CLimate Stories

Nature Forward

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) made an early ​commitment to Environmental Literacy in their elementary and ​middle school curriculums. In 2005, Nature Forward began the ​GreenKids Program to support environmental education ​programming in MCPS and then throughout the Greater ​Washington region. This included support for the sixth grade ​Virtual Stream Studies during COVID and support for Green ​Schools certification among other programs.

VFF began supporting the development of a high school ​chemistry MWEE through the NPF grant in 2017. This was later ​expanded and refocused to the biology curriculum, at the ​request of MCPS. We continued to support the partnership ​during COVID, including the Virtual Stream Studies. The current ​focus is on scaling the high school biology MWEE to all 25 high ​schools in MCPS.

One of the greatest challenges has been providing the logistical ​support to getting all classes from 25 high schools into the field. ​Nature Forward has worked creatively with individual teachers and ​volunteers to accommodate a meaningful field experience. Many of ​the teachers are now asking for additional support for data synthesis ​and analysis of their student’s field data.