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News Release
Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472
September 10, 2003
NIU receives $25,000 grant from EPA
to train educators in environmental management
DeKalb — Northern Illinois University is among six organizations in the state recently awarded grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for proposing innovative environmental education programs.
NIU will receive $24,726 to fund the design, development and distribution of a Web-based training program (and subsequent day-long workshops) for high school and college teachers to learn concepts of pollution prevention through environmental management systems.
EMS entails creative approaches to preventing pollution before it happens in the home, community and business rather than cleaning up after the fact.
“You look ahead to the issues and design the environmental system in such a way that reduces pollution so you don’t have to deal it with later,” said Murali Krishnamurthi, director of the NIU Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center and associate professor of industrial engineering.
“The EPA wants people to develop materials to train school teachers these concepts in a simple way so those teachers can teach their students, starting with students early on in high school so they become more socially conscious and understand environmental issues,” he added. “We hope to wrap the project up by next spring, and begin inviting teachers for workshops.”
Twenty organizations from the EPA’s Region 5, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, are splitting $198,700. More than $71,000 of that is shared by the Illinois groups. More than 100 proposals were received from the six states.
“The competition for educational grants is fierce, so congratulations go out to all the recipients,” said Region 5 Administrator Thomas V. Skinner. “EPA considers education critical to maintaining the progress we’ve seen in protecting our environment.”
The grants are awarded yearly under the National Environmental Education Act, passed in 1990 to stimulate environmental education by supporting design, demonstration and communication projects conceived by local organizations.
Other Illinois groups receiving funds are BOLD Chicago, the CSA Learning Center Inc. of Caledonia, the Champaign County Forest Preserve District, the Interstate Resource Conservation & Development of Milan and the Wheaton Park District.
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