RDC Member Testimony:
HB 352 - Act regarding Resource Development Curriculum

Before House Education (via teleconference)
Testimony provided by Michelle Brunner, Alaska Resource Education

April 2, 2012

Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the House Education Committee. For the record my name is Michelle Brunner, Executive Director of Alaska Resource Education.

I’m here to testify today with regards to HB 352. Alaska Resource Education (formerly AMEREF) is a partnership between the State of Alaska Department of Education and private industry. We are a non-profit organization that focuses on educating students and teachers about Alaska’s natural resources using our Alaska Resource Kit and Curriculum.

The Alaska Resource Kit contains a standards-based, science focused interdisciplinary set of curriculum, activities, and support materials providing K-12 students with information about Alaska’s mineral, energy, oil & gas, and forest resources. We deliver our curriculum to educators through our “Rock & Roll around Alaska” course - a 500 level, 1 credit course offered through the University system. We also educate students through our Minor Miner and Energy Einstein programs. Our kit materials include:

A 40 sample Alaska rocks and minerals set complete with oil and gold, DVD’s, cd’s, posters, maps, books, a Sitka spruce cross-section and other educational materials on Alaska’s resources.

In the last 3 years we have had 333 teachers take our Rock & Roll around Alaska course, we’ve distributed 640 Alaska Resource Kits to school districts across Alaska, our education director has visited 116 classrooms and 172 students have participated in our Minor Miner and Energy Einstein programs statewide. I would invite you to visit our website www.akresource.org to see firsthand a video from students about “what minerals mean to me”.

We are interested in this legislation because ARE is consistently providing resource education on a daily basis throughout Alaska. The strength of ARE’s program is that it is a partnership between the private and public sectors. Our experience in the classroom is that our educational system is saturated with environmental and conservation education that does not follow Alaska’s constitutional principles. The idea of HB352 would assist in adding balance to the classroom and to Alaska’s future employees and policymakers.

With regard to HB352, our board has not had time to review the legislation and has not taken official action specifically regarding HB352, but the overall concept I believe ARE would support. We would suggest that as you think about how to provide a science based curriculum based on Alaska’s constitutional principles that you consider utilization of existing curriculum that meets this criteria. This concludes my prepared remarks and I’m happy to answer questions.

Return to Testimony List