Improve the effectiveness, relevance, and integrity of environmental education opportunities, experiences, and products.

NOTE: For a listing of publications about quality and relevance for EE, refer to NAAEE's National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education.

1. Inspire personal responsibility and empowerment by effectively communicating the importance and impacts of individual actions.
   1. Evaluate participants' sense of empowerment after taking EE program.
   2. Increase the number of programs that include an action component.
   3. Identify organizations tracking individual actions.
   4. Provide professional development opportunities for EE providers that address empowerment (e.g., discussions about motivation and support for behavior change).
2. Increase resource relevance by targeting select educational efforts on urgent issues and/or current events.
   
   1. Identify and focus on an urgent issue in common for as many as possible within the EE community (e.g., fire/fire ecology in a high fire season that is used by USFS, PLT, PWILD, PWET, Boulder Parks and Open Space - but not necessarily Butterfly Pavilion).
   2. Commit to using a local issue as an example when exploring complex concepts.
3. Increase program and product relevance by selecting themes and topics with local connections, or linking themes to local experiences.
   1. Annually select, support, and communicate common themes.
   2. Develop annual, collaborative EE theme at Teaching OUTSIDE the Box Conference.
4. Enhance effectiveness of EE efforts by supporting lifelong learning experiences.
   1. Continue conversations within the EE community about lifelong learning.
   2. Learn more about needs/desires/and education of older learners.
   3. Incorporate findings to target and reach a greater variety of age groups with meaningful education.
   4. Explore opportunities to infuse EE into other appropriate learning or recreation experiences (e.g., creative arts, spiritual centers, cultural heritage events, recreation, etc.).
5. Demonstrate belief in the importance of sustainable practices by continuing to learn and modify the EE community's own practices.
   1. Report to event participants about practices designed to minimize waste.
   2. Offer professional development opportunities (including training workshops, newsletter articles, etc.) to address practical "sustainable" practices that the EE community can adopt.
   3. Analyze and consider current practices; report improvements.
   4. Commit to being on a list of "sustainable" programs.
6. Craft learning opportunities to affect the 'whole' person (e.g., physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional).
   1. In professional development events, emphasize how motivations can influence choices or behaviors, as they relate to EE efforts (e.g., ecopsychology; constructivist learning theory, sense of place, reverence for nature, theological teachings, etc.). (Note: this strategy is both about learning and about how to incorporate what is learned; supporting people meeting basic needs; and relationship between environmental issues and meeting needs.)

How are you already contributing - or - how will you contribute to Goal VI: Quality and Relevance?