About Environmental Pathways

What’s a Pathway?

Learning pathways are Next Generation Science Standards-aligned units that integrate environmental education into required science content, allowing today’s youth to think deeply about local environmental issues. Our pathways have been designed following the storyline model, so that each unit is motivated by a puzzling event and driven by student questions. As environmental education curriculum, these storylines emphasize problem-solving, taking local action, and fostering students’ sense of connection to their local communities.

Our Initiative

These materials complement the Environmental Pathways: Youth Investigating Pollution Issues in Illinois curriculum created in part by the Illinois EPA in 2000 for 5th and 6th grade educators. These curriculum materials support Illinois EPA’s mission to safeguard environmental quality, consistent with the social and economic needs of the State, so as to protect health, welfare, property, and quality of life. Illinois EPA’s goal is to continue to update the original Environmental Pathway curriculum to provide accurate, timely, and free science and environmental education curriculum materials so that teachers and parents may empower our youth to make environmentally sound decisions.

Original Pathways Curriculum

The original Environmental Pathways: Youth Investigating Pollution Issues in Illinois curriculum was created in part by the Illinois EPA in 2000 for 5th and 6th grade educators. You can download PDF copies of these curriculum materials below.

Our Partners

Illinois EPA

The mission of the Illinois EPA is to safeguard environmental quality, consistent with the social and economic needs of the State, so as to protect health, welfare, property and the quality of life.

Illinois EPA works to safeguard the state’s natural resources from pollution to provide a healthy environment for its citizens. By partnering with businesses, local governments and citizens, Illinois EPA is dedicated to continued protection of the air we breathe and our water and land resources.

Learn more about the Illinois EPA at its website.

Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education

The Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) is a unit within the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was founded by Dr. Kenneth Travers in 1993.

MSTE partners with schools, research scientists, professional organizations, and national curriculum projects to increase capacity in STEM teaching and learning at the K-12 levels. We communicate broader impacts of STEM research and provide background and instructional support. MSTE staff write curriculum modules and facilitate informal science programs. We engage with teachers, students, families, and community members. We adapt new technologies for communication, instruction, and collaborative participation in a growing set of communities of practice.

Learn more about MSTE at its website.