Environmental Education
Environmental education is a process that helps children and young people understand environmental issues, develop care and responsibility for the natural world, and take positive action to protect it. While also enabling them to develop an understanding of how natural systems work, the issues affecting them, and how people can act to protect the environment
This approach teaches about the relationships between humans and the environment. It covers topics such as pollution, recycling, conservation, and climate change. Environmental education can take place indoors or outdoors, in classrooms, gardens, or community settings. For younger learners, it might involve exploring water use, sorting recyclable materials, or learning about the life cycles of plants and animals. This type of education can also include studying food chains, testing water quality, learning about recycling, and researching local habitats. Lessons combine science, geography, and social studies to explain environmental processes and human impacts. The aim is to build knowledge, values, and skills for sustainable action.
This approach emphasises awareness, understanding, and practical problem-solving. Children learn factual knowledge about ecosystems and climate. They practise skills such as observation, data collection, and analysis. Lessons encourage attitudes of care and responsibility. Environmental education usually includes action: recycling projects, energy-saving campaigns or habitat restoration.
Key benefits for children include greater ecological knowledge, critical thinking, and pro-environment habits. Learning deepens scientific literacy through observation and inquiry. Children gain confidence in taking small, practical actions that reduce harm. It supports emotional connection to nature, which motivates longer-term care and stewardship.
- Test pond water and record findings to discuss habitat health.
- Run a classroom recycling audit and create an action plan.
- Plant native species to attract local wildlife and monitor results.
Environmental education overlaps strongly with eco-education, but is often framed more as formal teaching about environmental systems and issues, whereas eco-education often goes further by exploring the deeper, interconnected systems of life and focusing more on sustainable living and ethical reflection.
For more information, why not try What is Learning Outside the Classroom?
Nottingham Education Network 