Workshops require advance registration; sign up through conference registration. Registration closes one week prior to each workshop date.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
Climate Curriculum — Two for the Price of One! (90-minutes each)
Engage with New Climate Storytelling Curriculum for K–12 and University Classrooms
(Part 1 of 2)
Presenter: Jason Davis, Climate Stories Project
In this hands-on online session, participants will learn about climate storytelling and practice approaches for integrating this approach into their climate education curriculum for K–12 and university classrooms. We will introduce approaches to climate storytelling education, share recently developed climate storytelling curriculum modules and lesson plans, and describe case studies in which the curriculum has been used successfully in a variety of classrooms and subjects. Participants will learn how the climate storytelling curriculum elides with Common Core and NGSS standards.
We’ll use live online polls to better understand participants’ backgrounds and to learn about their use of climate education in the classroom and needs for a more engaging curriculum. Session participants will discuss ways in which they can use the free climate storytelling curriculum modules in their own classrooms in small groups and then share these ideas as a full group. We’ll then practice several short educational activities included in the curriculum modules, including analyzing recorded climate stories to understand how personal climate stories can bolster climate attribution science, and carrying out a short climate story interview with a partner. These activities are examples of what students will do in class or out of class as prep assignments or group projects.
Session participants will benefit by interacting with teachers from a range of grade levels and subjects and can sign up for a Partner Schools network to carry out online storytelling, story-sharing, and interviewing sessions with students from other geographic areas and subject areas following the workshop. The climate storytelling curriculum helps students confront and share challenging emotions around the climate crisis through the targeted practice of climate storytelling. Students are also encouraged to envision and enact climate solutions, including developing and sharing visions for a positive future in the face of the climate crisis. Participants will come away with concrete tools for engaging students with climate change and confidence for using climate storytelling approaches in their classrooms.
–AND–
From Vision to Action: Empowering K–12 Educators with Climate Change Teacher Guides
(Part 2 of 2)
Presenter: Elaine Makarevich, SubjectToClimate
This interactive session equips educators with ready-to-use, standards-aligned climate education resources designed for K–12 classrooms. Participants will explore grade-band-specific Teacher Guides and engage in collaborative activities that promote climate literacy, interdisciplinary instruction, and equitable access to environmental education.
The session begins with a brief overview of the climate education resources and their alignment with academic standards. Attendees will then join breakout groups by grade band (K–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12) to review a Teacher Guide, lesson plans, and corresponding activities. In these small groups, participants will:
- Examine the Teacher Guide's structure and sample lessons
- Identify ways to align activities with academic standards
- Discuss approaches for integrating climate content across core subjects
- Identify key strategies for adapting materials to meet diverse learner needs
Following the breakout activities, the group will reconvene to share insights with the larger group and explore a curated digital platform where the full set of tools and lessons are housed. The session will conclude with an open discussion, sharing takeaways, asking questions, and addressing implementation challenges.
Designed for a virtual setting, the session uses interactive tools such as breakout rooms, shared documents/slides, and collaborative whiteboards to ensure high engagement. Participants will leave with practical strategies and classroom-ready resources they can apply immediately.
This session responds to growing demand for climate education across grade levels and subjects by lowering access barriers and supporting teachers with structured, flexible tools. It highlights proven practices that build educator confidence, encourage interdisciplinary thinking, and support climate hope over anxiety.
The session fits within the “Educating for a Changing Climate” strand by preparing educators to teach climate change through accessible, solutions-oriented content that promotes resilience, student voice, and cross-disciplinary learning.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
Growing Your Impact: Strategic Communications for Busy Professionals
Presenters: Carrie Albright, NAAEE; Jimena Cuenca, NAAEE; Bug Hartsock, NAAEE; Stacie Pierpoint, NAAEE
Transform your communications from scattered efforts into a strategic ecosystem that amplifies your impact and reaches the audiences who matter most. This hands-on workshop is designed for busy professionals who know their mission is vital but struggle to find time to communicate it effectively and reflect on the results of their efforts. You'll discover that you’re already a communicator—no degree required!
We'll start by exploring the challenges you face and why strategic communication matters. We’ll also briefly familiarize ourselves with the basics of communication. Then, we’ll dive into practical tools and strategies that work, from creating sustainable content calendars and communal outreach plans to identifying key audiences and how and where to reach them, creating exciting content and stories, and tracking and improving your efforts.
This workshop will provide hands-on experience that you can apply directly to your specific programs. (If you don’t have a specific program or project in mind, no worries, you can practice with any project you’re familiar with.) Activities may include how to multiply content by transforming one blog post into social media content, newsletter features, and eye-catching infographics; how to build your story bank with templates that make consistent messaging effortless; how to brainstorm new ideas for messaging and content creation; and zine-making for a fresh approach to sharing the impact of your work.
We’ll share a list of affordable tools (Canva and your smartphone, for example) that you can use to capture compelling moments, create professional-looking graphics, and produce simple videos that showcase your mission and programs.
We’ll explore how to build and leverage online community engagement to collaborate on shared goals and amplify your reach. And lastly, we’ll talk about how to measure what matters without drowning in data.
Leave with practical tools, templates, and a clear action plan to transform your communications and make every message count toward your environmental education mission.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
Building Change Together: Collaborative Approaches to Civic Engagement
Presenters: Naomi Wallace, Association of Science and Technology Centers; Kristin Bayans, Association of Science and Technology Centers
This interactive workshop will prepare participants to collaborate with community members to address authentic local priorities through civic engagement and policymaking. It is appropriate for environmental education professionals of any level, whether or not you have previous experience with civic engagement.
The workshop will start by outlining our approach, which emphasizes understanding the local political and cultural landscape, surfacing the authentic priorities of the community, and sharing leadership from start to finish. We will then hear stories from several panelists who have taken this approach to civic engagement on a range of climate- and environment-related topics, along with their advice for others pursuing similar projects. Finally, we will work in small groups, using practical tools to help you envision and plan ways that you and your organization can engage with your community on civic and political issues.
The content for this webinar is based on the Community Science Civic Engagement & Policymaking Toolkit from the Association of Science and Technology Centers. This toolkit was originally designed for museums and other informal education institutions but will be applicable to a wide range of science engagement and environmental education organizations.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
Useful and Feasible: A Realistic Approach to Evaluation Planning
Presenters: Jessica Sickler, J. Sickler Consulting; Angie Ong, J. Sickler Consulting
This workshop is for educators who want to evaluate their programs but feel overwhelmed or lack the capacity to add evaluation to an already full plate. It offers a practical "jump start" for planning evaluations that will result in useful information, using methods that are feasible within their capacity.
Participants will work through a three-step process, applying techniques to a specific program they would like to evaluate.
- Finding Focus: What to Evaluate. A common pitfall is trying to evaluate too much at once, leading to overwhelm. We will guide participants in exercises to identify all of their ideas for direction, and then focus on one high-value direction that benefits their program now.
- Generating Indicators. With a narrowed focus, participants will learn techniques to generate a wide range of ideas for measurement—the foundation for evaluation tools. This stage will activate creativity and expansive thinking about outcomes and questions, preventing educators from getting stuck thinking there's only one way to do their evaluation.
- Method Selection: Value & Feasibility. Finally, participants will learn about a variety of methods that can be used in EE evaluation. They will then practice identifying methods that could be well-suited to the indicators they developed. This will lead them to create their own “methods menu,” including pros and cons of each strategy. They will select a method that best delivers useful information while being feasible within their capacity, staffing, tools, and access.
For each step, we will present challenges educators typically face, and then offer structured activities to work through those challenges, set priorities, and find solutions. Structured worksheets and prompting questions will be provided at each phase, and we will include breakout work time to begin applying to their programs. Workshop leaders will answer questions during and after work time, sharing common sticking points and solutions for the benefit of the full group.
Participants will leave the workshop with planning workbooks and ideas for each step. Afterwards, they can submit their planning workbooks by email to the session leaders, who will provide feedback and comments to help them refine and be ready to implement their plans.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
Learning for Life: Co-Creating Educational Strategies for a Living Planet
Presenters: Nathan Spees, WWF Austria; Leia Lowery, The Climate Initiative; Christa Dillabaugh, Morpho Institute; Nina Hamilton, NAAEE; Judy A. Braus, NAAEE
The United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) highlights how nature can be restored and protected, setting global targets to achieve by 2030. For educators, the GBF is both a call to action and a unique opportunity to be part of something global by engaging locally. By integrating education for biodiversity into the programs where we work such as the classroom, outdoor learning spaces, rural and urban communities, and professional development programs, we can cultivate ecological literacy, inspire curiosity, and empower people of all ages to become stewards of the natural world.
A coalition of organizations has recently created a guide for service providers called “Learning for Life” about how to bring the GBF to life through education. The guide equips users with practical knowledge and skills to advocate for biodiversity education, and provides inspiring examples for educators to find ways to integrate the global biodiversity targets in their work and develop strategic partnerships with other organizations.
This interactive workshop will showcase the guide, deepen your understanding of the global agreement, explore drivers and solutions, and create a space for educators to build community, share strategies, and co-create adaptable activities that support the implementation of the framework at multiple levels. Leave equipped with new connections, insights, and tools to inspire and empower others to take meaningful local action for a living planet.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
2025 Affiliate Assembly
Presenters: Bruce K. Young, NAAEE; Sarah Bodor, NAAEE; Susan McGuire, WY Alliance for EE
Join other leaders from the NAAEE Affilate Network for our annual network-wide gathering as we come together for networking, learning, and fellowship.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
From Habits to Habitat: Inspiring Conservation Behavior
Presenters: Leia Althauser, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; Jason Beale, Pennsylvania Game Commission
Let’s be honest—motivating environmental stewardship can feel harder than wrangling 100 raccoons out of a school garden. As environmental educators, we’re often expected to change hearts and habits with tools like posters, flyers, or curriculum alone. But awareness isn’t always enough to inspire action—especially in today’s increasingly diverse and digitally distracted world.
This session introduces environmental educators to accessible tools from behavior science and conservation psychology. We’ll explore how to design programs that align with the real motivations and lived experiences of your audiences—whether that’s multilingual families, urban youth, or nature-curious newcomers. You’ll learn how to shift your focus from delivering information to reinforcing behaviors that make stewardship stick.
We’ll start with a quick interactive reflection and dive into a simple, research-based model for behavior change. Participants will explore case studies from Washington and Pennsylvania that demonstrate how aligning messages and program structure with audience values can lead to stronger engagement. In breakout groups, you’ll apply the model to one of your own programming challenges, receive peer feedback, and walk away with a “Behavior Strategy Map” to guide your next steps.
This live, virtual session will use collaborative tools like polls and visual boards to ensure full participation regardless of experience level or communication style.
You’ll leave with:
- A toolkit to design inclusive, audience-centered learning experiences
- An understanding of how to identify and build on motivations and reinforcers
- Strategies to make environmental education more relevant, lasting, and community-driven
Whether you’re teaching in classrooms, parks, or community centers, this session will help you create programming that moves beyond awareness to spark meaningful, equitable conservation action.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 27: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
Ocean Literacy—Two for the Price of One! (90-minutes each):
Beaches to Classrooms: Educating the Next Generation on Microplastic Pollution
(Part 1 of 2)
Presenters: Breanna Butland, Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation; Niki Sullivan, Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation; Jen Kennedy, Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation; Nikki Tenaglia, Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation
This workshop will introduce a program titled "Microplastics in the Classroom." Its goal is to educate students about microplastic pollution and encourage solutions. Students engage in a hands-on lab to sift microplastics from sand and learn identification and mitigation strategies. This session will showcase a hands-on, inquiry-based science activity that introduces students to microplastics, their origins, and environmental impacts through real-world sampling and data collection.
During the session, participants will learn:
- What microplastics are, including primary and secondary microplastics, and the differences between common types
- Where microplastics are found
- The impacts microplastics have on the environment
- How microplastic samples are collected
- How to replicate the classroom activity with minimal materials using easily accessible and reusable items
Participants will receive:
- A lesson plan for educators for the microplastics classroom activity
- Guiding questions and wrap-up reflections to inspire students to ask questions and come up with solutions
The session will feature eye-catching visuals, including graphs, images, and a timelapse video of how microplastic sampling is conducted. Documents such as data cards, microplastic ID field guides, and background information will also be available to those interested in using them.
This session brings an interdisciplinary and student-centered lens to marine debris education by:
- Framing microplastics not just as a pollution issue, but as a platform for student-led innovation, community action, and long-term research
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Encouraging students (and educators) to think critically about the causes of pollution and develop solutions
- Introducing real science practices, like quadrat sampling, data collection, and hypothesis formation, in a way that's adaptable to different age levels and school resources
Educators attending this session will gain not only a comprehensive, classroom-tested toolkit for microplastics education, but also the materials to facilitate long-term microplastics research
The "Microplastics in the Classroom" program empowers students as scientists and changemakers. Through hands-on sampling, data analysis, and solution-focused dialogue, participants develop critical thinking, collaboration, and advocacy skills.
-AND-
Dive into Deep-Sea Habitats with Real-World Science
(Part 2 of 2)
Presenter: Sasha Francis, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
Learn about colorful coral communities, fascinating creatures, seafloor mapping, technology, and careers through real habitat restoration happening now in the Gulf. When species at depths beyond 150 feet are injured or threatened by human activities, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it makes restoring and protecting them very challenging. They are hard to reach for the scientists and experts working to restore these habitats, but even more out of reach for communities and students.
At the same time, this lack of familiarity presents an opportunity to show students and others that even expert scientists are always learning, and that just because you can’t see something with your own eyes doesn’t mean it is less important to the planet. Although some learning resources exist for deep-sea habitats, they are often focused on the Pacific or Atlantic oceans. Our hands-on resources and engaging interaction opportunities shed light on a place where oil rigs and shipping come to mind before the beautiful habitats found below the surface: the Gulf.
Explore the diverse and colorful seafloor along the Northern Gulf, from Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Texas, to the injured deeper coral communities around the oil spill impact zone near Louisiana, to the continental shelf along Florida’s west coast. Learn about the technology and tools being used right now to help restore and protect coral habitats hundreds to thousands of feet below the surface, and discover diverse career paths for all skill sets and backgrounds.
This workshop will include step-by-step walkthroughs of new, interactive educational materials and a viewing of highlights from livestream broadcasts. Formal and informal educators and community leaders will leave the session with access to ready-to-use activities and resources for all ages, including species ID video games, engaging videos, a deep-sea expedition board game, scavenger hunt posters, coloring pages, animated shorts, interviews with scientists at sea, and more!
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29: 12:00–3:30 PM EDT
Should EE Use AI? An Ethical Approach for Choosing and Using AI
Presenters: Michael Duffin, PEER Associates; Andrew Powers, PEER Associates; Aaron Cinquemani, Woodstock Union Middle High School; Joan Haley, Education for Climate Resilience
Environmental educators face a complex dilemma: AI offers powerful capabilities for education, but raises serious concerns about environmental impact and ethics on many dimensions. This workshop provides frameworks for thoughtful decision-making about when and how AI use serves our work.
Part 1: AI Ethical Ecosystem Using an ecosystem metaphor, we'll examine some of the many interconnected ethical questions around AI: the purpose of AI (both big picture and everyday use), ethics of developing AI systems, ethics of using AI tools, and downstream effects including on environment, culture, and cognition. We'll work through everyday dilemmas and analyze current news stories using this framework.
Part 2: Discernment in Tool Selection If you decide the environmental and ethical costs are worthwhile for specific work, what tool should you use? We'll examine the major language models, explore other AI tools including image generators, discuss where the future is heading, and attend to ethical considerations across different types of models throughout.
Part 3: Thinking About "Thinking with AI" When we use AI effectively it should act as a collaborator and thought partner enhancing and not replacing our thinking, creativity, and judgment. We'll explore and practice simple approaches for developing thinking partnerships with AI, diving into the art and science of prompting AI tools to support your work while centering and elevating your professional wisdom.
Part 4: Deeper Hands-On Application We'll break into small groups to apply in greater depth what we've discussed to participants' own projects and problems of practice. The Greentime team will provide individualized support as you work with your actual teaching challenges, lesson planning needs, or administrative tasks.
What You'll Gain:
- Systems-based framework for thinking about AI ethically
- Understanding of different tools and how to choose them responsibly
- Effective practice using AI tools as thinking partners
- Confidence applying these approaches to your specific work context
This workshop respects both enthusiasm and skepticism, providing practical tools for thoughtful decision-making about AI's role in environmental education.