Declaration of Rights, Pennsylvania Constitution
(Article 1, Section 27)

In order to prepare students for a new millennium, and to fulfill the important constitutional mandate above, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has formulated Academic Standards for Environment and Ecology. Soon schools statewide will be responsible for implementing these Standards.

From across the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania science teachers gathered for six days during July 2000 in the historic and beautiful Lehigh Valley. There they became the guests of PDE, attending the 2000 Pennsylvania Governor’s Institute for Environment and Ecology Educators.


Institute participants at The Wildlands Conservancy

Teachers came because:



• They wanted to learn more about the new Commonwealth Standards;
  
  
• The Institute offered a chance to start integrating the Standards into instructional planning;
  
  
• The program would help students to understand the beauty, complexity, and importance of the natural world;
  
  
• Pennsylvania’s children must evaluate everyday choices affecting the quality of life in the ecosystem of which they are a part.
  
  

Through this website we would like to introduce you to the new Standards, share the energy and learning adventures of the Institute, and invite you to join us in creating a more interesting, meaningful, and valuable science curriculum for all of Pennsylvania’s children.

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Biodiversity:

The variety and complexity of species present and interacting in an ecosystem and the relative abundance of each.



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Look for the tree frog!

Throughout this website, you will find definitions (as above) that explain key concepts in environmental and ecological science. We hope these definitions will be informative to teachers, who must integrate this information into their daily lessons, and also to students, who must master the vocabulary of our natural world and their place within it.

For more information contact:

Patricia L. Vathis, Environment
and Ecology Education Advisor
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Office of Environment and Ecology
333 Market Street, 8th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333

Telephone: (717) 783-6994
Office Fax: (717) 783-3946

E-mail: pvathis@state.pa.us