Published in November 1996 (revised 2004) by NAAEE, Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence provides a set of recommendations for developing and selecting environmental education materials. These guidelines aim to help developers of activity guides, lesson plans, and other instructional materials produce high quality products, and to provide educators with a tool to evaluate the wide array of available environmental education materials.  Developed through a process of critique and consensus, the Guidelines are grounded in a common understanding of effective environmental education.  Over 1,000 practitioners and scholars in the field (e.g., classroom teachers, education administrators, environmental scientists, curriculum developers) participated in the review and development of this document. A companion publication, Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence - The Workbook is also available on line to help educators apply The Materials Guidelines (The Workbook is also available in PDF).

Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines  for Excellence points out six key characteristics of high quality environmental education materials.  For each of these characteristics, there are listed some guidelines for environmental education materials to follow.  Finally, each guideline in accompanied by several indicators listed under the heading "What to Look For."  These indicators suggest ways of gauging whether the materials being evaluated or developed follow the guidelines. The Guidelines  for Excellence offer a way of judging the relative merit of different materials, a standard to aim for in developing new materials, and a set of ideas about what well-rounded environmental education curriculum might look like.