WHEREAS, Dr. Margaret Tudor has been a driving force in Washington and nationally in encouraging schools to utilize the outdoors as laboratories for the study of science; and
     WHEREAS, Dr. Tudor noticed an alarming trend in the direction school science education was taking, a direction that emphasized experimental design courses based solely on experiments that could be replicated (physics and chemistry), but which deemphasized field observational (inquiry) activities (biology, botany, and astronomy); and
     WHEREAS, This shift in emphasis in science education resulted in more time in a classroom lab, but less time conducting outdoor investigation activities, exacerbating the problem of getting children outside and active, with a host of known detrimental effects; and
     WHEREAS, State science standards were shifting toward measurements that favored indoor experiments to the exclusion of standards for outdoor inquiry, accelerating the shift from the school yard to the science lab; and
     WHEREAS, Dr. Tudor subsequently was instrumental in developing state standards that measure field investigations and scientific inquiry through a tiered system of systematic collection of data: Descriptive (describe your environment); comparative (compare your environment to another); and correlative (measure or observe two variables and search for relationships); and
     WHEREAS, Dr. Tudor was successful in getting these concepts adopted for the kindergarten through twelfth grade Science Education Standards in Washington; and
     WHEREAS, She was recruited to lead a national effort to implement these field inquiry standards in other states, with a growing number of Schools of Education and state boards of education adopting them; and
     WHEREAS, This is just the latest achievement in Dr. Tudor's eighteen-year career in which she cocreated the pioneering NatureMapping program; led the development of "citizen scientists" (students and adults) to collect valuable data for resource professionals; cocreated the Pacific Education Institute, a public-private consortium of heads of outdoor-oriented state agencies, schools of education, local and state education offices, and businesses and nonprofit organizations to encourage project-based inquiry programs that are grounded in Washington state's educational reform goals; and is leading development efforts to harness the power of eighty thousand high school seniors (annually) to conduct outdoor environmental senior projects; all of which get children into the out-of-doors for health and environmental improvements;
     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Senate honor Dr. Margaret Tudor and her associates for their vision in implementing programs that successfully address two downward trends: The acceptance of outdoor inquiry-based learning as valid science; and the health and obesity issues associated with children spending less time outdoors; and
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate to Dr. Margaret Tudor.