Past webinars

Webinar recordings are available for public viewing 30 days after each live webinar. After this time, archives are available to Green Teacher magazine subscribers only. If you are not yet a Green Teacher subscriber, we encourage you to subscribe and take advantage of these professional development webinars as a bonus. Subscribe online, or call us toll-free at 1-888-804-1486.

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Why do we need risk in school grounds?

(Original date: March 13th, 2018)
Presenters: Lisa Howard and Anders Wange Kjellsson

Do we overprotect our children? What are the daily experiences you had as a child on school grounds? What are we, as a society, offering children today on school grounds in terms of risk? This webinar will consider these questions, provide information on risk in school grounds, and how we can work as collective voice and take steps locally . Lisa and Anders will share some tools for talking to parents, educators and others about the importance of risk taking, and will provide examples of good play space design on children’s behaviour.

Lisa Howard is landscape architect the design firm, Bay Tree Design in Berkeley, California. Lisa is a Leadership Council member of the International School Grounds Alliance (ISGA), and co-chair of the ISGA Risk Group. Lisa has been providing expertise in design of public, institutional, community and sustainable landscapes for over twenty years and has a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley. She has traveled to over 200 children’s landscapes (parks, school grounds, adventure playgrounds, museums, and nature centers) in eight countries to learn of best practices, successes and failures.

Anders Wange Kjellsson is director of Naturskolan (The Nature School) in Lund, Sweden, in addition to being a Leadership Council member of the International School Grounds Alliance (ISGA), co-chair of the ISGA Risk Group, and a specialist teacher in natural science. In line with the objectives laid out in Sweden’s National Curriculum, he plans and carries out education courses in natural science and ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) programmes for Lund District Council’s employees.

Building Kids’ Citizenship Through Community Engagement

(Original date: March 7th, 2018)

Presenter: Bob Coulter

How can we give young people opportunities to grow through productive involvement with their local community? In this webinar, veteran educator Bob Coulter draws on more than 30 years of experience as he shares strategies to support young people in their efforts to become confident, self-directed citizens. These ideas are made practical through recommendations for productive uses of digital technology and a review of frameworks that have proven useful for designing community-based learning experiences.

Bob Coulter is director of the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Center is home base for a research and development group exploring ways to support place-based education, integration of technology with environmental experiences, and nature-based approaches to character development. The Center also partners with local environmental groups on urban ecology research and restoration projects. In an earlier life, Bob was an award-winning elementary school teacher in Atlanta, Memphis, Boston, and St. Louis. He has published 2 books with Peter Lang Publishing: “No More Robots: Building Kids Character, Competence, and Sense of Place” and more recently “Building Kids’ Citizenship Through Community Engagement”

Building Complete Communities

(Original date: March 5th, 2018)

Presenter: Kathleen Watt

Join us as we discuss sustainable development and environmental protection, and how to bring these ideas into the classroom. To accommodate a growing population while protecting the environment, it is important that cities and towns are built in a sustainable way. In this webinar, we will talk about how building complete communities and using greenbelts (areas of protected greenspace) can be effective methods to protect the environment and how your students can learn about these initiatives. We will chat about how sustainable development, environmental protection, and reducing climate change can be integrated into classrooms to help students become more aware of sustainable growth. We will provide many classroom ideas and free educational resources. Join us to hear more about how your students can learn to build complete communities for the future!

Kathleen Watt is an education consultant with EcoSpark in Toronto, Ontario. EcoSpark is an environmental non-profit whose mission is educating teachers and students to become stewards of the environment. Kathleen has completed her Bachelor of Education and Master’s in Geography and is passionate about environmental protection and land use policy.

Depaving: A New Way to Change Cities from Grey to Green

(Original date: November 16, 2017)

Presenter: Alix Taylor

There is a new movement afoot in communities across North America. Communities are coming together to remove unwanted pavement and creating vibrant green spaces. The hands-on depaving process captures the hearts and energy of volunteers who work together to make schoolyards and neighbourhoods more livable and resilient. In her presentation, Alix will tell us more about the depave movement, and indicate what one needs to get involved in this important greening initiative. Alix Taylor is Green Communities Canada’s Water Programs and Communications Manager, and is responsible for overseeing Depave Paradise, Canada’s depave initiative. Alix has been involved in environmental engagement activities for over a decade, her current focus is on water issues, both urban and rural. She is the author of “Put Up A Paradise”, the cover story in the Winter 2016 issue of Green Teacher magazine.

Telling your Story with Story Maps

(Original date: October 30, 2017)

Presenter: Joseph Kerski

Join geographer Joseph Kerski as we explore the world of multimedia, web-based story maps. Government agencies, nonprofit organizations, private companies, and students and educators of all ages are using story maps to explain their mission, to show the results of their research, to inspire, to call attention to issues such as water quality, land use change, energy, or natural hazards, and for many other purposes. Story maps foster spatial thinking, critical thinking, communication skills, and immersive work with many technologies, including multimedia and web-based maps. Story maps can be embedded in your own web pages and presentations, and can also serve as tools to assess student learning. The webinar will include how story maps can be used in the classroom and in the field, the types that are available, and how they connect to the broader field of geotechnologies. Ways of creating and sharing story maps will be also be shown so that you will feel confident that you and your students can use, create, and share them.

Joseph Kerski believes that spatial analysis with mapping and geotechnologies can transform education and society through better decision-making using the geographic perspective. For 22 years, he served as geographer and cartographer at NOAA, the US Census Bureau, and the US Geological Survey. He teaches online and face-to-face courses at primary and secondary schools and universities such as Sinte Gleska University, Penn State, and the University of Denver. Since 2006, he has served as Education Manager for Esri, with emphasis on thought leadership in geospatial technologies in formal and informal education at all levels, internationally. Joseph is the author of books such as Interpreting Our World, Spatial Mathematics, International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS in Secondary Schools, The Essentials of the Environment, Tribal GIS, and The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data. For more information, visit www.josephkerski.com, view http://www.youtube.com/geographyuberalles, or see his posts on http://twitter.com/josephkerski

Eco-System Monitoring Programs

(Original date: October 25, 2017)

Presenter: Daniel Shaw

From climate change to natural disasters: how tiny critters invoke joy and reveal environmental secrets. There are many species of wildlife that school age citizen scientists can monitor. But most scatter when humans are around. By contrast, arthropods – animals with jointed legs and no backbones – are abundant, diverse and found in all types of habitats. Building on his article in Green Teacher’s Summer 2016 issue, Dan will share the techniques he has used for 20 years to engage students in authentic field-based data collection. He’ll also explain how to add their findings to the databases of citizen science programs so that the students’ work will have meaning beyond their own classrooms.

Daniel Shaw teaches at the Bosque School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Along with his students, his research includes radio-collaring porcupines, habitat issues in urban landscapes, and threats to amphibian survival. His publications include Southwest Aquatic Habitats: On the Trail of Fish in a Desert and Eco-tracking: On the Trail of Habitat Change, both of which were published by UNM Press. Learn more about the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program at www.bemp.org.

Best Practices in School Gardens

(Original date: October 4, 2017)

Presenter: Mary Dudley

To overcome the challenges and be successful, you need to keep a few basic principles in mind. Doing so will add to the overall sustainability of a garden and allow for the school community to participate in the project. Based on several years of research and experience with dozens of school gardens, Mary and her colleagues will share their list of basic steps and best practices for school gardens.

Mary Dudley is the Youth Education Coordinator at the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati in Ohio. She has worked with school garden initiatives since 2008 in both temperate and subtropical climates. Mary holds a Master’s Degree in Botany. Covering the same ground as this webinar, Green Teacher published an article by Mary in Green Teacher 109, the Fall 2016 issue.

To Unplug or Plug In

(Original date: March 27, 2017)

Presenters: Justin Hougham and Steve Kerlin

While the right mobile digital technologies can do much to enhance environmental education, it is important to take time to review and select both the technology and the apps that will work best for your educational situation. Our two presenters will walk you through the steps, and thereby avoid the common pitfalls.

Justin Hougham is faculty at the University of Wisconsin- Extension where he supports the delivery of a wide range of science education topics to K-12 students, graduate students, and in-service teachers. Justin’s scholarship is in the areas of place-based pedagogies, STEM education, AL, and education for sustainability. Justin has taught 17 different undergraduate and graduate courses as well as instructed over 1000 days in the field. He continues to teach courses, clinics, and trainings that develop pedagogies in experiential education.

Steve Kerlin is the Director of Education at the Stroud Water Research Center near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was formerly an assistant professor of science and environmental education at U of Wisconsin – Steven’s Point and Northern Kentucky U. Before that, he was a middle and high school science teacher in Pennsylvania.

EarthPLAY for Earth Day 2017

(Original date: March 22, 2017)

Presenters: Deb Doncaster and Brenda Simon

Join Deb and Brenda as they walk through the highlights of EarthPLAY for Earth Day, a program focused on improving play opportunities for young people in schools and other community spaces. Hear more about the building movement to “reclaim recess” at schools and listen to testimonials from a local principal and teacher who’ve witnessed their students’ classroom behaviour, mental health and social interactions change for the better, thanks to enriched outdoor play programming. A large percentage of schools have been limiting outdoor time due to cold/rainy weather, changes in learning priorities, concerns around perceived risk, etc. In Canada, only 9% of children receive the recommended one hour of physical activity per day. There’s also lots of opportunity for better play in our local parks and neighbourhoods, even on our streets!

Deb Doncaster has dedicated more than 25 years to the fields of human rights, animal welfare, environmental conservation, planning and stewardship, and green energy. She was a leader in the development of Canada’s first community-owned, utility-scale wind turbine on the Toronto Waterfront and spearheaded several organizations, coalitions and campaigns resulting in the establishment of the Ontario Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program, the Green Energy and Economy Act, the Community Energy Partnership Program and the Aboriginal Energy Partnership Programs. In recognition of her leadership, she was awarded with the Market Transformation Award from the City of Toronto’s Green Toronto Awards, in 2009.

Brenda Simon is a graduate of the law and environmental studies program at York University and later studied education at the University of Toronto. She has worked as a human rights lawyer, a co-op housing developer, and in community education. Brenda has conducted extensive research in the profession of playwork, play policy, and planning, and piloted POP-UP Adventure Play in Toronto for two years before joining Earth Day Canada as the Director of Play Programs.

The Power of Positive, Inspiring Solutions

(Original date: February 20, 2017)

Presenter: Guy Dauncey

Judging by Guy’s experience speaking in high schools, the new generation, following Gen X and the Millennials, is Gen W – Generation Worry. When he asks students: “When you think about the future of our world, what do you feel – Hope, or Worry?” Very few hands go up for “hope”—almost all go up for “worry”. Our need as educators is to generate hope – to turn Gen W into Gen H.

The webinar will showcase the power of positive, inspiring solutions to the worries that are causing so many young people to lose hope, including the climate crisis, the wider ecological crisis, which includes the oceans filling up with plastic, and larger economic and political worries. It will show how, using a positive three-step approach, you can turn worry into hope, and then into action.

Guy Dauncey is a futurist who works to develop a positive vision of a sustainable future, and to translate that vision into action. He is founder of the BC Sustainable Energy Association, which developed the successful middle-school program the Climate Change Showdown. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including The Climate Challenge: 101 Solutions to Global Warming and Journey to the Future: A Better World Is Possible. He is an Honorary Member of the Planning Institute of BC, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. His websites are www.earthfuture.com, www.journeytothefuture.ca and www.thepracticalutopian.ca. He lives on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia.

Place-based Education

(Original date: February 1, 2017)

Presenter: Amy Demarest

In contrast to so much of schooling that is presented with little or no context, place-based education offers educators opportunities to build skills, knowledge, and aptitudes with engaging storylines. Places—natural and built, rural, urban and suburban all provide compelling narratives which students can investigate as they build the many points of understanding and proficiencies required in K-12 schooling. The presentation will include examples and discussion about what constitutes excellent place-based curriculum and student work and how these authentic products inspire deep learning.

Teachers are often challenged to incorporate the inspiring examples of place-based education into their daily plans. With a focus on curriculum design, Amy will offer strategies and examples of different ways to build meaningful learning opportunities grounded in the local community. Amy will present the foundational elements of place-based education that educators can use to more intentionally design community-based curriculum. These elements serve as inspiration and multiple entry points for educators–classroom teachers and non-formal educators — to creatively weave together personal engagement, mastery of subjects, understanding of place and acts of service. These elements are reflected in these four questions:

How can I better relate school to my students’ life experience?
How can I help students better understand how this big idea works in the real world?
How can I help students better understand this place?
How can I help students better understand themselves and their possible futures?

Amy Demarest is a former middle-school teacher who now works with formal and non-formal educators in a variety of settings. In her work both as an educator and as a writer, she seeks to find ways to help teachers do the things that are most important to them as well attend to the myriad of less rewarding tasks they are required to do. Most of the graduate courses she has taught have been on standards-based curriculum design. Recently she has been able to focus solely on the more inspiring (to her) place-based design work. Her “Reading the World, Not Just the Words” article in Green Teacher 106 (Spring 2015) outlined why it is crucial to take students of all ages out of the classroom and into the community. More recently, she guest-edited Green Teacher #110, which showcased a wide range of innovative place-based education programs and strategies. Her second book is titled Place-based Curriculum Design: Exceeding the Standards Through Local Investigations. Her work is outlined on her website Ourcurriculummatters.com.

Deep Engagement via Story, the Arts & Gamification

(Original date: November 17, 2016)

Presenter: Vanessa LeBourdais

There is often a missed opportunity in environmental education for students to apply the knowledge and skills they gain to solve real-world problems. Kids can be effective agents of change in their families. Not only do they jump at the opportunity, but recognizing their agency can increase educational outcomes, involve parents in their child’s learning and help tackle pressing environmental problems. Using examples from Planet Protector Academy, Vanessa will share how educators can empower their students to become planet protecting superheroes by:

Using storyline to endow their students with superhero powers and aspiration.
Making student learning hands-on and connecting it to the home through superhero missions.
Nurturing identity-based change through arts-based activities that engages the whole child.
Getting buy-in from families and making behaviour change easier.
Incentivizing participation, engagement and action through team competition and gamification.

Vanessa LeBourdais is the Executive Producer and Creative Director at DreamRider Productions a national Canadian environmental education charity. Over the past 18 years, Vanessa’s and her team’s arts-based and digital programs on zero waste, climate, water and littering have reached over 900,000 elementary school children in 900+ schools in five provinces. Their latest digital classroom resource, the Planet Protector Academy won the 2015 TELUS Innovation Award, is now in five Canadian provinces, and is launching in the US this fall.

Introducing Biomimicry, Inspiration and Innovation for Today’s Students and Tomorrow’s Workforce

(Original date: October 25, 2016)

Presenter: Dorna Schroeter

Are you looking for a way to inspire the next generation of world-builders – engineers, research scientists, chemists, architects, city planners? Biomimicry is a new discipline that offers teachers a compelling way to engage students of all ages and cross the boundaries traditionally found in education. It supports the goals of NGSS, CCLS and STEAM and offers solution-based thinking while inspiring young people with a sense of the possible. As a link between design (arts) and science, it offers a model of relevancy because it will be part of many of the jobs of the future when today’s students are in the workforce. From elementary to high school, Biomimicry also provides a plethora of literature for linking ELA to science and the Reading Standards for Literature.

This webinar will explore:

What is Biomimicry
Why Biomimicry
How we view nature and how we view nature through a biomimicry lens
Principles of Biomimicry
Levels of Biomimicry
3 – Bio-Inspired Case Studies
Resources
Biomimicry Today

Dorna Schroeter has been the coordinator of the P/NW BOCES Center for Environmental Education since 1982. This program serves some 30,000 students each year from schools in southeast New York State. In the last decade, her focus has been to integrate Education for Sustainability into the K-12 curriculum. She is a member of the Biomimicry Institute’s Leadership Team and is an advisor to their Biomimicry Educator’s Network (BEN) and organized the first-ever biomimicry camp for kids. Dorna’s article, Introducing Biomimicry, Inspiration and Innovation for Today’s Students and Tomorrow’s Workforce, was published in the spring 2010 issue of Green Teacher Magazine. She also runs a series of introduction to biomimicry workshops.

Transforming School Food

(Original date: Sept 28, 2016)

Presenters: Jonathan Foley and Dan Hendry

The transformation of school food is long overdue. Our two presenters will share two different approaches that are currently underway. In the first, we’ll learn about California Thursdays, wherein participating school districts in that state serve locally grown, healthy foods in their cafeteria every Thursday. Following that, we’ll learn about the Slow Cookers for Kids project where a partnership with the culinary arts program at a local community college, teaches grade 7-8 students how to shop and prepare inexpensive, healthy meals. Please be prepared to share your own ideas for transforming school food with all the participants in this upcoming session.

Jonathan Foley is the California Thursdays network coordinator at the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. For the past five years, he has been working within San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits promoting school food systems. His passion lies in enabling students to understand and engage with the food systems around them, thus allowing them to become informed and conscious stewards of our planet. He has a well-rooted sense of wonderment with the outdoors, where you will likely find him if he is not in the office.

Dan Hendry is the Sustainable Initiatives Coordinator at the Limestone District School Board in Kingston, Ontario. His “Slow Cookers for Kids” article was featured in Green Teacher #107, the Fall 2015 issue.

Sustainable Homes and Renewable Energy Education

(Original date: May 2, 2016)

Presenters: Nelson Lebo, Susy Ellison and Paul Hackl

Introducing young people to sustainable home design and renewable energy is critical to our collective future. Three co-presenters will share their award-winning strategies of engaging young students and teens in a variety of hands-on projects, such as solar cookers, strawbale houses, and cardboard models of energy-efficient homes.

Nelson Lebo is an eco-design and education consultant living in Whanganui, New Zealand. Currently a carbon literacy educator and project-based learning consultant.

Susy Ellison taught high school for many years in Carbondale, Colorado.

Paul Hackl is currently the Site Supervisor and a Teacher at the Toronto Urban Studies Centre. Prior to joining the Urban Studies Centre, he was teaching at Riverdale Collegiate Institute, where he developed the Sustainable House Project, which has been recognized by his peers and internationally, as a model for sustainable education.

Inspiring Deeper Learning with Music

(Original date: March 31, 2016)

Presenters: Remy Rodden and Joyce Rouse (Earth Mama)

Why do we teach and learn our ABC’s with a song? Learning techniques that use music, motion, humor and fun take place in the affective domain of the brain, and tend to be deeper and longer lasting. Join two veteran singer-songwriter-performers for tips and tools for using music to teach and reinforce concepts for long term behavioral changes.

Remy Rodden is a singer-songwriter and Manager of Environmental Education and Youth Programs with the Department of Environment, in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. He’s performed his “not-for-kids-only” nature and conservation songs from coast to coast to coast in Canada, and every continent including Antarctica — in schools, in festivals, at conferences, and for the penguins!

Joyce Rouse (Earth Mama) is a singer, songwriter, actor, educator and creator of the Earth Mama® music projects. She addresses the critical issues facing our planet, as inspired by her love of Earth and her Masters Degree in Earth Literacy. She communicates her messages in an effective and entertaining way, in words adults and children alike can readily understand, and in a variety of tempos that make them fun to listen to and easy to remember. Her songs are heard worldwide through various media, at Earth Mama concerts, and on her eleven CD’s which now play on six continents.

Climbing Trees

(Original date: February 29 2016)

Presenter: Harv Teitelbaum

Why climb trees? On a very basic level, we all sense that it feels good to be around trees and forests. But beyond engendering a sense of well-being, there is a growing body of scientific evidence that being in the forest environment has positive psychological effects. Harv Teitelbaum wants you to climb and perhaps someday facilitate your own group climbs. In this webinar he hopes to encourage you to do so and tell you just how it’s done.

Harv Teitelbaum operates Tree Climbing Colorado and lives in Evergreen, Colorado. He is the current President of the Global Organization of Tree Climbers and can be contacted at info(at)gotreeclimbing.org.

Remote Cameras in Environmental Education

(Original date: February 10, 2016)

Presenters: Ryan Pennesi and Dawn Tanner

Young people do not realize there are so many interesting things that they can learn about animals in their own schoolyard and neighborhood. Using remote cameras helps teachers to increase technology learning in their classrooms and brings students outside to create meaningful connections. Whether you think small scale at what your students will learn about the animals that share their space when they are absent or you choose to connect with local scientists, setting up trail cameras will give you a window into the wild. Join Ryan and Dawn in discussion as they address choosing the best locations to place the cameras, how to set them up and what can be done both inside and outside of the classroom with the resulting images and data.

Ryan Pennesi is a Mentor Naturalist at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, Minnesota. After studying wildlife conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he worked as a crew leader with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps and as an environmental educator with the Student Conservation Association in Western Massachusetts.

Dawn Tanner teaches field and international courses on conservation techniques at the University of Minnesota. As part of her dissertation work in conservation biology, she collaborated with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN Project WILD), Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, Afton-Lakeland Elementary, and Afton State Park to teach with remote cameras and create the Taking Action Opportunities (TAO) curriculum (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/projectwild/tao/index.html)

Collecting Field Data on Local Birds with Elementary Students

(Original date: Thursday, February 4, 2016)

Presenters: Renee Bachman and Ted Watt

Birds provide a ready access for elementary level students to a variety of life science content areas. Science practices such as bird observation skills, visual and auditory, field data collection and analysis skills, and student presentation techniques for the wider community are but some of the options that will be explored in this webinar. The presenters planned and carried out a nesting bird survey with 5th Graders in Western Massachusetts as part to Cornell’s Birds in Forested Landscape program. While teaching in Phoenix, Renee and her students collected data for the Central Arizona & Phoenix Long Term Environmental Research Project. Ted has taught bird identification in informal settings for over thirty years. In this Webinar Ted and Renee will describe their projects, including how Cornell University’s Ebird can be utilized in the classroom. Outdoor bird study with students, aligned with NGSS practices, is tons of fun!

Renee Bachman is a veteran teacher who currently teaches at Leeds Elementary School in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her passion is getting kids outdoors to do authentic science and foster a sense of stewardship in her students.

Ted Watt, of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, MA, USA, has worked as a teaching naturalist at environmental centers for over 35 years. He has studied birds and plants of northeastern North America and is tremendously curious about all life and enjoys working with local elementary students and teachers to enhance standards-based outdoor learning.

Addressing Aquatic Invasive Species

(Original date: Tuesday, February 2, 2016)

Presenters: Bob Thomson and Brook Schryer

Tackling aquatic invasives species (AIS) presents special challenges for educators. Bob Thomson uses inquiry methods with a place-based format to ensure that students are participants in the educational process. AIS allows his students to develop their informational reading skills on a subject that they can research and create informational essays and presentation that they can use to inform the community on ways to prevent the spread of AIS. They also do research projects focused on understanding the impact of invasive species impact, in cooperation with local agencies. Brook Schryer will introduce the Grades 4 & 6 curriculum units developed by the Invading Species Awareness Program of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.

Bob Thomson has been developing environmental research projects with his students for the past ten years from third grade to twelfth grade. His students have researched the impact of invasive mussel on shipwrecks with underwater robots and conducted population analysis on individual invasive species in the Thunder Bay watershed. Currently teaching at Ella White Elementary in Alpena, Michigan.

Brook Schryer is the Aquatic Invasive Species Outreach Liaison with the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters and their Invading Species Awareness Program. Among his educational outreach activities, he reaches out to all ages with presentations, demonstrations, printed informational materials, monitoring, and stewardship activities. He works out of the OFAH’s offices in Peterborough, Ontario.

Envisioning a Nature Kindergarten

(Original date: Wednesday, January 20, 2016)

Presenter: Enid Elliot

Get children outdoors all morning, every morning, no matter what the weather. Enid Elliot will share her experience in establishing a nature kindergarten in the Sooke School District in British Columbia. Her goal: to enable you to start one in your community or to enhance an existing one. Inspired by the forest schools in Europe and wanting to provide young children with an opportunity to learn outdoors within a natural context, this nature kindergarten has grown as a result of considerable community interest, support and commitment. While the educators adhered to the provincial curriculum, they added experiential components including natural history and traditional narratives of local First Nations. The resulting learning and skills gained by the children has exceeded what is mandated by the provincial curriculum. Nature kindergartens are now spreading across North America. Each one is unique, and adds to our understanding of the possibilities. There is still much to learn about venturing outside the four classroom walls, but for young people in these programs, the process has begun.

Enid Elliot, PhD, is an early childhood educator who has been continually surprised, intrigued and delighted by the children, families and early childhood educators with whom she has worked, played and loved. Having experienced the influence of natural settings on young children over the years she was involved in creating the Nature Kindergarten in the Sooke School District, which opened in September 2012. Since then she spends as much time as possible heading outside with the children and educators. She is currently on faculty at Camosun College and is an adjunct professor at University of Victoria.

Fostering Leadership for Sustainability

(Original date: Wednesday, December 2, 2015)

Presenter: Pat Armstrong

What is the best way to get 11-18-year-olds engaged and active in bringing about change for a more sustainable future? Pat will share ten principles that emerged from her many years of leadership training programs. She will also offer some proven strategies to engage, enthuse and extend young people to become more active in sustainability projects and leadership. We will look at building on existing programs, creating links to the curriculum, involving students in meaningful and challenging projects, setting up clubs or committees and mentoring.

Pat Armstrong has worked in environmental education and education for sustainability for over thirty five years, actively involved in the development and implementation of internationally recognized sustainability education programs that provide long-term change. More recently Pat has been researching and developing a range of leadership training programs and delivering them to different sectors of the community. She is a doctoral candidate at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, researching adolescent leadership for sustainability.

Welcoming Immigrants via Outdoor Recreation Programs

(Original date: Tuesday, November 24, 2015)

Presenter: Adrienne Blattel

In 2010, Adrienne Blattel developed a program through an inner-city community centre in Montreal to bring together newly-arrived immigrants and other Montrealers through outdoor recreation. During this presentation, Adrienne will outline how activities are run to foster integration and intercultural understanding, which types of outings have worked well, lessons learned and ideas for the future.

Adrienne Blattel started up an Intercultural Outdoor Recreation Program in 2010, through a local community centre, with the goal of bringing together Montrealers from near and far through outdoor activities. Adrienne originally hails from Ottawa, where she developed a taste for paddling, cross-country skiing, camping and more. During her time spent in France, Montenegro and Montreal, she learned first hand how outdoor recreation can help people settle in, and was inspired to start this program in Montreal. Adrienne has a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University.

Making the Next Generation Science Standards Work for Us

(Original date: Tuesday, October 6, 2015)

Presenter: Gerry Lieberman

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), are in early stages of implementation in 13 states. These new standards represent a golden opportunity to more effectively connect environment concepts and content into standards-based science education. The implementation represents a dramatically different approach to science education, breaking new ground by incorporating three-dimensional instructional strategies. This substantial change requires the deep integration of “Disciplinary Core Ideas,” “Crosscutting Concepts,” and “Science and Engineering Practices.” A completely new strategy, that no longer focuses on students reading about science or observing their teachers, rather “having students do science.” This webinar will focus on a discussion of effective strategies for integrating environmental content into the implementation of the NGSS. Dr. Lieberman has developed these strategies while contributing to the writing of California’s new “Science Framework”-the document that will guide classroom implementation and the development of new textbooks and other instructional materials.

Gerald Lieberman is an internationally-recognized authority on school improvement using natural and community surroundings as interdisciplinary contexts for education. He led the development of the EIC Model™, and the development of California’s EEI Curriculum. In 1995 Dr. Lieberman founded and has since directed the State Education and Environment Roundtable, a cooperative endeavor of departments of education in 16 U.S. states. Dr. Lieberman is the principal author of Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning, a ground-breaking, national study that received an award from the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation for “bringing environmental learning into the mainstream of American K-12 education.” He has designed and coordinated curriculum development programs in the United States, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia and Argentina. He lives in San Diego, California.

Promising Practices for School Food Gardens

(Original date: Tuesday, April 28, 2015)

Presenter: Sunday Harrison

School food gardens have become popular once again, while also becoming more diverse. From a single raised bed in an underused green space, to large-scale mini-farms that are part of Community Shared Agriculture programs, they are as unique as the school communities they inhabit. In this session, Sunday will share some common successes and challenges. While some school boards are very supportive, others wish school gardens would just go away. As a result, it is important for everyone to have a better understanding of what makes a successful school garden project. This webinar will also address crop selection for schools, ties to student nutrition and enviro-education programs, summer strategies, links to academic subjects, the role of community partners, and enabling policies at school boards.

Sunday Harrison is the founder and program director at Green Thumbs Growing Kids, a non-profit organization in Toronto, Ontario. Her non-profit is celebrating its 15th year of operating school gardens and community greenhouses. She has a Masters of Food and Sustainability Education Practice, a certificate in Landscape Architecture, and consults widely on program design for children’s gardens.

Why Risky Play is So Important for Children

(Original date: Thursday, April 16, 2015)

Presenter: Mariana Brussoni

Do we overprotect our children? Might our attempts to keep children safe actually do more harm than good? This webinar will consider these questions and what we might be able to do to restore balance. Mariana will share some tools for talking to parents, educators and others about the importance of risk taking, and will provide an example from her research showing the effects of good play space design on children’s behaviour.

Dr. Mariana Brussoni is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and with the British Columbia Injury Research & Prevention Unit. She is a developmental psychologist investigating parents’ perceptions of children’s risk engagement and safety, the influence of nature-based challenging play on child health and development, and promoting developmentally appropriate opportunities for children’s risky play.

Invasive Species: Towards a Deeper Understanding

(Original date: Thursday, April 9, 2015)

Presenters: Lisa Zinn and Jonathon Schramm

Invasive species provide an exciting story for environmental educators. We have a villain (the bad invasives) and a victim (the poor helpless native species). Although this portrayal might capture a student’s attention, what is often lacking are the deeper ecological principles that come in to play. We will explore several myths often presented in the teaching about invasive species, and we explore alternative teaching scenarios that can be used as alternatives to these myths that can help students understand these deeper ecological principles.

Lisa Zinn teaches in the Sustainability and Environmental Education Department at Goshen College, in Goshen Indiana. She has worked in various aspects of environmental education for 18 years and currently teaches Natural History to students obtaining their Master’s degree in Environmental Education at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College.

Jonathon Schramm also teaches in the SEED department at Goshen College and at Merry Lea. Among other courses, Jonathon teaches Principles of Environmental Education for the same graduate program in Environmental Education and Sustainability and Regeneration and Environmental Problem Solving to undergraduate students.

Building Resilience through Eco-Crafts

(Original date: Wednesday, April 1, 2015)

Presenter: Shelene Codner

Participating in upcycling and other environmental craft activities provide students with visual examples of sustainability and allows educators to model resilience and adaptability. We all need resilience in order to bounce back from stressful and sometimes life changing experiences. This presentation introduces Kenneth Ginsburg’s “7 Cs of Resilience” and how eco-craft activities help young people combine the mental, emotional and physical skills they need to manage their lives and respond to the events that occur.

Shelene Codner is an Area Resource Specialist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Financial and Business Assistance group for 12 Iowa Counties along the I-35 Corridor. Previously, she was worked in recycling education and earned several awards for her work. Her reports and articles have appeared in national publications and she is the author of a children’s book written in honor of her father that is entitled If I Were A Little Guy. Shelly is also a Master Gardener and lives on a farm in rural Iowa.

Invasive Species Learning Options

(Original date: Tuesday, March 24, 2015)

Presenter: Sue Staniforth

Invasive species are a serious issue worldwide, representing the second greatest threat to global biodiversity after habitat loss, and costing governments and communities tens of billions of dollars in control efforts. Unlike many large scale environmental issues, students and youth groups can usually do something about invasive species and in a hands-on, experiential way. In this webinar, Sue will review a variety of educational strategies and fieldwork planning tools that support young people tackling invasive species locally. She will also highlight some activities that engage students in identifying, surveying and mapping native and invasive species, investigating the impacts of invasive species on local ecosystems, economy, and cultures, and developing effective action projects.

Sue Staniforth is the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Invasive Species Council of British Columbia, a non-profit society that helps coordinate and unite a wide variety of stakeholders in the struggle against invasive species. With over 25 years of experience as a biologist, educator and curriculum developer, she has developed over a dozen learning resources on topics that range from Garry Oak ecosystems to outdoor classrooms to invasive species resources. She has developed training courses for parks, forestry and utilities workers and Master Gardeners, and delivered hundreds of teacher professional development workshops both provincially and nationally.

Envirothon – what? why? how?

(Original date: Thursday, February 26, 2015)

Presenter: Jessica Kaknevicius

Envirothon is one of North America’s largest outdoor environmental competitions – reaching over 500,000 students each year in 57 US states and Canadian provinces. The program aims to give high school students the opportunity to directly interact with the natural world and learn important skills directly from those working in the natural resources. With many students becoming disconnected from the environment, this program offers a new way for teenagers to get engaged and explore potential future career pathways. Learn how you can get involved in Envirothon, and what it can do for your students.

Jessica Kaknevicius has worked at Forests Ontario (previously the Ontario Forestry Association) since 2009, building the organization’s education and awareness programs. Her current focus is to dispel myths and broaden the understanding of sustainable forest management. Above all, Jessica is passionate about directly engaging youth and the public in learning about forest resources. She is the secretary for the Forest History Society of Ontario and a Young Conservation Professional graduate. Jessica has previously worked in community tree planting and restoration work, sustainable forest management auditing and research. She holds a Masters of Forest Conservation and an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto.

Citizen Science Tackles Invasive Species

(Original date: Wednesday, February 25, 2015)

Presenters: Christine Voyer and Jeff Chandler

Jeff will share news about EE Week, including examples of how schools and national parks across the US are partnering to tackle invasive species through citizen science projects. From creeping vines to munching beetles to pinching crabs, invasive species are on the move. Monitoring the spread and mitigating the impacts invasive species wreak can be daunting tasks for scientists and managers. They need classrooms and communities to help. As students and community members. contribute observations and expertise to invasive species citizen science efforts, they learn about local ecosystems, engage in science practices, and use 21^st century skills like collaboration and problem solving. In this webinar, Christine Voyer will share resources and the steps needed to help engage.

Christine Voyer is science education program manager for the Vital Signs program at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. She supports educators through professional development and curriculum development, and works with students and citizens on the ground and through the program’s website. Through Vital Signs, she is excited to help participants experience the fun, creativity, and critical importance of science. She is driven by a commitment to provide relevant and authentic experiences that inspire and empower learners to make a difference in the world. She has a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management and Master of Arts in Teaching, both from Cornell University, and a background in science research and teaching.

Jeff Chandler is the Education Program Associate for the National Environmental Education Foundation in Washington, DC. This webinar is co-sponsored by the National Environmental Education Foundation in conjunction with EE Week.

Taking Kids to the Community

(Original date: Wednesday, January 28, 2015)

Presenter: Bob Coulter

It takes a lot more energy, persistence, and vision to take your kids past the scripted curriculum and engage them in real-world, community-based work. In this information-packed webinar, Bob Coulter shares his own experiences based on 30 years of direct work with kids, along with insights from two National Science Foundation-funded research projects he led that explored the ways in which teachers who get their kids out in the community are different: How they see their jobs, how they see learning, and how they see childhood. If you’re getting out in the community, you’re a star. Come see what makes you special, and pick up some research-based tips to expand your practice.

Bob Coulter is director of the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Center is home base for a research and development group exploring ways to support place-based education, integration of technology with environmental experiences, and nature-based approaches to character development. The Center also partners with local environmental groups on urban ecology research and restoration projects. In an earlier life Bob was an award-winning elementary school teacher in Atlanta, Memphis, Boston, and St. Louis. His new book No More Robots: Building Kids Character, Competence, and Sense of Place was published recently by Peter Lang.

Engaging (Urban) Youth in Outdoor Education

(Original date: Tuesday, January 13, 2015)

Presenter: Keith Williams

Students are more disconnected from being outside than ever before which presents additional challenges to the outdoor educator. In addition students are distracted by electronics and numerous pop culture diversions. Urban students are especially removed from the natural world so that the simple act of being outside in the woods becomes a big deal. To be effective, environmental and outdoor education must be relevant for its constituents. This session discusses theory and techniques for engaging even the toughest of students in the outdoors.

Keith Williams has an MS in Ecological Teaching and Learning. He has worked as an environmental biologist with the US Army, a firefighter paramedic apprentice with the Baltimore City Fire Department, a science teacher in Baltimore, a volunteer coordinator with Habitat for Humanity, and an outdoor education program manager before joining NorthBay 10 years ago. Keith started with NorthBay as a field educator and served as director of education for 7 years before becoming the Executive Director. North Bay’s mission is to challenge urban students in middle schools to realize that their attitudes and actions have a lasting impact on their future, the environment and the people around them. At North Bay, they use Common Core and Next Generation Science standards, character development, and the outdoors as an integrating context for their programs.

Media Literacy and Sustainability Education

(Original date: Thursday, October 2, 2014)

Presenter: Sox Sperry

How to use media decoding to invite students into safe collective reflection on the strong emotions that often rise in response to the challenges of sustainability. High school and college educators and teachers-in-training will learn pedagogical techniques and curriculum materials that can help students to engage in critical thinking and emotional honesty about the complex environmental, economic and social systems that underlie sustainability.

Sox Sperry is a Program Associate and curriculum writer for Project Look Sharp, a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College in upstate New York. He has authored 13 curriculum kits for Project Look Sharp including series on media constructions of sustainability: food, water and agriculture; chemicals, resources and endangered species; social justice and peace movements and U.S. presidential campaigns. Sox began his career as a teacher and curriculum designer at the Learning Center parent-teacher cooperative elementary school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Between 1984 and 2007 he worked at the Center For Nonviolence in Fort Wayne teaching nonviolence, developing curriculum and training trainers for a batterer’s intervention program.

Nature and Forest Schools: Changing the Way We Connect to Place, Play and Inquiry-Based Education

(Original date: Thursday, May 1, 2014)

Presenter: Marlene Power

This webinar will introduce you to the underlying ethos of Nature and Forest Schools, framed from the perspective of place, play and inquiry-based education. We will explore why Nature and Forest School is a good idea, what kinds of opportunities it provides for educators, learners and ‘communities,’ as well as what is evolving in Canada in this emerging field of environmental education.

Marlene Power is the Founder of Carp Ridge Forest School, Canada’s first outdoor, nature-based Forest School, as well as Founder and Executive Director of Forest School Canada. Marlene is an avid outdoors-person, social activist, environmentalist, and advocate for children’s access to nature. She attributes her resilience, creativity, love of nature, and environmental values to her freedom to roam in childhood and all the lessons inherent in growing up in the natural world in outport Newfoundland. Marlene studied at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Dalhousie University. She currently sits on the board of directors for the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada, as well as TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.

Ecoliteracy through Active Citizenship

(Original date: Tuesday, April 29, 2014)

Presenter: Pam Miller

This webinar is co-sponsored by Evergreen (www.evergreen.ca)

Engaging students in action-based activities that influence positive change for the environment can deepen their understanding of nature, make learning meaningful, empower students, and foster leadership skills. Learn how to integrate active citizenship in your educational programs as we explore approaches, techniques and inspiring examples.

Pam Miller supports K-12 teachers implement ecological literacy into their classroom instruction in her role as the Toronto District School Board’s EcoSchools’ Instructional Leader. Her work includes fostering best practices, developing resources, and building collaborative learning networks among teachers and staff to deepen teachers’ skills and knowledge in and approaches to Environmental Education. She has taught in the TDSB for 22 years both in the classroom and in TDSB Outdoor Education Schools and holds degrees in education (B.Ed, York University) and science (Honours B.Sc, University of Guelph).

Dana photo

Water Quality Monitoring in Outdoor Education

(Original date: Thursday, February 27, 2014)

Presenter: Dana McDonald

This webinar is co-sponsored by Evergreen (www.evergreen.ca)

Water provides a rich source of learning opportunities. The webinar will explore water quality monitoring as an educational tool to engage students in learning about water and the local environment. Participants will be provided with practical information to integrate water quality monitoring into their own practice including how to set-up monitoring activities, managing risk, the monitoring process, helpful tools and resources, and how to make water quality monitoring a meaningful learning experience.

Dana McDonald is a Greenspace Project Manager with Evergreen’s BC Office. She is a water resource scientist by training with experience in academia and the private and not-for-profit sectors. Through Dana’s work, she has learned the importance of hands-on experience, interactive dialogue and thinking of the world as a complex and connected system. With Evergreen, Dana works with her team to bring meaningful learning experiences in urban natural spaces to communities and schools.

david selby and fumiyo kagawa

Building a Culture of Resilience through Education

(Original date: Thursday, February 20, 2014)

Presenters: David Selby & Fumiyo Kagawa

Children and youth witness and experience natural disasters in increasing numbers and intensity. This webinar will explore the curriculum, learning and teaching implications of helping children and youth to become active agents in preventing, mitigating and better coping with natural disasters. It will highlight practical ideas and examples of disaster risk reduction (DRR) education in school and community characterized by child/youth participation and leadership. The webinar will also explore how environmental education can contribute to disaster risk reduction and vice-versa. Participants will be invited to share their own practice and experience in empowering children and youth to help foster a resilient school and community.

Conquering Nature Deficit Disorder with Phenology

(Original date: Wednesday, February 12, 2014)

Presenter: Larry Weber

Suitability: All formal youth educators, and school administrators.

As a biology teacher in the early 1980’s, Larry Weber noticed that students were not going outside as they did earlier. They also seemed to be unaware of common local flora and fauna. In response, he developed a life science class for 7th grade that made regular use of the outdoors, looking for evidence of seasonal change (i.e. phenology). With its outdoor component, the course was very successful. In his webinar presentation, Larry will explain how to organize a course focused on phenology, what his students looked for each month of the school year and the benefits of this type of teaching.

While a high school and middle school teacher for 40 years, Larry Weber spent 25 years teaching a phenology-based class. The author of ten books on local phenology, spiders, butterflies and fungi, Larry has been writing a weekly nature column for a Duluth newspaper and hosted a weekly nature program on a local radio station for about 20 years. He is a frequent speaker at parks, nature centers, etc and wrote one of Green Teacher’s all-time most popular articles, focusing on his middle school phenology course. Now retired, he lives with plenty of critters on an old farm in Carlton County, Minnesota.

Young Adults as Change Agents

(Original Date: Monday, January 13, 2014)

Presenter: Dave Bauer

Suitability: All formal youth educators, and school administrators.

The webinar will focus on the core competencies needed by young adults to act as effective change agents in their schools and communities. A research-based model in achieving this mission is the Young Adults Environmental Leadership Program (YAELP). Among the topics Dave will address are creative problem solving, change leadership, relationship building, qualities of high performing teams, team roles, environmental and social justice, advocacy, project design and management, funding your project. Participants will be invited to share their experiences in ways to mobilize our youth through novel and useful environmental programs.

Dave Bauer is the President of Sustainable Earth Solutions, Inc. and a former teacher of Environmental Science in the Buffalo, New York area. He is currently as sustainability consultant, leadership trainer and a business facilitator. Each year, he organizes the Young Adults Environmental Leadership Program (YAELP).

Animal Tales: Creating Critical Thinking through Literature

(Original Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013)

Presenter: Dr. Stephanie Itle-Clark

Suitability: All formal youth educators, and school administrators.

Stories have been used since ancient times to entertain, awaken the imagination, and impart moral and community virtue. Learn how to weave humane-themed stories into existing programs or lessons. Discover how animal-themed literature can inspire students to “try on” new character traits and become familiar with welfare issues, the environment, and habitat protection. This proactive approach to building prosocial skills and critical thinking will allow attendees to create memorable humane-themed activities that will educate, captivate, and inspire.

Dr. Stephanie Itle-Clark is the Director of the School of Continuing Education and Assistant Professor for the College of Arts and Sciences at Humane Society University (HSU) where she focuses on curriculum development and humane education. Prior to joining HSU, she worked as a public school teacher where she infused humane and character themes into the language arts curriculum. Stephanie holds an Ed. D. in Leadership and Change, an MS. Ed. in Development and Strategies, and a B.S. in Elementary Education, as well as Certified Humane Education Specialist credentials. She currently serves as the Vice President on the Board of Directors for the Association of Professional Humane Educators.

Go with the Flow: Exploring Local Watersheds with Students

(Original Date: Monday, November 18, 2013)

Presenter: Dr. Hilary Inwood

Your local watershed offers rich learning possibilities for students and teachers to deepen their environmental learning. ‘Go with the Flow’ aims to inspire educators to integrate water-centric learning into their curriculum by sharing engaging ideas and activities that focus on local rivers, streams, ponds and lakes. Join us to learn how others have implemented watershed education in creative and innovative ways, and share your own successful strategies. This webinar is co-sponsored by Evergreen (www.evergreen.ca).

Hilary Inwood is a Lecturer in the Initial Teacher Education program at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She holds degrees in education (M.Ed, University of Toronto), art history (MA, York University) and art education (Ph.D), Concordia University. Her research focuses on integrating art education with environmental education to develop learners’ environmental literacy in school and community settings. Her work as an educator and artist extends beyond the classroom to include school gardens, outdoor education centres, parks and galleries.

Yoga in the Classroom

(Original Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2013)

Presenter: Lisa Flynn

A calm and present state of mind is a prerequisite for children to be psychologically and physiologically ready for learning. In this webinar, learn how yoga and mindfulness is increasingly proving to be a great way to achieve this state of mind, and work towards the goals of stress reduction, self-regulation, and better ability to focus and sustain attention necessary for learning. Specific activities will be shared along with additional tools and resources for learning more.

Lisa Flynn, E-RYT, RCYT, is the Founder and Director of ChildLight Yoga and Yoga 4 Classrooms, organizations providing evidence-based yoga education to children in schools and communities and to professionals whose work supports the well-being of children. Her books include Yoga 4 Classrooms Card Deck and Yoga for Children: 200+ Yoga Poses, Breathing Exercises and Meditations for Healthier, Happier, More Resilient Children. She can be reached at lisa@childlightyoga.com.

Poppleton

The Importance of Place in Climate Change Education

(Original Date: Thursday, April 25, 2013)

Presenter: Kristen Iverson Poppleton

Place is an important tool when teaching climate change. Connecting climate change and place makes the issue immediately relevant and personal. It includes not only educating students about the impacts in their place, but also taking them outside to observe and document the changes and develop solutions in their communities. Kristen will speak broadly on place-based education and climate change. She will provide specific examples of how the Will Steger Foundation connects Minnesota educators and their students with Minnesota as their place, makes them aware of how climate change is impacting them, and helps them develop ways they can implement solutions in their schools and communities.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators, and school administrators.

Kristen Iverson Poppleton is the Director of Education for the Will Steger Foundation in Minneapolis, MN. Building on Will Steger’s experience as a polar explorer, her goal is to support educators, students and the public with science-based interdisciplinary educational resources on climate change, its implications and solutions to achieve climate literacy. She regularly blogs on all things climate change education in the blog Climate Lessons.

Ruth headshot

21st Century Tools for Environmental Learning in the Community

Original Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2013)

Presenters: Ruth Kermish-Allen, Rachel Thompson & Sarah Kozicki

In this webinar, Ruth and Rachel introduce the Island Institute, and their strategies for integrating and applying technology with community-based environmental education programs. They discuss lessons they’ve learned and explore how to apply these strategies in a formal classroom setting. They also discuss how to engage students in hands-on environmental learning through the application of 21st century skills and knowledge.

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Sarah provides background on why it is important to green STEM and on taking technology outdoors. She also introduces participants to NEEF and EE Week.

Ruth Kermish-Allen is the Education Director and Rachel Thompson is the Education Programs Associate at the Island Institute in Rockland, Maine.

Sarah Kozicki is an Education Program Coordinator for the National Environmental Education Foundation in Washington, DC.

Transforming Education Towards a More Sustainable Future

(Original Date: Thursday, March 28, 2013)

Presenters: Sarah Kadden and Jen Cirillo

Education for Sustainability (EFS) is an approach to learning rooted in holistic thinking, integration, and community engagement. Born from the environmental education movement, EFS takes a more expansive perspective on education, and builds the environment and social equity into its framework, offering support to students in understanding that the world is interconnected, knowledge of human and natural communities and the belief that individuals have the ability to make a difference. Join EFS leaders Jen Cirillo and Sarah Kadden of Shelburne Farms’ Sustainable Schools Project for an interactive, in-dept conversation on how the Big Ideas and Promising Practices of EFS can support your work with students, whether you are working in formal or non-formal learning environments.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators, and administrators.

Sarah Kadden is Education for Sustainability Partnerships Coordinator at Shelburne Farms in South Burlington Vermont where she works with schools and community partners to link education, inquiry, and action to create more just and sustainable communities. Jen Cirillo is the Director of Professional Development at Shelburne Farms, the Co-Chair of the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development (K-12 and Teacher Education Sector) and of VT Statewide Environmental Education Programs. She works with educators to use sustainability as a theme for curriculum, campus practices, and school transformation and regeneration.

Multi-Culturalism & Environmental Learning

(Original Date: Thursday, February 28, 2013)

Presenter: David Zandvilet

What are the potential relationships between environmental learning and multi-cultural education? What are the similarities and differences between these two areas of practice and inquiry? Through dialogue and case studies drawn from field schools around the world, David will lead participants through a process to consider how multicultural issues can inform our practices in environmental education.

Suitability: All formal youth educators, and school administrators.

David Zandvliet is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, the founding Director for the Institute for Environmental Learning and the Chair of the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication (www.eecom.org). An experienced researcher, he has published articles in international journals and presented conference papers in over 15 countries. He has considerable experience in teacher development and has conducted studies in school in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.

Community Treasure Hunts

(Original Date: Monday, February 18, 2013)

Presenter: Steven Glazer

Quests are community treasure hunts that teach students how to see and value local treasures. The quest might focus on natural features (a watershed), cultural sites (an early cemetery), or perhaps the setting of a specific story (the beginnings of an industry). They can be designed and adapted to explore a wide variety of environments; and quest-making integrates language arts, social studies, science, math and technology in a multi-sensory, experiential way. Quests incorporate core subjects into a wonderful experiential learning opportunity that students will remember throughout their lives.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators.

Steven Glazer helps schools, parks and communities connect people with the places they live. An internationally respected leader in the growing field of place-based education, he is the author of The Heart of Learning (Tarcher/Putnam, 1999), the editor of Valley Quest: 89 Treasure Hunts and Valley Quest II: 75 More Treasure Hunts, and co-edited Best of Valley Quest: Treasure Hunts to Special Places. He is the co-author (with Delia Clark) of Questing: A Guide to Creating Community Treasure Hunts (University Press of New England, 2004). Steve directed the award-winning Valley Quest program for ten years; and consults internationally with groups interested in developing Questing and other place-based education programs. He serves on the faculties of Antioch New England Graduate School and the Center for Whole Communities. For more information visit www.poeticsofplace.com.

Using Insects to Motivate Students

(Original Date: Thursday, February 7, 2013)

Presenter: John Guyton

Children like bugs, so it is unfortunate and inaccurate when they learn that insects are harmful. In this webinar, John will describe the techniques and materials used in a 4 day Bug Camp to build and sustain student interest in entomology or science. He will briefly discuss collecting, pinning, classifying and showing off collections. Techniques covered will include micro-lessons or entomological moments, managing the hidden curriculum or using free time for instructional goals and peer teaching. Finally, he will cover the requisite skills, knowledge base and teaching resources. Most of the campers at John’s Bug Camp become a source of authority on insects in their families, schools and communities.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators.

John Guyton is a science educator turned entomologist and the director of the world’s oldest bug camp. Dr. Guyton has led over a hundred workshops on different topics and made over 130 presentations at international, national and local conferences. He routinely does workshops on Arthropods, Meteorology, Elusive Plant Secrets and Fun with Rocks and Minerals, and has received teaching awards from Project Learning Tree and the American Horticulture Society. He consults on nature trail design and has produced a wealth of curriculum materials.

Making Cities Good for Children

(Original Date: Monday, December 3, 2012)

Presenter: Mary Rivkin

Although contemporary research confirms that being outdoors is important for children, outdoor play in cities is increasingly problematic. How can we create and keep cities “child-friendly”? What policies and what common understandings are needed? How should teachers and parents advocate for such cities?

Suitability: Early childhood and elementary youth educators and school administrators

Mary Rivkin is an Associate Professor in the Early Childhood Education program at the University of Maryland – Baltimore County, where she teaches courses in child development and curriculum, math, and science processes, and designing outdoor play spaces. Research interests include outdoor play, environmental education, and community organization. Books include Science Experiences for the Early Childhood Years: An Affective Integrated Approach (10th ed. 2012) (with Jean Harlan), and The Great Outdoors: Restoring Children’s Right to Play Outside. She is active in trying to save a nature trail in her neighbourhood.

Teaching STEM with Wind and Solar Energy

(Original Date: Wednesday, November 14, 2012)

Presenter: Joe Chavez

Teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) can be intimidating if you do not have the expertise or curriculum to do so. Kenton County Schools have embraced STEM in the realm of renewable energy. NEED (National Energy Education) provides a background and curriculum that allows students to explore STEM concepts while thinking about energy and the environment, both of which are part of the normal science curriculum. Incorporating the kits into the classroom can be a bit challenging without the proper training and motivation.
This presentation will demonstrate why Kenton County uses renewable energy as a backdrop for STEM and how the district has implemented a plan that will expose all students to engineering design, inquiry, and engaging science.

Joe Chavez is the STEM Consultant for Kenton County School District. He is a former life science high school teacher and lab rat. His focus is to enhance the secondary science program by increasing engagement and getting more students involved in “doing” science. He is currently pursuing his Ed.D. in science education.

Food Systems and Sustainability

(Original Date: Tuesday, November 13, 2012)

Presenter: Pamela Koch

We all make food choices every day. Getting students excited about making choices that support a sustainable food system combined with teaching them practical stills for earth-friendly eating is a great way to expand your green curriculum. Using the “Growing Food” and “Farm to Table & Beyond” modules of the Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE) curriculum series as a foundation, this session will investigate how to break down our food system in ways where students will analyze, think deeply and be critical; explore how to compare and contrast the environmental impact of various food system choices; and demonstrate how to lead students through the process of planning, implementing and tracking dietary change that leads to more sustainable food choices.

Suitability: Upper elementary through high school youth educators, and school administrators.

Pamela Koch is the Executive Director of the Center for Food and Environment at Teachers College Columbia University and the lead author of the Linking Food & the Environment curriculum series. Passionate about educating children and adults to make food choices that support their own health and the health of our fragile planet, she is a regular speaker at National Science Teachers’ Association conferences and very active in the food education movement in New York City.

dave wilton

Sustainability as a Context for Literacy Skills and Social Studies Content

(Original Date: Thursday, November 8, 2012)

Presenter: Dave Wilton

Learn how educators are preparing students for the literacy demands of the 21st century and making language learning purposeful while teaching social studies content and language arts skills. We’ll share content-oriented learning and strategies you can use to promote student engagement and academic achievement, while inspiring students to contribute to community sustainability.

Suitability: All formal youth educators, and school administrators

Dave Wilton is the Assistant Outreach Director for Facing the Future, in Seattle, Washington. Dave develops and conducts educator workshops & webinars, oversees the organization’s Peer Educator network, and supports its educator, community, and service learning outreach programs. He has presented over 100 workshops at conferences, schools, universities, zoos, and community events to students, pre-service and in-service teachers, and non-formal and community educators. Before joining Facing the Future, Dave worked as a classroom teacher, a county land-use planner, and bike mechanic and volunteered as a small claims court mediator.

lisa lipsett

Creative Nature Connection: A Nature-based Art Practice

(Original Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2012)

Presenter: Lisa Lipsett

In nature education programming, one sometimes finds a scientific bias that leaves out our most powerful human capacities. If we hope to transform our relationship to nature, we need to open our senses, access our feelings and develop our intuition in addition to carefully observing and asking questions. Ongoing engagement is a practice, a life habit, something we come back to again and again over long periods of time. To meet the need for simple yet powerful educational solutions I have developed Creative Nature Connection- a nature-based art practice that harnesses the power of drawing and painting to move us toward full engagement with the living world. This practice draws us in to nature’s beauty in fresh ways that create lasting impressions. This webinar will begin with a brief introduction to the concepts underlying nature based art practices, a description of Creative Nature Connection and include a short experiential activity together (have blank paper and pen ready!). An article with resources and references will be available for download. By way of background, visitwww.creativenatureconnection.com to read my article “Transformation is in Our Hands” fromGreen Teacher’s Winter 2011 edition.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators, especially those working with kids of elementary and middle school age.

Lisa Lipsett is an artist, educator, author and founder of the Creative by Nature Center- a workshop space and art showcase dedicated to strengthening human-nature relationships through the arts. Her book Beauty Muse: Painting in Communion with Nature invites readers to awaken to nature through their own creativity. A former Toronto elementary school environmental educator, Dr. Lipsett now lives on Salt Spring Island, BC. For more information and videos of Lisa’s work, visit www.creativenatureconnection.com.

Design and Implement Effective EE Programs bora simmons

(Original Date – September 27, 2012)

Presenter: Bora Simmons

Are you looking for resources that will help you design and implement effective environmental education programs? Join us on for a webinar introduction to NAAEE’s National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education (See www.naaee.net for more details.) Learn about the Guidelines for Excellence, how they were developed, how they are being used, and how you can access them for free.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators and school administrators

Bora Simmons is the founding director of the National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education. The Project was initiated in 1993 by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) to help educators develop and deliver effective environmental education programs. After twenty years as a professor of environmental education at Northern Illinois University, Bora retired in 2007 and moved the Project to the Institute for a Sustainable Environment at the University of Oregon. Bora has been actively involved in environmental education research, evaluation, and professional development for over thirty years. She served on the NAAEE board of directors and as its president. She currently serves on numerous steering committees and boards of directors, including the National Project Learning Tree Education Operating Committee and Environmental Education and Conservation Global.

Changing Energy Behaviors in Schools and Communities”

(Original date – September 26, 2012)

Presenter: Karen Reagor

Energy costs are an increasing burden on schools. By implementing energy smart behaviors, districts can manage their energy consumption and redirect the savings to other needs. The Blueprint for School Energy Teams, developed by the Kentucky NEED Project, provides a seven-step approach aligned to the ENERGY STAR® Guidelines for Energy Management. It is written to help schools and/or districts develop and implement their own energy management plan.
Getting the entire school to embrace an energy saving plan requires a shift in culture. One of the most effective methods of achieving this change is through student action. This presentation will walk attendees through the seven-step process of implementing a school energy policy and forming student energy teams.

Co-sponsored by:

Karen Reagor currently serves as the Southeast Regional Coordinator for the National Energy Education (NEED) Project in the United States and is the State Director for the Kentucky program. She began her career as a classroom teacher in East Tennessee and has been an active member of the Tennessee EE Association and the Kentucky Association for EE, serving as that organizations first executive director. In 1995 she began to facilitate NEED’s professional development workshops for teachers and leadership development opportunities for students, both in Kentucky and beyond. Karen’s passion is helping students (and teachers) recognize the many connections between energy and the environment. She has been a regular presenter at state and national conferences, including NSTA and NAAEE.

Mapping Your Community

(Original date: September 25, 2012)

Presenter: Bob Coulter

We live in an increasingly global community, but there are powerful learning opportunities right in your own neighborhood. In this webinar see how your core learning goals can be met through focused, community-based investigations. Geography, math, science, and history all come to life as your students investigate and take action in the place they know best. Get inspired by projects done with real kids, and learn about tools ranging from “easy to use…I can do this tomorrow…” to more advanced tools that support in-depth projects. Learn how 5th graders added new dimensions to their water quality project by mapping land use and 4th graders introduce geocachers to their local parks and promote native plants. What can your students do?

Suitability: All formal youth educators, and school administrators

Bob Coulter is director of the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, managed by the Missouri Botanical Garden. As part of that work he has gained more than a decade of experience using a variety of geospatial tools including GIS, GPS, and handheld augmented reality games that engage teachers and kids with their local community. In an earlier life he was an award-winning elementary grade math and science teacher.

Schoolyards Re-Imagined: School Ground Innovation in the San Francisco Bay Area and Beyond sharon danks

(original date – March 27, 2012)

Presenter: Sharon Danks

Schools around the world are using their grounds to enhance hands-on teaching and learning, enrich outdoor play, and improve the ecology of their neighborhoods. Sharon Danks will present a vibrant slideshow that takes us on a journey to explore the growing movement toward “green” school grounds. Along the way, we will “visit” some of the world’s most innovative green schoolyards including schools with: edible gardens with fruit trees, vegetables, chickens, honeybees, and outdoor cooking facilities; wildlife habitats with ponds or forest ecosystems; schoolyard watershed models, rainwater catchment systems, and waste-water treatment wetlands; renewable energy systems that power landscape features or the whole school; waste-as-a-resource projects that give new life to old materials in beautiful ways; curriculum connections for a wide range of disciplines from science and math to art and social studies; and creative play opportunities that diversify school ground recreational options and encourage children to explore the natural world while they run, hop, skip, jump, balance, slide, and twirl. The talk will also ground these examples in a practical framework that schools can use to make their schoolyards more comfortable, enjoyable, and sustainable, and describe a participatory design process to engage school communities as stewards of their own public spaces.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators, school administrators, parents, environmentalists, and design professionals

Sharon Danks is an environmental planner and a founding principal of Bay Tree Design in Berkeley, California. Over the last twelve years, her professional work and passion have focused on transforming school grounds into vibrant public spaces that reflect and enhance local ecology and nurture children as they learn and play. An accomplished schoolyard researcher and an advocate of ecological design, Sharon has traveled the world to study hundreds of school grounds. She applies this international experience to her work, and celebrates it in her recent book, Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, published by New Village Press in November 2010. Danks has facilitated green schoolyard master-planning processes for more than two dozen green schoolyards in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sharon holds a MLA-MCP from UC Berkeley and a BA from Princeton University. She is the mother of two expert playground testers.

david selby and fumiyo kagawa

Deep Climate Change Education: Learning and Teaching for Personal and Social Transformation

(Original date – March 8, 2012)

Presenters: David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa

Building on their Fall 2011 article in Green Teacher, Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby will critique mainstream manifestations of climate change education as a shallow and insufficient response to the global and human condition. They will offer an elaboration of a ‘deep climate change education’ that examines values issues, explores the dynamics of climate change avoidance and denial, investigates the complicity of economic growth in fomenting climate change while cultivating intimacy with nature, an ethic of denizenship, and commitment to global climate justice. The links between climate change education, sustainability education and disaster risk reduction education will be explored, the whole being exemplified through practical activities.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators

David Selby is Founding Director and Fumiyo Kagawa is Research Director of Sustainability Frontiers, a new not-for-profit international organization with offices in Canada and the UK. (See www.sustainabilityfrontiers.org.) They are editors of Education and Climate Change: Living and Learning in Interesting Times, published in 2010 by Routledge. They have recently written the UNESCO Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development teacher education program and support materials for Africa, Asia, Europe and North America and the Small Island Nations. They will be holding two summer institutes on Deep Climate Change Education in the seaside town of Sidmouth, Devon, England, July/August 2012.

clifford knapp

Exploring Place-based Education – What, Why, and How

(Original date – February 9, 2012)

Presenter: Clifford E. Knapp

You have no doubt heard about place-based education and the importance of teaching in and about your local surroundings. This webinar will explore some big ideas about this emerging field and attempt to shed more light on the topic. For the first 25 minutes, Dr. Knapp will present some important concepts and raise some questions to ponder. These will include some definitions, guiding principles, and characteristics of place-based education. Other topics will include: Living Well in Place, Place Attachment, Displacement, Ecoliteracy, Bioregionalism, Pedagogy of Place, Identity, Powerful Places, and Reading the Landscape. These big ideas will be referenced so that webinar participants can follow up with additional reading. The last 35 minutes of the program will consist of a question and answer session that will likely include mention of additional resources for teaching more about your place. Come prepared to dig deeper into your locale.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators (and others who may be interested)

Clifford Knapp is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Northern Illinois University. Since his retirement, he has stayed active in the field of outdoor teaching and learning by reading, writing, traveling, and teaching in the United States and abroad. He was a featured speaker at the first Place-based Education Seminar at Raffles Institution in Singapore in 2009, and delivered the Hahn address at the 37th annual International Association for Experiential Education in Montreal. He contributed the lead chapter to Gruenewald and Smith’s 2008 book, Place-Based Education in the Global Age. In 2003 he co-presented a paper, on place-based pedagogy at Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow, Scotland. He currently is associated with the Children and Nature Network and the Chana School Museum in Oregon, Illinois. Dr. Knapp has developed and leads a number of nature workshops: see wonderearth.org for details.

richard kool

Thinking About Change: What Do We Know, What Can We Do?

(Original date – February 1, 2012)

Presenter: Richard Kool

Change, be it emotional, spiritual, cognitive and/or behavioural, is something that educators are concerned about and work towards. But what do we know about the various ways in which change comes about? Why is change in some contexts so hard, and why in other contexts does it seem to be so easy? Does knowledge lead to change, or does change lead to knowledge? This webinar will attempt to open up some thinking about the nature of change and its relationship to the work we do as environmental educators and communicators.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators

Richard Kool has an MSc in Zoology from the University of British Columbia and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Brigham Young University. He has been a secondary school science teacher on Vancouver Island, a biology and ecology instructor at a Douglas College in New Westminster BC, and a post-secondary instructor at both the University of Victoria and now as an Associate Professor at Royal Roads University. He has also worked outside the formal education system, managing the public programs department at the Royal BC Museum and developing environmental education and park interpretation programs for the British Columbia Government.

judy kane

Forest Kindergartens

(Original date – January 31, 2012)

Presenter: Judy Kane

Judy Kane will briefly discuss how young children learn, the importance of open-ended fantasy play in childhood development, and how play in nature enhances the benefits of play. Drawing on the “Walderkindergarten” article she co-wrote with her daughter Amanda for Green Teacher’s Fall 2011 issue, she will describe how early childhood educators in Germany and North America are using nature kindergartens to promote learning, and how educators can adapt these programs to their schools.

Suitability: Formal and non-formal educators of children aged 2-6

Judy Kane is a retired teacher, assistant head of school and curriculum director in Alexandria, Virginia, Judy Kane is interested in non-traditional approaches to learning, and in ways to communicate why and how children need to play, to learn conflict management skills, and to practice metacognition.

Strategies for Successfully Engaging Culturally Diverse Audiences

(Original date – January 30, 2012)

Presenter: Gus Medina

Are you finding it difficult to engage increasingly diverse audiences in your community? Have you tried to attract visitors from diverse cultural backgrounds to your environmental education programs and met with limited success? This webinar will examine how similar challenges led three organizations to seek more effective strategies for working with culturally diverse audiences. Gus Medina will share the experiences of these organizations and strategies that can help program managers and educators make their programs more inclusive. There will be about 25 minutes for participants to ask questions and share strategies based on their experience.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators

Gus Medina manages EECapacity, a national project intended to help anyone who wants to increase their effectiveness as an environmental educator. The project is addressing the question, What does environmental education look like in a society that is increasingly urban and culturally diverse? Cornell University is the managing partner and U.S. EPA funds the EECapacity Project. Between 1995 and 2010 Dr. Medina served as Project Manager for the Environmental Education and Training Partnership (EETAP), a consortium of organizations that increased the capacity of education professionals to deliver high quality environmental education. He was also responsible for several EETAP activities that produced What’s Fair Got To Do With It: Diversity Cases from Environmental Educators, a day-long workshop that examined the intersection of environmental education and cultural diversity, and an online course on how make environmental education more relevant for culturally diverse audiences. Prior to EETAP, Dr. Medina served as a Senior Program Officer with World Wildlife Fund-US. Dr. Medina holds PhD in Natural Resources Management from the University of Michigan with a specialization in environmental education.

diane pruneau

Promoting Competencies for Sustainability

(Original date – January 26, 2012)

Presenter: Diane Pruneau

In a world where the environment is under increasing strain, what are the competencies that allow citizens to positively transform their communities? Futures thinking? Risk prediction? Strategic planning? Dr. Pruneau’s research team examines the competencies that allow citizens to improve the sustainability of their communities. They have observed citizens who, in their efforts to construct sustainable neighbourhoods, have demonstrated the complementary competencies of problem solving, decision-making, openness to new situations, planning, linking, futures and retrospective thinking, and risk prediction. During this presentation, Dr. Pruneau will offer a synthesis of her team’s research on sustainability competencies, and on the educational strategies that help students reason in terms of viability, sustainability and vitality.

Suitability: Educators of all ages

Diane Pruneau is a professor at the Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, who specializes in environmental and science education. She is the Director of the Littoral et vie Research Group (www8.umoncton.ca/littoral-vie), whose objective is to help adults and young people become more aware of the state of their environment and to successfully take action. Dr. Pruneau’s research programs have dealt with the understanding of the link people have with their environment, climate change education, healthy cities education, the process of taking on environmental actions and the development of sustainability competencies such as risk prediction, futures thinking, decision making and liveable planning. She has conducted research projects in Morocco, Romania and Brazil.

mark baldwin

Using Nature Journals to Teach Students How to Think, Communicate and Act like Scientists

(Original date – January 25, 2012)

Presenter: Mark Baldwin

Successful science teaching and learning depends on knowing how to make accurate observations, ask the kind of questions that lead to productive scientific inquiry, and plainly communicate what has been learned. One of the best methods for cultivating these skills is to keep a nature journal. In this webinar we will introduce the necessary tools and a basic set of exercises to make nature journaling a part of how you teach science, and discuss practical applications in the classroom and in the field.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators

Mark Baldwin serves as Director of Education at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, New York where for the past 20 years he has worked with teachers to infuse their curriculum with the outdoors and the natural world. Mark has a special interest in keeping nature journals to observe and record natural events and in teaching the discipline to others. Mark also has a longtime interest in place-based education, especially creating maps and using them as tools for evoking a sense of place in both children and adults.

elin kelsey

Sustainable Happiness, Hope & Resiliency

(Original date – January 24, 2012)

Presenters: Catherine O’Brien and Elin Kelsey

Join Catherine O’Brien and Elin Kelsey for an inspiring conversation about sustainable happiness, hope and resiliency. In the Summer 2011 issue of Green Teacher, Catherine and Elin introduced the concepts of sustainable happiness, hope and resiliency and why it’s so important to move beyond “gloom and doom.” In this webinar, they invite you to join them in a lively conversation about how these ideas are catching hold and causing ripples of optimism across the disciplines of environmental and sustainability education, health and well-being and conservation biology, and around the world. After short presentations, they will share some of the ways they are seeing this work moving out in the world so that participants can start to think of implications for their personal and professional life.

catherine o'brien

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators

Catherine O’Brien, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Education at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Elin Kelsey, PhD, lives in Pacific Grove, California where she works as a consultant with Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other institutions committed to sustainability and public engagement. Her newest children’s book, Not Your Typical Book About the Environment (Owl Kids 2010), aims to allay children’s fears about environmental doom by showing them what a remarkable time they live in. Learn more at www.elinkelseyandcompany.com.

brad daniel

Outdoor Teaching Mistakes

(Original date – December 7, 2011)

Presenter: Dr. Brad Daniel

This webinar will present part one of what is usually a two-part series illustrating a dialectical approach for training outdoor teachers. It should be noted that this training was designed for novice teachers. While experienced teachers will be familiar with many of these mistakes and suggestions, it can still be valuable to review them. I usually do this training in two 2-hour blocks. Part one includes a skit/video illustrating a variety of common mistakes made by outdoor teachers along with solutions to each mistake. Part two (not included in this webinar) continues this discussion by illustrating a lesson taught in the outdoors by an instructor that tries to eliminate these mistakes.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators

Brad Daniel is Professor of Outdoor Education and Environmental Studies at Montreat College where he currently serves as Co-chair of the Outdoor Education Department. Brad is a North Carolina state certified environmental educator and coauthored one of the two required course modules for the North Carolina Environmental Education certification program. He has been the recipient of several awards for teaching excellence and was recently honored as “Professor of the Decade 2001-2010” at Montreat College. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, backpacking, and photography.

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Greening Education with Courage and Compassion

(Original date – May 30, 2011)

Presenter: Julie Johnston

Most educators don’t go into teaching because they want to become heroes, but it’s going to take courage and compassion, along with a whole lot of creativity and critical thinking, to green the heart of our education system. We are already beyond peak oil (IEA, 2010) and into dangerous greenhouse gas levels. The global climate change emergency is already impacting vulnerable regions and populations around the world, with 300,000 or more people every year losing their lives and many more losing their livelihoods, homes, food security and water sources. What should our response be? Is simply tweaking a 20th century curriculum enough, in light of 21st century realities?

This webinar will suggest some transformative and provocative “big idea” principles for greening the heart of education, and then outline what teachers need to know and need to do in order to help their students create the best possible future in a carbon-constrained and climate-changed world.

Age appropriateness: K-12 (for formal educators)

Julie Johnston is a teacher and sustainability education consultant with GreenHeart Education. Since receiving her BEd in outdoor & experiential education at Queen’s, she has taught in Saskatchewan, Prince George and the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, has worked with student teachers at four universities, and has given presentations on environmental education in Canada, the Philippines, India and Thailand. After two recent years as the Coordinator of Environment and Sustainability Programs at Toronto’s Upper Canada College, Julie is back living on Pender Island near Victoria, where she works with homeschooling families and runs GreenHearted.org. GreenHeart’s mission is to help educators around the world to green their classrooms, curricula, school communities — and the heart of their teaching. In her spare time, Julie works with her husband, a retired family physician, to educate about the dangers of the climate change emergency (see www.climate-change-emergency-medical-response.org).

Green Craft-Making

(Original date – May 25, 2011)

Presenter: Zabe MacEachren

The why and how of focusing one’s eco-art activities on using natural materials easily found intheoutdoors.

Age appropriateness: K-12

Zabe MacEachren is the coordinator of the Outdoor and Experiential Education program in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. A former president of the Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario, Zabe has long been an innovator in outdoor learning experiences. In “Swimming with Animals”, her most recent contribution to Green Teacher magazine (GT#81, Winter 2007), she described how one could use simple swimming lessons to foster connections to other life forms and an appreciation of what they have to offer us.

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Do a Little or Do a Lot: Sustainability Education

(Original date – May 19, 2011)

Presenter: Dave Wilton

Sustainability provides a real-world framework for connecting community issues to global issues and seeing them as opportunities for positive change rather than as insurmountable problems. Using the theme of Do A Little or Do A Lot, participants will see examples of how to integrate education for sustainability into their classrooms, schools, or districts. The intent is not to add more content to the curriculum, but to illuminate interconnections between existing classroom or school themes and capitalize upon the opportunities for critical thinking that arise from examining these interconnections.

After attending this webinar, participants will leave with an understanding of what education for sustainability is and how they can incorporate sustainability into their teaching practices. You/they will learn about free curriculum resources that examine interconnections between economy, environment, and society.

Age Appropriateness: K-12

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Water Stewardship – From Source to Sea

(Original date – May 16, 2011)

Presenter: Cate McEwen

This presentation will identify elements of water literacy through a stewardship study with grades 4/5 school students. While drawing from a specific school project, it will identify elements that can be transferred to other situations – and higher grade levels. The project involved field learning immersed in local community, making personal connections that lead to community activism. Topics to be discussed include: watershed study; creek habitat investigations and rehabilitation; water monitoring (includes constructivism and critical thinking); invertebrate life in the creek; creekside poetry and journaling; structured unstructured play; local water issues; global water issues; and evolving from awareness to action. Cate will use a 3-D model to demonstrate how a watershed works, describe how to intervene with a local government and create interpretive signs for public creekside walks.

Age appropriateness: Grades 1-8

Catherine (Cate) McEwen has a background in biological field science, and has been involved in environmental education for 25 years. During this time, she has been a facilitator within the WildBC network of educators, a GLOBE trainer (see www.globecanada.ca & www.globe.gov), and a director with Gulf Islands Centre for Ecological Learning. Her focus is to engage learners in the interconnectedness of life, developing an informed and compassionate relationship with all life. She includes herself as one of these learners. In the past 4 years, she has focused on water education projects that promote river and water stewardship, both locally and in Mongolia. Most recently she has worked directly with teachers in a local school on an award-winning watershed project. (See www.bcgreengames.ca). When not facilitating learning, she can be found enjoying music, teaching yoga, or on the water near her Salt Spring Island home in British Columbia.

FROG SONGS: Poetry and Essays, Field Ecology and Entomology

(Original date – May 10, 2011)

Presenter: Brian Fox Ellis

A poet’s eye and gift for language is very similar to the detailed observation and ability to communicate complex ideas required of scientists. Learn to use haiku to teach entomology. Learn to use poetry to help students write clearer more exciting essays. This simple set of lesson plans can be used by classroom teachers or informal educators to get students outdoors on a warm spring day to explore the relationships between insects and biodiversity. Come to celebrate the voices of nature and find your voice as a poet.

Age appropriateness: K-12 (for formal and non-formal educators)

Since 1980, Brian “Fox” Ellis, storyteller, author and educator, has been touring the world collecting and telling stories. He has been a keynote speaker and/or featured workshop presenter at hundreds of conferences ranging from The International Wetlands Conservation Conference to the National Association of Gifted Educators Conference. His presentations are always custom tailored with a mix of pedagogy and practice, humor and inspiration. He has also published more than a dozen books, written 20 musical theatre productions and is a frequent contributor to a wide range of magazines including Green Teacher. Fox will engage you as a learner and give you practical ideas you can use the next day!

Using the Environment as a Context for Learning in Standards-Based Education Systems

(Original date – May 2, 2011)

Presenter: Gerry Lieberman

The webinar will discuss the instructional components of the Environment as an Integrating Context (EIC) Model™ that was first developed by the State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER) in 1998. Describing how these practices can help schools meet the academic needs of their students, it will summarize some of the evidence about the educational efficacy of the EIC Model™. Finally, it will provide an overview of SEER’s recent work in helping schools implement the EIC Model™ and briefly discuss how environmental educators can support schools restructure their programs in order to implement an environment-based education program.

Age appropriateness: K-12

Gerald Lieberman is an internationally-recognized authority on school improvement using natural and community surroundings as interdisciplinary contexts for education. He led the development of the EIC Model™, and more recently, the development of California’s EEI Curriculum, which is now being disseminated to K-12 classrooms throughout the state. In 1995 Dr. Lieberman founded and has since directed the State Education and Environment Roundtable, a cooperative endeavor of departments of education in 16 U.S. states. Dr. Lieberman is the principal author of Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning, a ground-breaking, national study that recently received an award from the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation for “bringing environmental learning into the mainstream of American K-12 education.” He has designed and coordinated curriculum development programs in the United States, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia and Argentina. He lives in San Diego, California.

School Grounds for Healthy Play and Learning – Research and Case Studies of Good Design and Teaching Excellence on School Grounds”

(Original date – April 28, 2011)

Presenter: Cam Collyer

How might school grounds now have a greater importance in a child’s development than 20 years ago? How far has the school ground movement in North America come in the past 20 years? Cam will share some excellent examples of school ground design from North America and Europe and contrast them. He’ll also share some approaches to teaching on the school ground that are working well and describe the momentum that, in some areas has school districts working in support of schools improving their grounds.

Age appropriateness: K-12

Cam Collyer is Program Director at Evergreen, where he has played a key role in helping Canadian schools green their grounds in his work since 1997. Overseeing Evergreen’s award winning Learning Grounds Program from the organization’s Toronto offices, Cam established a national network of school ground design professionals; guided seminal research into the benefits of school ground greening; supervised the creation of 17 publications that include how-to manuals and videos, case studies, lesson plans, plus an elaborate and unique suite of web-based content; developed a funding program that’s distributed more than a million dollars in grants to schools; and played a pioneering role in building partnerships with school boards to provide ongoing institutional support for school ground greening. An educator by training, he has a passion for play and learning in nearby natural environments.

Innovative Curriculum Design for Sustainability

(Original date – April 12, 2011)

Presenter: Jaimie Cloud

Useful to both Pre K-12 Educators and non-formal educators of adults and young people, the main idea of the first part is that thinking drives behavior and behavior causes results. Identifying and naming the changes in thinking required to make the shift toward sustainability is critical to the design of transformative education for sustainability (EfS) experiences. Jaimie will present the “big ideas” that frame EfS, and will then walk participants through the EfS curriculum design and innovation process.

Age appropriateness: K-12 (for formal and non-formal educators)

Jaimie P. Cloud is the founder and president of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education in New York City. The Cloud Institute monitors the evolving thinking and skills of the most important champions of sustainability. It then transforms this new thinking and skills into educational materials and a pedagogical system that inspire young people to think about the world, their relationship to it, and their capacity to influence it in an entirely new way.

Jaimie founded the Sustainability Education Center in 1995 which was renamed The Cloud Institute in 2004. She is one of the pioneers of Education for Sustainability (EfS) in the U.S. She writes and publishes extensively, and consults, coaches and teaches in schools and school districts around the country and beyond. She has developed exemplary curriculum units and full courses of study, and has produced a set of EfS Standards and Performance Indicators that schools are using to create their own innovative curricula to educate for sustainability. Cloud also serves on a great deal of boards and advisory groups: She is Chair of Communities for Learning, Inc., a member of the Advisory Committee of The Buckminster Fuller Institute, and she serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Education for Sustainable Development. You may contact her at Jaimie@cloudinstitute.org

Shades of Green: Developing Artistic Approaches to Environmental Education

(Original date – April 7, 2011)

Presenter: Hilary Inwood

This webinar explores the emerging field of eco-art education, an integration of art education and environmental education, as a means of helping to develop environmental literacy in students and teachers. Hilary will introduce artwork and artists focusing on environmental issues in Canada and beyond, as well as some of the eco-art work that has been created in Toronto schools in recent years. Participants will be invited to share their own ideas and projects for creative approaches to EE.

Age appropriateness: K-12

Plugged In; But Tuned Out: The Need to Reconnect with Nature gtt

(Original date – March 30, 2011)

Presenter: Herb Broda

In this age of alluring techno-gadgetry we need to be very cautious about maintaining a balance between indoor and outdoor activity. At a time whenchildren’s natural curiosity about the outdoors is eclipsed by the demands ofbusy schedules and the ever-present glow of video screens, schools and outdoor centers may be the only places where kids are encouraged tointeract with nature. Kids need to go outside for both learning and play—indeed there is a need for old-fashioned unstructured play in nature – the kind of invented play that “older” folks fondly recall.

Age appropriateness: K-12; this webinar is also applicable to all parents

Herb Broda is a professor of education at Ashland University in Ohio. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. His areas of concentration are middle school education, outdoor/experiential education, environmental education, curriculum development, and instructional design. Herb is a past-president of the Environmental Education Council of Ohio, the state-wide professional organization for persons working in the areas of outdoor/environmental education. He is the author of Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool (2007) and Moving the Classroom Outdoors: Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning in Action (May, 2011) both published by Stenhouse, Portland, Maine.

Energy Education: How & Why?

(Original date – February 24, 2011)

Presenter: Pat Higby

At the outset, Pat will explain why energy education is especially important at this moment in history. Then she will share some simple experiments that you can use to convince others of its importance, before directing us to some of the best energy education resources for youth educators. Note: Pat strongly encourages all participants to have on hand – at the beginning of the webinar – 2 styrofoam coffee cups, 2 ziplock bags large enough to place a full cup inside, and at least a cup each of very hot and lukewarm water.

Age appropriateness: grades 2-12

Pat Higby began her career as a science/math/physics teacher then discovered that non-formal education in science museums is more challenging, because your audience can leave if your presentations are boring! She has taught for the physics and science education departments at the University of Northern Iowa, and has been energy educator at the UNI Center for Energy & Environmental Education for ten years. She serves on the Iowa Power Fund Board, an organization responsible for distributing $100 million over a four year period to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy businesses, research, and implementation in Iowa. She currently chairs the Green Schools Committee of the Iowa chapter of the US Green Building Council.

Two-Eyed Seeing: Building Cultural Bridges for Inclusive Science Education

(Original date – February 23, 2011)

Presenter: Annamarie Hatcher

Two-Eyed Seeing, from a Mi’kmaq Elder named Albert Marshall, is an expression that refers to the importance of looking at the world through two sets of eyes: those of Western sciences, and those of Indigenous sciences. In her presentation, Annamarie Hatcher will describe the challenges for marginalized students in the school science classroom, which is dominated by the Western eye. She will provide some ideas for teachers to help them bridge the cultural gap between these two worldviews, through some hands-on activities.

Age appropriateness: grades 5-9

Annamarie Hatcher has been a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Integrative Science & Health at Cape Breton University since 2008. She came to Cape Breton in 2005 as an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department, teaching various MSIT (Mi’kmaq word meaning ‘everything’) and Biology courses both on campus and in the community.She obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in Biology from Dalhousie University and a PhD in Zoology from the University of Western Australia. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles in several disciplines including Biology, Geology and Education and taught in classrooms ranging from pre-primary to post-graduate in Canada, Australia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

How to Create Engaging Environmental Education Programs Using a Narrative, Storyline Approach

(Original date – February 22, 2011)

Presenter: Alan Warner

Stories organize and provide meaning in our lives, yet educators typically teach through outcomes and activities. Young people become more engaged when they come to the learning context with a purpose or role that is meaningful to them, where they become the actors or leaders in a story (e.g., detectives, aliens, adventurers, entrepreneurs, teachers, leaders, etc.). This webinar presents the framework for a storyline/narrative approach to program design, enabling participants to apply the concepts and develop storyline ideas for their learners in their classroom, outdoor or community learning contexts. The result is adventurous, meaningful and engaged learning.

Age appropriateness: Storyline program design really applies across all ages from 5 to 85. In his talk, Alan will use examples from grade 2 to adults. It is a philosophy and approach to designing curriculum, whatever the age.

Alan Warner has been designing, directing, and evaluating environmental education programs for more than 30 years with children and youth in Nova Scotia. He is known for creative and transformative program development and teaching, and received the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication award for excellence in 2007. He is an associate professor at Acadia University in Wolfville Nova Scotia and teaches in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Recreation Management and Community Development. He has written numerous articles and books on creative program development, and has been a frequent contributor to Green Teacher.

Sustainability 101: Teaching the Ecological Footprint

(Original date – February 17, 2011)

Presenter: Susan Santone

Looking for ways to effectively teach sustainability “basics”? This webinar will highlight strategies and activities for teaching fundamental sustainability concepts using the Ecological Footprint as a context. Preview examples of hands-on, engaging activities to teach human-environmental impact, the Commons, interdependence, policies, and other topics essential to effective instruction on sustainability.

Who should attend? Educators interested in getting started with or reviewing essential sustainability concepts.

Susan Santone is the founder and Executive Director of Creative Change Educational Solutions, a nonprofit focused on sustainability education based in southeast Michigan. A former classroom teacher, she specializes in instructional design and training for sustainability, ecological economics, and cultural issues. As head of Creative Change, she has led multiple curriculum reform and teacher education initiatives, working nationally with public schools, universities, and nonprofit organizations. She is also an adjunct instructor in Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University, where she has taught “Schools in a Diverse and Democratic Society” and “Teaching Ecological Economics.” She earned teacher certificates in social studies, music, and TESOL; and has a Master’s degree in Intercultural and International Management from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.

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