Environmental Education

Tools for change.

The field and practice of environmental education refers to both formal and non-formal efforts to teach about how natural environments function, how human behaviors shape and influence those natural functions, and how we can change our behaviors in order to sustain a healthy environment for the future of all living things.

An environmental education minor prepares you to effectively teach learners of all ages and abilities in outdoor and indoor settings. You’ll help students explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment.

Look at Your Course List

Environmental Education Minor requirements

Meet Your Professors

Kyle Bladow

Associate Professor of Native American Studies
AD and Mary Elizabeth Anderson Hulings Distinguished Chair in the Humanities
Scott Grinnell

Professor of Physics
Meghan Salmon-Tumas

Assistant Professor of Climate Science
Kevin Schanning

Professor of Sociology
Faculty Council President
Kevin Zak

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs
Associate Professor of Teacher Education
Education Department Chair

See More Academic Programs

* Available only as a minor, emphasis, or special program.

Internship and Field Experience Requirements

Environmental education minors have a requirement to complete a 3 credit 400-level internship or field experience, 200-level OED Practicum course, 300-level OED Apostle Islands School Prep course, or 300-level OED Apostle Islands School course before graduation.

Students who choose to complete an internship or field experience can register positions with organizations outside of the Chequamegon Bay during May and Summer Terms, as long as they meet Northland’s internship and field experience guidelines.

Here are a few regional partners who have supervised environmental education students in the past, or identified interest in doing so:

It’s common for positions with summer camps, zoos, and outdoor educational programs located all over the US to align with this requirement.

Where Environmental Education Can Take You

Better than Xbox: the Apostle Island School

Sixty middle school students participated last summer in the Northland College Apostle Island School, held on Stockton Island. The twenty-eight-year-old outdoor and environmental residential program…

Better than Xbox: the Apostle Island School
Sit Simply, Get a New Perspective

Evan Coulson, Bro professor of sustainable regional development, tells a story worth remembering.

He was managing the rock climbing and rappelling site at Bob’s Rock in…

Sit Simply, Get a New Perspective
Collaborative Problem Solving for Kids

Since graduating, Ed Morales ’10 has worked with more than one-thousand kids and a dozen schools in the Minneapolis, Minnesota-area as a school social worker…

Collaborative Problem Solving for Kids
Dr. Andre’s Wild Ride

After a day on the river, my students and I hold an evening debrief. Discussion and reflection help us solidify learning and distill insights for…

Dr. Andre’s Wild Ride