This fall National Geographic will offer two free online courses for teachers. Facilitating Learning Through Outdoor Watershed Education will be held September 17 to October 29, 2014. Water: The Essential Resource will be held October 15 to December 17, 2014. Both courses are hosted on the Coursera platform.

Here is National Geographic’s explanation of Facilitating Learning Through Outdoor Watershed Education:
This course is designed for classroom teachers of Grades 4-9 to learn about watersheds and outdoor education using the Chesapeake Bay watershed as an example. The course introduces engaging technologies for investigating watersheds and helps you plan and effectively implement outdoor experiences.

This is National Geographic’s explanation of Water: The Essential Resource:
This course, framed around California’s Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI), focuses on ocean and freshwater topics and strategies for teaching environmental topics in Grades 4-8. Resources and support are provided for how to use EEI to implement Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy.