Our Mission
The Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) encourages, engages, and empowers our community to understand, responsibly use, and promote the natural world.
We advance environmental consciousness by equipping educators, natural resource stewards, nature center personnel, and environmental program coordinators with training, conferences, publications, programs, and resources.
This steadfast support for environmental educators empowers students to investigate, explore, and take action to enhance the well-being of their schools and immediate surroundings. Moreover, MAEOE’s ultimate aim is to foster sustainable environmental change by collaborating with other environmental organizations creating educational initiatives and advocating for environmental literacy throughout Maryland.
Education We Need for the World We Want
Environmental education has the power to transform lives and society. It informs, inspires, and influences attitudes. It motivates action. EE is a key tool in expanding the environmental movement and creating healthier and more civically-engaged communities.
The environment sustains all life on earth. It provides us with nourishment and inspiration. Our economy thrives on a healthy environment. A growing body of research tells us that time spent in nature provides physical and psychological benefits. Our personal and cultural identities are often tied to the environment around us. At the same time, it’s impossible not to be deeply concerned about the unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges we face as a global society—from climate change and loss of species and habitats, to declines in civic engagement, decreasing access to nature, a growing gap between the haves and have nots, and other threats to our health, security, and future survival.
Key Underpinnings of the Field
The field of EE is characterized by key underpinnings, including a focus on learners of all ages—from early childhood to seniors. It focuses on the importance of experiential, interdisciplinary education, and helping all learners develop problem-solving and decision-making skills, understand how to be a civically engaged citizen, and how to create a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable society. EE also advances key societal issues—from the Next Generation Science Standards to STEM to climate change education.