The Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI) is a consortium of environmental education groups throughout the Lake Champlain Basin. CBEI holds workshops on teaching about the Lake Champlain Basin for K-12 educators, education majors, and interested citizens. The workshops feature diverse and exciting presentations by local experts on topics such as current events, water quality, fish and wildlife, lake history, and field explorations/monitoring. Since 1992, more than 600 educators have participated in CBEI workshops and forums.

2008-2009 A Watershed for Every Classroom
Workshops APPLY NOW!

This place-based professional development program for educators in the Lake Champlain Basin will be held during 2008 and 2009 in Vermont, New York and Quebec. Learn more and apply for this program by reading the flyer (PDF format) or call the LCBP at 1-800-468-5227. Apply by May 20th. Seventeen educators from New York and Vermont participated in this successful program in 2007.

Educators are invited to ECHO for free workshops on the second Thursday night of each month, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Listen to environmental experts in their field. Then, engage in a dialogue with the group to help expand your curriculum or learn new activities. The evenings are a partnership between ECHO and CBEI. Visit the ECHO website for details and speaker schedule.

• Adirondack Visitor Interpretive Center
• ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain
• Lake Champlain Basin Program
• Lake Champlain Committee
• National Wildlife Federation
• Shelburne Farms
• UVM Watershed Alliance, A University of Vermont Extension Program
• Vermont DEC, Project WET

Special thanks to Amy Demarest, author, This Lake Alive!, for her assistance and advice on many CBEI initiatives.

In May 2006, 75 educators attended Summit 2006: Who's Taking Care of Lake Champlain? Building Stewardship for the 21st Century at Shelburne Farms. Workshops were held in four areas: Watershed Ecology 101; Humanities, Literacy & More; Current Events & Ecosystem Research; and Technology & Geology. In May 2002, about 70 educators attended Summit 2002: Explore the Diversity of the Lake Champlain Basin - Linking Students to Their Watershed at Shelburne Farms. A dozen workshops covered topics such as animal tracking, nuisance species, seining for fish, identifying aquatic invertebrates, and wildflower walks. In 2000, CBEI offered a similar full-day Summit at Basin Harbor, which was attended by more than 75 educators. Plans are underway for the next CBEI workshop--stay tuned!

Contact the Lake Champlain Basin Program to join our mailing list and learn about the next CBEI summit. To find out more about the last summits, click on the links below.

• Summit 2006: View the Agenda and Registration (303 KB PDF)
• Summit 2002: View the Agenda and Registration (275 KB PDF)