Caring for the Kenai is an important local program, but how does it connect to national standards and lifelong environmental education? The answer to this question has been addressed by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) who have developed four strands of contest standards that detail the cross-curricular relationship between environmental education and the major disciplines of language arts, math, geography, economics, and history.
These strands are summarized below with direct links to the national standards of each subject area. In addition, examples have been showcased from the Caring for the Kenai contest that model and illustrate specifically how these students connected their projects to the major NAAEE strands as well as national standards in other subject areas.
Caring for the Kenai meets all Alaska standards for science and english.
For Science: Caring for the Kenai meets all Alaska Content Standards, (A-D). A- A student should understand scientific facts, concepts, principles, and theories. B- A student should possess and understand the skills of scientific inquiry. C- A student should understand the nature and history of science. D- A student should be able to apply scientific knowledge and skills to make reasoned decisions about the use of science and scientific innovations. To view AK Content Standards for Science, visit
https://education.alaska.gov/akstandards/standards/Science_Performance&GLEs.pdf
For English: Caring for the Kenai meets all Alaska Content Standards, (A-E). A- A student should be able to speak and write well for a variety of purposes and audiences. B- A student should be a competent and thoughtful reader, listener, and viewer of literature, technical materials, and a variety of other information. C- A student should be able to identify and select from multiple strategies in order to complete projects independently and cooperatively. D- A student should be able to think logically and reflectively in order to present and explain positions based on relevant and reliable information. E- A student should understand and respect the perspectives of others in order to communicate effectively.
https://education.alaska.gov/akstandards/ela/AKStandards_ELA_080212.pdf