Despite several great initiatives, there is still a chronic lack of environmental education materials in Central and Eastern Europe. What's more, the group of people involved in environmental education is getting larger and more diverse. At the same time, books and other information media are getting prohibitively expensive for most of these folks. How to put together and distribute - for free - a comprehensive and relevant selection of environmental education materials which would meet the qualitative and quantitative needs of this diverse audience?In 1995 the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) was awarded a USD 145,000 grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to put together a small library called the Environmental Education Technical Information Package (EE-TIPs) to support environmental education (EE) efforts in eleven countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, and Ukraine.
EE-TIPs contains over 50 high quality materials from the US which will serve as a resource for the many types of professionals who strive to foster an environmentally literate citizenry.
EE-TIPs includes materials with up-to-date information on:
An introductory brochure to EE-TIPs - both in English and in the local languages - provides ideas on how to use the materials. This brochure also contains a detailed bibliography with contact information on the EE-TIPs materials.
In addition the US Peace Corps has offered help in both developing a training of trainers module to become familiar with and effective user of these materials, to the real practitioners by using Peace Corps network of cooperating organizations at a grassroots level.
Besides Peace Corps resource libraries, 11 CEE countries will receive up to 20 EE-TIPs each during Spring 1997. Recipient organizations have been selected from a highly qualified pool based upon an application process. Recipients - NGOs, teacher training institutions, libraries, national park resource centers, environmental education centers, ministries of environment - will be trained on the basic issues and challenges of adapting environmental education materials into local context. All EE-TIPs materials and the training will be provided free of charge.
It is hoped that EE-TIPs recipient organizations will contact each other to share ideas on adaptation, training and use of the materials. This networking will be supported by the Resource Library of the Regional Environmental Center which will also receive a set of EE-TIPs.
By providing over 200 sets of the same materials and managing their adaptation - there is a good opportunity here to both reach a critical mass of decisionmakers and educators as well as develop a common culture in environmental education in CEE. This is an especially important opportunity at this time of harmonization of NEAPs and LEAPs and introducing new core curricula with requirements for environmental education!
To find out about the contact list of EE-TIPs recipients in your country contact:
David Starnes at NAAEE International and Training Coordinator, e-mail: dstarnes@aed.org,
or Andrea Deri, Associate Peace Corps Director for Environment, Peace Corps/Hungary, Tel: (36-1) 201-9004; Fax: (36-1) 201-9049 or E-mail: aderi@budapest.uspc.hu.