Environmental-Education Materials Evaluated

By Meg Sommerfeld

As an association of environmental educators hones its drafts of voluntary national standards, a separate independent panel is preparing to determine whether such classroom materials are based in fact and science.

The Washington-based George C. Marshall Institute, which analyzes technical and scientific questions in public policy, set up the panel last December to address concerns that some environmental-education materials are based more on political concerns than science. The panel will meet for the first time this month.

Chairman Robert L. Sproul, a physics professor, said in a prepared statement: "Some believe these materials are biased by corporate interests, and still others contend that environmental-education curricula are aimed at promoting activism on the part of children...