Environmental education is a learning process that increases peoples knowledge and awareness about the environment and associated challenges, develops the necessary skills and expertise to address the challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and commitments to make informed decisions and take responsible action. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) program to take advantage of new technologies that make it possible to provide environmental information to the public in near real-time. EPA partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to help achieve nationwide consistency in measuring environmental data, managing the information, and delivering it to the public.

"EMPACT, Environmental Monitoring for Public Access & Community Tracking"--Cover. "December 2002." Shipping list no.: 2003-0162-P. "EPA/625/R-02/009."

Assists educators in designing lesson plans and activities to teach the principles of environmental science. It highlights EMPACT projects that have developed curricula or other classroom materials to foster student learning. Introduction -- How do EMPACT Programs work in schools? -- Teaching the teacher-how do I make an EMPACT on my students? -- Air-based projects -- AirBeat (Boston, Massachusetts) -- Air CURRENTS (New York and New Jersey) -- AirInfo Now (Tucson, Arizona) -- AIRNow (National) -- Community acessible air quality monitoring assessment (Northeast Ohio) -- ECOPLEX (Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas) -- SunWise School Program (National) -- Water-based Projects -- Boulder Area Sustainablity Information Network (BASIN) (Boulder, Colorado) -- Burlington Eco-Info (Burlington, Vermont -- ECOPLEX (Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas) -- Lake Access (Minnesota) -- Monitoring Your Sound (MY Sound) (Long Island Sound, New York) -- Online Dynamic Watershed Atlas (Seminole County, Florida) -- Onondaga Lake / Seneca River (Syracuse, New York) -- Land-use and soil-based projects -- Northeast Ohio urban growth simulator -- Additional Resources -- Glossary of terms -- Activities by grade level -- Activities by subject -- Selected lesson plans and activities (electronic versions only). Environmental education: why teach students about the environment? -- Making the grade: how to identify and use quality environmental education materials.