The Neighborhood Environmental Education Project

Flying kites in Riverside Park . . . baking cookies in a solar oven . . . tapping maple trees for syrup . . . donning hip waders and carrying magnifying glasses to look for damselflies, leeches, clams and crayfish in the Milwaukee River . . . . Students at UEC get so involved in what they’re doing — and have so much fun — they don’t even realize how much they’re learning!

A New Model for Environmental Learning

The philosophy behind our school programs is based on research which shows two things make a person environmentally aware:

• constant contact with nature early in life and
  
• an adult mentor (parent, teacher, friend) who demonstrates positive behavior toward the environment.
  

In the city, people often live in apartment buildings and school grounds are often covered in cement. The Urban Ecology Center offers unique urban sanctuaries and “outdoor laboratories” for neighborhood school children. The Center’s staff and volunteers serve as adult mentors to guide students, year after year, as they progress through school.

Neighborhood Environmental Education Project

In the nationally recognized Neighborhood Environmental Education Program (NEEP), we partner with schools within a 2-mile radius of Riverside and Washington parks. Rather than arranging for single field trips, each participating school signs up for an entire year. This provides them with multiple visits to the park, spread throughout the school year, and ongoing participation in the program each year. And at a time when physical education programs are being cut, the Center offers valuable sporting opportunities, including rock climbing, canoeing, hiking and snowshoeing.

Did you know...

The Urban Ecology Center provides 15,000 student visits annually through its school environmental educational program in two urban parks?

Urban Ecology Center
Partnering Schools 2007-2008

Academy of Learning & Leadership Hope Christian Schools (middle school only)
Albert Story School
Atwater Elementary School
Carver Academy
Cass Street School
Catholic East Elementary
Clarke Street School
Downtown Montessori
Elm Creative Arts
Escuela Fratney
Franklin Pierce Elementary
Golda Meir Gifted & Talented
Harambee Community School
Hartford Avenue School
O.W. Holmes Elementary
Lake Bluff Elementary
Lincoln School of the Arts
Lloyd Street School
Maryland Avenue Montessori
Milwaukee Education Center
Mount Olive Lutheran School
Neeskara Elementary
Roosevelt Middle School
St. Coletta Day School
St. Marcus School
St. Robert School
St. Sebastian School
Sarah Scott Middle School
Sharon Jr. Academy
Urban Day School - both campuses
Urban Waldorf
Washington High School of Law, Education, and Public Service
Westside Academy II

Preschool Programs

Young ones experience an adventure in our forest and on the habitat playground. On short field trips, preschoolers learn about the world around them through games, songs, stories and hands-on projects with new friends, both human and otherwise!

Teacher Workshops

Professional development programs that are fun and interesting!

Past workshops have included:

· Earth Partnership (urban gardening)

· The Leopold Education Project (creating ecological literacy)

· Project Wet (watershed issues) and ozone monitoring