2025 CEEF Teacher Institute Overview
The California Environmental Education Foundation (CEEF) invites educators who teach
students in grades 4-12 at schools in Los Angeles and Orange Counties to apply to the 2025 CEEF Teacher Institute, “Best Practices of Environmental Education and Stewardship.” Priority registration will be given to teachers from the greater LA/Orange County areas with 2+ years of instructional experience and/or apply with 2 or more teachers from the same campus.
Upon completing the Institute, CEEF offers a $500 teacher stipend and a nature journaling, kit, as well as an opportunity to purchase up to three (3) CEUs from UC Davis.
During the 2025 institute teachers will participate in research-based environmental education activities and receive up-to-date information from industry and government experts in energy and water. Through a partnership with the Water Education Foundation and the USGS, CEEF will provide each teacher with newly published Project WET activity guides and engage the participants in hands-on activities that focus on current “hot topics” requested by both teachers and institute sponsors.
The teachers will learn and engage in best practices in environmental education and stewardship, work and collaborate in grade-level cohorts, gain valuable knowledge in water and energy education, and facilitate their students’ efforts in creating transformative stewardship projects. To deepen the teachers’ conceptual understanding, the participants will asynchronously view three CEEF-branded video productions on water, energy, and 5E pedagogy.
The institute will convene in four sessions, beginning in July and ending in October. Information will be presented in-person on three Saturdays (July 19, September 6, and October 25) and remotely on Saturday, September 20.
Thanks to the generous sponsorship from: Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; Las Virgenes Municipal Water District; Water, Energy, and Education Alliance; and the Water Replenishment District, the CEEF Teacher Institute provides cutting edge resources from local utility companies for real-world concepts in water and energy conservation.
Features of the CEEF Teacher Institute
- Experience best practices in learner-centered pedagogy and NGSS science practices taught by a university pedagogy expert.
- Learn about home-grown environmental stewardship practices from experts at Metropolitan Water District, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the Water Replenishment District.
- Receive up-to-date information from scientists and engineering managers on environmental hot topics such as water quality and conservation; water recycling and local supply sources; energy efficiency; renewable energy; electric vehicles; and ecological relationships between water and energy. Each topic area will include discussions about climate change connections.
- Receive professional follow-up help throughout the institute from the expert science and environmental education consultant EDU Consulting LLC to identify high quality EE resources and to provide coaching on your students’ environmental stewardship projects.
- Eligibility to purchase three (3) Continuing Education Units available through UC Davis.
- Collect a $500 stipend mailed to you after completing each of the five following requirements of the Institute:
- Participate online in three grade-group cohort meetings;
- View three individual modules;
- Write/edit one EE lesson using 5E pedagogy;
- Conduct a faculty presentation; and
- Present a five-minute PowerPoint of your students’ planning and implementation of their stewardship project on October 25, 2025.
- To apply, fill out the application form. Space is limited. If you have additional questions, please contact Dean Gilbert at dean@educonsultingllc.com.
Program Background
Program Background
The California Environmental Education Foundation (CEEF) is committed to providing professional development opportunities for teachers that promote ecological understanding, stewardship of the environment, and environment-based practices in the classroom and beyond. To that end, CEEF established the CEEF Teacher Institute for Best Practices of Environmental Education and Stewardship (TI) in 2011 by delivering a three-day workshop in Yolo County. The workshop days were designed to enhance teacher’s pedagogic skill and train teachers with research-based environmental education (EE) activities from accredited curricula. The TI then followed up with individualized support for teachers as they ventured forth to implement their environmental education lessons.
Nearly every year since its inaugural Teacher Institute, CEEF has hosted similar institutes throughout the state, even adapting to virtual institutes during the pandemic. In its current form, the CEEF Teacher Institute takes place over the span of three months and guides teacher participants through professional development training, while offering coaching support through office hours and virtual grade-level cohort meetings. The end goal is to have student-led stewardship projects completed by all the teachers’ students during the same school year.
The success of the annual CEEF Teacher Institutes means that thousands of students each year are engaged in student-led, place-based stewardship projects that make a real difference to the campuses and communities they occur within. Examples of projects include planting trees and vegetables, reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, increasing student awareness of environmental issues through activities such as posters and a Public Service Announcement (PSA), campus cleanups or recycling, trail restoration, creek/beach clean-ups, and erosion abatement.
Through survey measures that were employed early on, CEEF found that students who participated under the leadership of their CEEF TI teacher gained in environmental knowledge, had positive attitudes toward specific stewardship behaviors, and were willing to engage in these behaviors. Students also demonstrated that they were able to think through an environmental problem by identifying the problem, cause, and solutions.
Through knowledge comes confidence, and teachers reported that their confidence and capacity also improved. It was clear through classroom observations that the materials engaged students and that teachers found innovative ways to structure their lessons and promote deep thinking about environmental topics.
We invite you to join this year’s CEEF Teacher Institute to build your skillset, confidence, and ability as an agent of change at your school.
2024 CEEF Teacher Institute Summary
2024 CEEF Teacher Institute Summary
The 2024 CEEF Teacher Institute: Best Practices in Environmental Education and Stewardship began February 24, 2024, and culminated in a participant-led showcase on April 20, 2024. The institute was advertised with the following flyer.
In total, seventeen (17) educators successfully completed the Institute and had a direct impact on the 1,389 students to develop and complete community-based, student-led stewardship projects.
Our CEEF Institute teachers and a collective of 164 students also engaged other educators at their school sites in discussions about their CEEF stewardship projects through large faculty presentations that
indirectly impacted an additional 261 teachers.
See the full 2024 CEEF Teacher Institute Final Report below for full details.
2023 CEEF Teacher Institute Summary
2023 CEEF Teacher Institute Summary
The 2023 CEEF Teacher Institue had a big impact, with 18 teachers completing the Institute and implementing community-based, student-led Stewardship Projects with 1393 students. Our CEEF teachers also engaged other educators at their school sites in discussions about their CEEF stewardship projects through large faculty presentations that indirectly impacted an additional 260 teachers and over 23,400 students.
Overall, the Institute provided an enhanced, unique, and engaging professional development program for our participants through the integration of layered and responsive techniques featuring self-guided modular curricula, engaging virtual live sessions, and previously developed CEEF branded high quality video productions.
See the full 2023 CEEF Teacher Institute Final Report below for full details.