Burroughs Audubon Society announces ...
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On September 18, 2008, the No Child Left Inside Act, a groundbreaking bill that will devote more federal dollars towards environmental education, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 3036).
Sponsored by Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), the act will provide $500 million in federal dollars over the next five years to enhance environmental education programs in public elementary, middle, and high schools. Organizers of the bill hope it will counteract some of the damage done by the No Child Left Behind Act. From NCLI’s website:
"The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is contributing to an increasing environmental literacy gap by reducing the amount of environmental education taking place in K-12 classrooms. Its emphasis on testing for core subjects is causing many administrators to eliminate environmental education in favor of investing more resources in math and language arts, severely limiting instructional time for science and social studies, the traditional subjects in which environmental education is taught."
The NCLI bill was received in the U.S. Senate on September 22, where debate will, most likely, take place on a companion bill (S. 1981) introduced by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI). At a time when environmental issues are front-and-center in daily life, and will still be so years from now when today’s kids enter the workforce, children can use as much 'Nature 101' as they can get!
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In 2008, Amphibian Ark will lead zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums in a globally coordinated public awareness campaign "The Year of the Frog." The main goal of this campaign is to generate public awareness and understanding of the amphibian extinction crisis which represents the greatest species conservation challenge in the history of humanity. The money raised from this global campaign will help fund initiatives such as training courses, technical guidance, taxon survival efforts, fostering partnerships, capacity building, and communication activities. All these activities will ensure sustainability of the survival assurance populations of amphibians by creating a cash fund for this conservation work that will extend far beyond 2008.
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General Meetings:
Burroughs meets on the first THURSDAY of each month, September through June (with the
exception of April when we hold our Annual Dinner), at the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center. Please see the
general meetings page for more details! Come for coffee and cookies around 6:30 p.m.; program
begins at 7:00 p.m. Guests are always welcome!
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Wingbeat Online:
Wingbeat Fall 2008 --
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