BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The children from Pot Spring Elementary School in Timonium were eager to show Gov. Martin O’Malley the predacious diving beetle they had scooped out of the lake Tuesday at the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge.

Moments before, the children from Hebron-Harmon Elementary School in Hanover had shown the governor  their terrapin.

Students from Baltimore’s Digital Harbor High were testing oxygen levels in the man-made lake, and those from Edgewood High School were mapping out biodiversity.

The elaborate show-and-tell for Earth Day was the warm-up act for a congressional hearing and the announcement of a state executive order to boost the prospects of outdoor education in Maryland and nationally.

“The environment is such a fabulous tool to get kids engaged in education,” said U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., sponsor of the proposed federal No Child Left Inside Act, which would create an environmental education grant program to develop and improve standards for programs linked to the outdoors.

O’Malley testified for the bill at a sunny outdoor hearing before a congressional education subcommittee at the refuge’s visitor center near Laurel.

The governor also issued an order setting up the Maryland Partnership for Children in Nature to develop and implement plans to provide youth with structured and unstructured opportunities for play, outdoor recreation and study.

Testimony at the hearing by state Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick made clear that Maryland is ahead of the game on environmental education. The state school board mandated such a component 18 years ago, and all 24 Maryland school systems have adopted the voluntary state curriculum.

Now “every child, every single year” is supposed to receive an outdoor Chesapeake watershed experience, Grasmick said.

She said the hands-on environmental experience has helped motivate students to pursue careers in science and technology.

O’Malley said Thornton aid to K-12 schools would be used to implement his executive order, but he hoped federal money would be forthcoming if Sarbanes’ bill passes.

William Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the proposed grant program is not a new mandate, but an encouragement.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act has fostered an emphasis on math and reading, as well as teaching to the test.

This bill is designed to “say it’s OK if you’re doing field trips,” Baker said.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com