53rd Annual NAAEE Conference
Building Bridges
Call for Presentations
November 6–9, 2024 ● Pittsburgh, PA
Proposals Due by April 26, 2024
Pittsburgh, renowned as the city of bridges with an impressive 446 structures spanning its rugged terrain, stands as a testament to the power of connectivity. These bridges, which gracefully cross the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers and other waterways, have set a world record, symbolizing unity across neighborhoods once divided by landscapes of deep valleys, steep hillsides, creeks, and rivers.
Our conference draws inspiration from Pittsburgh's iconic bridges, celebrating their symbolic significance while embracing our theme of "Building Bridges" to address challenges in the environmental education landscape. In a world grappling with complex environmental and social issues, ranging from climate change to injustice, collaboration and understanding are more crucial than ever.
We seek to spotlight environmental educators as natural bridge builders. Focused on bridging gaps across borders, disciplines, and ideas, our event aims to foster mutual understanding and explore how to discover common ground. We recognize the pivotal role environmental educators play in developing solutions by dismantling barriers in communities, working collaboratively across borders, nurturing innovative partnerships, and amplifying program impact.
NAAEE seeks compelling proposals that advance this theme of connectivity, as well as justice, equity, and inclusion in the field and how education and civic engagement can help us address our toughest challenges and create a more just and sustainable future for all.
Conference Strands >
Keywords
Program listings will be searchable by keywords. You can tag your proposal with up to three keywords selected from the word bank on the online proposal form.
Session Formats
All sessions will be presented at our in-person gathering in Pittsburgh; the length and structure vary by format. Select the most appropriate format for your proposal.
Bright Spots
(10 minutes) Bright spots are succinct talks that celebrate specific triumphs and showcase things that work. These 10-minute presentations highlight successful and innovative family programs, school programs, community partnerships, conservation achievements, expanded audiences, research and evaluation findings, civic engagement, and more. Three loosely related sessions are presented back-to-back during one 40-minute time block, followed by a short discussion. A/V equipment is provided.
Hands-On Presentations
(90 minutes) Hands-on sessions provide participants with an opportunity to engage in teaching activities and interactive discussions about a particular topic. A/V equipment is provided.
Poster Presentations
Posters are two-dimensional printed presentations of any size up to 36 x 48 inches. Posters summarize programs, resources, research studies, or other work through text, images, and data. They are most often created using applications such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Canva. Posters are fixed to portable bulletin boards for attendees to review at leisure throughout the conference. We will schedule a one-hour general poster session during which all presenters stand near and share their posters with conference participants. No A/V equipment or electricity is provided, but presenters may use their own laptops or tablets during the poster session.
Roundtable Discussions
(40 minutes) Roundtable discussions emphasize spirited discussion between the presenter(s) and session attendees about a central question. Presenters briefly introduce the baseline idea or issue they wish to explore, and then open the discussion for input and exchange of ideas among participants. Examples and interactive materials are welcome, but this format does not lend itself to formal presentations, and PowerPoints are strongly discouraged. Up to six roundtable discussions are scheduled simultaneously in the same large room; no A/V equipment or electricity is provided but presenters may use their own laptops or tablets at a volume low enough not to disrupt nearby discussions.
Symposia
(90 minutes) Symposia are panel discussions presenting different perspectives on a topic or question related to one of the focus points for each strand. Proposals must include a moderator and a minimum of three panelists representing different organizations, ideas, or experiences. To enhance the richness of discussion, criteria for selecting symposia include the diversity of presenters and viewpoints. A/V equipment is provided.
Traditional Presentations
40 minutes) Traditional presentations focus on a single topic or program, typically including a talk or PowerPoint (or other media) presentation followed by questions and answers or a short discussion. A/V equipment is provided.
Workshops
(3½ hours) Pre-conference workshops are in-depth sessions that actively develop specific professional competencies and have widespread potential for implementation. They will be offered prior to the conference on November 6. Workshops require a separate registration fee, and all workshops are subject to cancellation due to insufficient enrollment. Note that workshop proposals are highly competitive and very few are selected for the conference program. A/V equipment is provided.
Audio-Visual Equipment
Rooms for all presentations except roundtable discussions and poster sessions are equipped with a PC laptop (with Office Suite loaded), LCD projector, and screen. We do not provide audio-visual equipment for roundtable discussions and posters, but presenters in these sessions may use their own battery-powered laptops or tablets. NAAEE strongly recommends bringing PowerPoint and other audio-visual materials on portable drives and using the equipment provided. Internet access is available in all meeting rooms.
Review Criteria
The strongest proposals carefully address the criteria listed below and provide enough detail for reviewers to fully understand what the session will entail.
Proposals will be assessed and selected by how well they:
- Describe in detail what will occur in the session
- Explain why the session is appropriate for the selected format and allotted time
- Describe how the session will effectively engage the audience in innovative thinking about new or proven ideas and approaches
- Raise important questions or deliver positive, solution-oriented outcomes supported by research and/or program evaluation
- Explain how the session will inform environmental educators about proven practices, push the leading edge of the profession, and/or motivate the pursuit of excellence
- Demonstrate how the session fits the strand description and one or more focus points
We also place importance on advancing justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in EE and hope that many proposals will reflect these concerns. These sessions may explore strategies and programs that help diversify our audiences as well as our workforce, build cultural competence, support environmental justice, focus on vulnerable communities, engage with new audiences, forge new and lasting partnerships, honor traditional knowledge, and increase our reach and relevance throughout society.
To help us identify these sessions, reviewers will also consider these program criteria:
- Incorporate culturally rooted practices and an understanding of how people from different backgrounds relate to, engage with, and care about the environment in urban, suburban, and rural communities
- Affirm differences in skills, abilities, and perspectives as resources and opportunities to build stronger programs
- Describe how curriculum design, participant recruitment, program leadership, or administrative structure result in equitable environmental education opportunities
- Contribute to a more just, equitable, diverse, inclusive, diverse, and accessible field
How to Submit a Proposal
Proposals must be submitted online by 11:59 PM PDT on Friday, April 26, 2024. You may find it helpful to download this blank draft proposal form and use it to draft your proposal before entering the information online.
Each individual or team of individuals is limited to three proposals to maximize the number and diversity of presenters and perspectives on the conference program.
Important: Please use the same email address for submitting your proposal and registering for the conference.
- Proposals must be submitted online through All Academic, our proposal management system.
- Click here to enter All Academic or find the link on the conference or research symposium home page or from the menu on NAAEE’s conference website.
- If you’ve been part of a proposal in the past, you likely already have an All Academic account. Log in with your email as your username and your password from 2023. (Older passwords will no longer work.)
- If you need to reset your password, click on the appropriate link in All Academic. You will receive an email message from Do_Not_Reply@AllAcademic.com with further instructions.
- If you do not have an All Academic account, you'll need to create one by clicking on the new user link. Use your email address as your username. You will immediately receive an email message from Do_Not_Reply@AllAcademic.com with further instructions.
- Check your filters if you do not receive the message. You will continue to receive messages from this email address; make sure it is in your safe senders list.
- On your home page in All Academic, click "Submit a Proposal." Select “Conference” or "Research Symposium" and complete the online submission form.
- Click the “Accept and Continue” button on each page until you reach the final confirmation page.
- When your proposal is successfully submitted, you will receive a confirmation email from Do_Not_Reply@AllAcademic.com. This email address is often caught by sensitive filters. If you haven't received it, check your junk folder and make sure the “@allacademic.com” domain is in your safe sender list so you receive future mailings.
- You can edit any information in your proposal until the April 26 submission deadline by logging in to your All Academic account and selecting the proposal from the list on your All Academic home page.
Important Notes About Registration
All presenters and co-presenters are required to register and pay published fees for the conference.
NAAEE depends on registration fees to cover conference expenses and cannot provide waivers or discounts to presenters. There are typically more than 500 presenters on the conference program.
NAAEE has not yet finalized fees, but we expect conference registration for current NAAEE members to be about $500 for a professional and $350 for a student or retiree. Nonmember rates will be about 30% higher, and we hope to provide lower-cost options for those with limited funding. There is a separate registration fee for the NAAEE Research Symposium.
All presenters must confirm their participation by registering for the conference by the September 13, 2024 early bird deadline.
If your proposal is accepted, you will have an additional opportunity to finalize session information after receiving your acceptance notice.
Questions
As a first step, please check the Frequently Asked Questions for assistance with submitting your proposals. If you need additional help, please contact us at conference@naaee.org.