after public awareness and restoration. “We can only solve these problems through environmental and sustainability education”, stated Town. “We are one of a few states that has environmental science standards that will allow our state to better adopt the Next Generation Science Standards and improve student achievement.” The national Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Common Core standards were a common topic throughout the workshop given recent trends and research to integrate environment and sustainability education into these frameworks. Attendee Erik Wilber, Education and Outreach Coordinator for Wolf Haven International commented, “Better identifying how we can relate those standards will allow us to facilitate this to teachers so our programs can help them meet their requirements.” AmeriCorps Volunteer with the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance Kathryn Davis was enthusiastic about the opportunity to gain new information about the standards. “We are informal educators and are looking for ways to expand our outreach capabilities. We are always asking what sources of education do we need to deliver to people at our events that are also in alignment with what kids need in school.” Following the discussion on Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, representatives from Service Education & Adventure, NatureBridge, Woodland Park Zoo, & Taylor Shellfish gave a presentation on the importance of forming partnerships between formal and informal education. Building relationships throughout the year allows truly meaningful experiences for students. The importance of yearly educational opportunities and partnerships with school districts stood out to many workshop attendees. Elaborating on Communities of Practice and how to deepen these relationships, Aaron Zimmer with E3 Washington said, “As human beings we all come from different backgrounds and have different perspectives. Even educators with similar backgrounds will have different perspectives. We need to combine our research with our local stories in order to be successful.” The questions we need to ask ourselves are, “How do you sustain that initial connection over time? How do you do it in a way that sets up frameworks for real world objectives and success?” To bring in hand-on activities, the Pacific Education Institute held breakout sessions which included presentations on Field Investigations by Erica Baker, and Project-Based Learning by Breanna Trygg. The focus of these activities was to “see the trees and the forest”. Both presenters walked participants through activities and programs to bring back to their classrooms that can all be downloaded at: http://www.pacificeducationinstitute.org/resources/research/. The Educator 2 Educator initiative for which this workshop was a first step will continue to evolve. Next steps will include a second pilot workshop in Seattle this summer where teacher and informal educator pairs or teams from the same school district or school/community will be invited. Abby Ruskey, Executive Director of E3 Washington, explained, “We have begun to embed formal and informal educator teams within Leadership Communities of Practice (LCoPs) linking school districts and communities to apply sustainability and systems learning strategies to persistent problems for schools.” These communities of practice are comprised of school board members, administrators, teachers, students and community-based educators (informal educators). “The E2E initiative and partnerships with the Pacific Education Institute and many others moves us in the direction of being able to bring sustainability and system learning to scale across Washington”, stated Ruskey. Lisa Eschenbach, educational consultant with the Pacific Education Institute, commented on the first E2E: "This was an important step towards our collective goal to build communities of practice that support classroom and community-based educators. Ultimately, we need to combine our efforts if we are going to achieve our goal of engaging ALL students around the State with environment and sustainability education that is relevant to their lives." We would like to thank all of our presenters listed below for their contribution to the E2E workshop:
A special Thank You to all of our sponsors for providing funding and scholarships including:
We also thank our sponsor/exhibitors, including:
Web Link: http://www.e3washington.org/goals
By Hope Belli Tinney, WSU Today PULLMAN - Hundreds of top students from more than 30 high schools presented abundant evidence May 22 at WSU's Imagine Tomorrow problem-solving competition that tomorrow can be better than today. "I find the things you have done inspiring,” said event co-chair and WSU professor Grant Norton. Norton said winning prizes is great, but all of the students who participated were winners. “It’s about the fact that you all are making contributions to make this world a better place,” he said. “I think you are incredible.” The third annual competition included refinements of ideas presented at previous competitions, from producing biofuels to encouraging recycling. Also present were novel ideas. Students at Ballard High School proposed using luric acid -- a derivative of coconut oil -- to insulate homes. A group from Wapato High School proposed making water bottles out of candy. One group encouraged shoe recycling and other built a prototype for a wind powered bike. Making it happen From Blaine to Clarkston and from Colville to Camas, students from across Washington State brought not only their ideas for a more sustainable future, but evidence that they are making it happen. A brief sampling includes: • FFA students from Ferndale High School have met with their state representative to discuss ways to make anaerobic digesters more affordable for dairy farmers. • Students at Camas High School not only wrote a children’s book about conservation, but the book’s hero, Captain Conservation, visited local elementary schools to spread the word. • At Tacoma School for the Arts, two students laid the groundwork for a composting project at a nearby elementary school. They taught classes, created a comprehensive website, and even composed a catchy composting rap. • Lake Roosevelt High School students created a small, inexpensive and reusable solar water pasteurization kit, complete with operating instructions. Now they are working with a teacher in Malawi to use their invention to help prevent water-borne disease in that country. • A recycling project at Heritage High School is saving their school $500 each month in garbage fees and providing compost for their garden project as well.
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