Education is a key part of FIPR Institute's mission. Legislators intended the Institute to be a place people could turn to for information on phosphate issues. From the beginning, FIPR has had a library, which has become the most comprehensive collection of information on phosphate in the country and likely the world.

Traditionally, the Institute has focused its education efforts on technical workshops and conferences-local, regional and international. In 1997 the FIPR Board decided to expand FIPR Institute's educational efforts to include teachers in grades K-12. An advisory committee was formed and an education coordinator was hired.

FIPR Institute's varied research reflects the many aspects of science and social studies that naturally illustrate benchmarks children must master according to the Florida Sunshine State Standards. A dragline, for example, illustrates concepts of force and motion, while listening and speaking skills can be polished in a debate about future land uses for permitting and mining. Even in the earliest grades, concepts such as plants and animals needing food and certain habitat characteristics to thrive can provide an opportunity to tie the classroom to the local topic of phosphate.

FIPR Institute's education program uses the Institute's scientific expertise research and phosphate information to reinforce Florida's K-12 Sunshine State Standards in Math, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies.

A one-week, intensive, summer workshop for teachers is the centerpiece of FIPR's training efforts. Participants include teachers from kindergarten through high school, who attend in teams of four, representing all subject areas. Technical and scientific experts teach workshop participants about phosphate from its geologic origin and history in Florida to the way it is mined, processed and how the mined land is reclaimed. Field trips and hands-on activities then allow teachers to experience first-hand what they learn in the classroom. Education experts from FIPR Institute and area schools then show the participants how the information correlates to the Sunshine State Standards they teach, ranging from expository writing, research and graphing to physics, chemistry, biology, history and economics.

Workshop participants receive in-service points depending on their district and the opportunity to apply for a mini-grant of up to $1500 to develop a phosphate teaching unit.

In addition to the Summer Session workshops, FIPR Institute also offers other training resources, such as in-school workshops, activities and traveling libraries. FIPR Institute also publishes teaching units that were created with mini-grants and have been successfully pilot tested.

FIPR Institute staff also shares the information, activities and lesson plans through presentations to local, state and national education groups such as the Florida Association of Science Teachers (FAST), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the League of Environmental Educators in Florida (LEEF).

FIPR Institute's phosphate curriculum was developed with the help of Polk County school administrators and teachers who worked with FIPR to learn about the phosphate industry and the local environment. These educators drew upon what they learned to develop lesson plans and activities that utilize phosphate information. Teachers in other counties are now expanding on what started in Polk. In this way, FIPR institute partners with Florida educators to help students develop skills identified in the Sunshine State Standards.