Conference Workshop Descriptions

Note: Workshops require advance registration. Registration for each workshop closes one week prior to the workshop date.

FULL-DAY WORKSHOPS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6 — 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM PDT

Affiliate Assembly

Presenters: Sarah Bodor, NAAEE; Katie Navin, NAAEE; Estrella Risinger, California Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education

Join other leaders from across the NAAEE Affiliate Network for a full-day workshop as we gather to celebrate the great work taking place across our community, and spend time learning from each other’s challenges and successes. This year’s professional learning sessions will be designed to meet the unique needs of NAAEE Affiliates and will include opportunities to share resources, network with other leaders in the field, and explore ideas for collaboration. This workshop is exclusively for staff and board members of NAAEE Affiliate organizations. Affiliates are encouraged to send at least one representative to participate in this year’s session.

Lead with Purpose: Community Engagement That Creates Lasting Change

Presenters: Jean Kayira, State University of New York–ESF; Susana Mateos, Antioch University New England/North Carolina State University; Elizabeth (Libby) McCann, Antioch University New England; Luciana Ranelli, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve

What does it take to build environmental education programs that truly reflect and respond to your community? This hands-on workshop invites emerging and experienced EE leaders to explore NAAEE's Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence (CEG) and translate them into real programming in your local context. Through collaborative facilitation and peer exchange, you'll leave with practical tools to design and lead community-centered learning experiences; facilitation strategies grounded in civic participation; a network of practice and co-learners committed to building EE capacity across communities; and ongoing support so the learning doesn’t stop here.

This session is part of a broader network of CEG trainers and leaders—not just a one-time workshop. You’ll join a cohort of dedicated practitioners working to strengthen community voice, expand participation, and grow the next generation of EE leaders. Participants are invited to complete the cycle of learning by designing and implementing CEG-related programming in their community, making this a powerful cycle of learning, growth, and applied leadership. We will include space, resources and support within this workshop to make a plan for that learning opportunity ahead.

Registration fees waived for the first 30 registrants and lunch provided through ee360+ scholarship funding—because your participation matters.

HALF-DAY WORKSHOPS—MORNING

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6 — 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM PDT

Climate Resilience in Middle School Classrooms Through Nature-Based Storytelling

Presenters: Elizabeth DeMattia, Duke University Marine Lab; Ruimeng Wang, Duke University; Caitlin Reilly, Duke University

How can nature serve as a model for resilience? How can storytelling and art create deeper, more meaningful connections to environmental learning? In this interactive workshop, participants will explore these questions by engaging with material from the Ready, Set, Resilience (RSR) project.

RSR was co-created by faculty and staff at Duke and NC State Universities in collaboration with middle school teachers from across North Carolina in response to increasing climate impacts that have damaged communities from the mountains to the coast. RSR merges principles of personal, ecological, and community resilience in a set of educational resources that includes a collection of nature-based fables, a facilitator guide for somatic activities designed for middle school classrooms, a set of standards-aligned lesson plans, and a model for organizing student-led community events to share learning beyond the classroom. Across all of these resources, RSR uses storytelling and arts integration to help students engage creatively with classroom content and connect themes of resilience to their own lives, communities, and local environments.

Facilitators will begin this workshop by introducing the RSR framework and sharing examples of RSR in action from classrooms, informal education settings, and community partnerships. After collectively reading and listening to a nature-based fable, the workshop will then move into hands-on breakout sessions where participants will engage with themes from the fable through activities that emphasize different subject areas such as language arts, science, language acquisition for English language learners, and arts-integration. This will include writing poems and developing short shadow puppet performances based on the fable we read. These creative storytelling experiences will highlight opportunities to integrate scientific concepts, themes of resilience, language arts skills, and art into engaging lessons for middle school age groups.

We will conclude with a group reflection centered on opportunities and challenges in implementing storytelling and arts-based approaches in environmental education, along with practical strategies for adaptation across diverse contexts. This workshop will create space for educators to reflect, create, and connect, while also providing them with ready-to-use resources, including lesson plan templates and fable books.

Cultivating Community Change for Sustainability in Mexico and the USA

Presenters: Elizabeth VanWyhe, OSU Extension Service - Outdoor School; John Laws, Wild Wonder Foundation; Tara Laidlaw, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy

Partners in the Alumbra Place-Based Teaching and Learning Network kick off the workshop with storytelling, sharing experiences and lessons learned from our cross-cultural collaboration, grounded in real-world implementation, that spans the diverse ecological and cultural contexts from La Paz, Mexico to Vermont, USA. We showcase the power of an international network collaborating to create systemic change at multiple levels. This strategy supports NGOs to be taken seriously by government entities and thus advancing the work. Educators from Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools, Ecology Project International and La Paz will engage participants in hands-on learning activities drawn from our shared programming and a newly published guide, Aprendiendo Localmente, Transformando Globalmente (available as a free download in English and Spanish).

Using the guide, we will lead participants in exploring unifying cross cultural sustainability frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, engage them in using civic action tools, and help them tailor the resources for projects in their own communities. We will highlight national and international connections that support this work including Baja California Sur state education policy and UNESCO Latin American Learning Cities network as an example of systemic impact. Lastly, we will create an art-based reflection on our experience. This approach enriches the learning, deepens our insights, and completes the transformative learning cycle. The workshop format is especially necessary to allow participants time to immerse themselves in the material. This extended time supports rich dialogue and engagement with the other participants and the activities.

This workshop aligns with the strand “Advancing Civic Engagement and Sustainable Communities” by empowering participants with proven place-based transformative learning strategies. Our focus on research-based strategies and field-tested tools across various ecological and cultural contexts equips participants to apply these techniques within their own communities. By combining international sustainability frameworks with civic action tools, we offer a powerful opportunity for participants to lift up the voices of youth and create positive change. Our approach raises important questions, such as: What are the root causes of the challenges we face? Who are the (human and non-human) solutionaries in our communities? How do we manifest lasting change?

From Intention to Impact: Instructional Design Basics for Environmental Educators

Presenters: Mary Westlund, Project Learning Tree/Sustainable Forestry Initiatives; Jaclyn Stallard, Project Learning Tree/Sustainable Forestry Initiative; Ana Leirner, Project Learning Tree/Sustainable Forestry Initiative

Environmental educators often design professional learning and student experiences based on passion, expertise, and sometimes trial and error rather than research-based instructional practices. This pre-conference workshop introduces participants to essential instructional design concepts that support more effective and inclusive environmental education across formal and nonformal settings.

Designed as an “Instructional Design 101” experience, this half-day workshop supports educators who regularly facilitate professional development workshops for teachers or lead learning experiences with young people, but who may not have formal education backgrounds. Participants will explore how instructional design strengthens learning outcomes and aligns environmental education programs with the science of how people learn. By the end of the workshop participants will be able to (1) Write measurable learning goals and performance outcomes; (2) Design a short EE learning experience that has alignment between outcomes, activities, instructional strategies, and assessments; and (3) Integrate the principles of universal design for learning into the learning experiences they design.

The session is grounded in the NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence and instructional design best practices, emphasizing practical application in EE rather than theory alone. Key topics include identifying clear learning goals and outcomes, aligning outcomes, activities and assessments, designing for diverse learners using universal design for learning, and selecting instructional strategies that support engagement and transfer of learning.

Participants will engage in short interactive presentations paired with hands-on learning design activities, collaborative discussion, and guided reflection.

The session begins with a brief interactive icebreaker that illustrates the value of outcome-based learning. Participants then explore what learning outcomes are and practice drafting them through an individual writing activity. Next, the workshop introduces alignment among outcomes, activities, instructional strategies, and assessment, followed by time to design a real environmental education learning experience using this framework. In the final segment, participants apply principles of universal design for learning to refine their designs and select strategies that support engagement and transfer of learning. The workshop concludes with a large group discussion and a guided individual reflection. Participants leave with a foundational instructional design framework, a practical design checklist, sample Project Learning Tree activities reflecting best practices, and increased confidence designing research informed, learner centered experiences.

From Understanding to Impact: Helping Learners Take Informed Action on Biodiversity

Presenters: TBA

How do we help learners move beyond learning about biodiversity to taking informed action and understanding why that action matters?

This interactive workshop explores practical ways to facilitate biodiversity education that is relevant, engaging, and actionable for learners. Using the Global Biodiversity Framework as a backdrop, participants will explore how to help learners connect biodiversity to their daily lives, take meaningful actions, and understand how those actions contribute to real-world outcomes for ecosystems and communities.

The session will also introduce the broader global context for biodiversity action and invite participants to reflect on their own role, and the work they may already be doing, in contributing to these goals. Through collaborative activities, peer discussion, and real-world examples, educators will explore approaches for supporting learners in moving from understanding to action in their own settings.

Participants will:

Explore approaches for teaching biodiversity in ways that are relevant, engaging, and age-appropriate
Discuss and share how to support learners in moving from understanding to informed action
Consider simple, realistic ways to begin measuring learner learning and action

Participants will leave with practical ideas, examples from peers, and a clearer sense of how their work can contribute to broader biodiversity goals, along with inspiration to continue building on this work in their own settings.

Student-Led Action That Builds Environmental and Ocean Literacy

Presenters: Diana Payne, University of Connecticut, Connecticut Sea Grant; Angela Whittaker, Institute for Humane Education; Sarah Schoedinger, NOAA (retired)

Imagine students taking meaningful, ethical action in their schools and communities to address the challenges facing our ocean and terrestrial environments. Picture teachers equipped with the skills and high-quality curricula needed to guide student-led action projects, inspiring young people to become environmental stewards. In this vision, students learn to identify and investigate the systems and issues impacting their community, collaborate with stakeholders for deeper understanding, use systems analysis to find root causes and leverage points for meaningful change, and apply ethical analysis to ensure their solutions do the most good and least harm for people, the planet, and animals. This is the impact of Solutionary Teaching and Learning in classrooms around the world.

Participants will examine the idea: “We cannot be environmentally literate if we are not ocean literate.” Through an introduction to the Ocean Literacy Framework, including the Ocean Literacy Scope and Sequence for Grades K–12 and the Alignment of Ocean Literacy to NGSS, teachers will see how incorporating ocean literacy tools in their practice both supports and expands upon science and environmental education standards, fostering a more systemic understanding of both ocean and terrestrial environments.

Participants will also explore the essential elements of Solutionary Teaching and Learning and discover how these approaches enhance student engagement, foster curiosity, and empower students to take meaningful action on issues in their communities. The session will include an in-depth look at the Solutionary Ocean Unit, which draws on the work of the Smithsonian Science Education Center and NOAA’s Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience framework. Educators will learn how to adapt this ready-to-use guide, based on the award-winning Solutionary Framework, for their own classrooms. The unit promotes critical, systems, creative, and strategic thinking, helping students develop as problem-solvers prepared for post-secondary education and future careers.

All participants will receive the Ocean Literacy Guide and the Solutionary Ocean Unit.

HALF-DAY WORKSHOPS—AFTERNOON

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6 — 1:00 to 4:30 PM PDT

Attention, Curiosity, Wonder: An Introduction to Nature Journaling

Presenters: Elizabeth VanWyhe, OSU Extension Service - Outdoor School; John Laws, Wild Wonder Foundation; Tara Laidlaw, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy

Looking for a welcoming and accessible nature connection framework that meets students where they are? “How to Teach Nature Journaling,” by John (Jack) Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren, presents an innovative, student-centered, cross-curricular approach to place-based learning. This practice, beloved by countless journalers and backed by recent research, brings a wealth of benefits to any teaching context. In this workshop, led by Jack and two collaborating practitioners, participants will experience how nature journaling creates a foundation for sustained attention, curiosity, and wonder, both for themselves and for their students.

Throughout the workshop, participants will toggle intentionally between the role of journaler/student and instructor/teacher. As journalers, participants will experience a practice that is creative, rigorous, playful, and restorative. As instructors, they’ll reflect upon the practice as a teaching tool, learn to give thoughtful feedback to their students, and identify both barriers to participation and connections to academic standards. In both roles, they will examine how to overcome self-judgement, and how to promote a growth mindset.

Participants will walk away ready to implement nature journaling in their own teaching contexts to support whole-student learning.

Workshop Outline:

Introduction - 30 minutes - Why nature journal?
The “two triads” of nature journaling - 40 minutes - practicing out loud and on paper; identifying connections with academic standards
Break & walking transition Lownsdale Square (4 minute walk from the conference facility) - 15 minutes
Nature journaling beyond the classroom walls - 75 minutes - journaling using the “two triads” in an urban green space; discussion of adaptation for other teaching contexts and student needs (In the event of inclement weather, we will be prepared to model a variety of adaptations to keep everyone safe and comfortable, including indoor options.)
Walking transition back to the conference center - 15 minutes - debriefing the experience and standards alignment during the return walk
Feedback and growth mindset - 20 minutes - strategies for helping students feel supported and empowered when developing a new skillset
Reflection & wrap up - 15 minutes - discuss application to participants’ teaching contexts; share resources from Wild Wonder Foundation to support nature journaling beyond this workshop

Bridging Environmental Education and Ethical Civic Engagement with Solutionary Projects

Presenters: Gitanjali Paul, Gitanjali Learning Design LLC; Kacey Dewing, Humane Education

The Institute for Humane Education (IHE) is working to empower a generation of “solutionaries”—individuals who identify systemic problems and innovate solutions that do the most good and least harm (MOGO) for people, animals, and the environment. This workshop provides a high-engagement "bridge" between environmental awareness and ethical civic engagement. We move beyond surface-level "band-aid" solutions, equipping educators with tools to cultivate learner agency and transform environmental units into impactful, student-led community projects.

Workshop Agenda & Interactive Flow:

Intro: Connection & Community: We begin with a collaborative icebreaker to ground our work in shared purpose, emphasizing curiosity, compassion, and imagination as the drivers of environmental education.

Part 1: The Solutionary Lens: A brief "gallery walk" introduction to the solutionary mindset. Participants discuss how this lens shifts the focus from simple awareness to systemic, values-driven action.

Part 2: Deepening Impact (The Iceberg Model): Using the Iceberg Model, participants practice moving from "reacting" to surface events (like litter) to "redesigning" underlying structures (like circular economies). The Iceberg provides a concrete, visible thinking routine for the classroom.

Part 3: Ethical Stakeholder Mapping: Educators dive into strategies for MOGO decision-making. We utilize stakeholder maps to ensure student-led solutions simultaneously balance the authentic needs of people, animals, and ecosystems.

Part 4: The Solutionary Scale: In small groups, participants use IHE’s proprietary scale to assess sample projects, practicing how to "level up" initiatives to move them from superficial short-term actions to systemic long-term changemaking.

Part 5: Design Lab & Peer Tuning: The heart of the workshop is a facilitated "Design Lab." Participants apply these tools to a project they currently teach (or plan to teach). A structured Peer Feedback Loop ensures every attendee leaves with diverse perspectives and a concrete action plan.

Part 6: Cultivating Agency: Participants explore the Solutionary Framework, a roadmap that places project development in learners’ hands and cultivates student-led inquiry-to-action projects.

Part 7: Call to Action: Participants receive a curated toolkit of resources for ongoing learning and implementation.

EE & Community Resilience: The Power of Community Centered Networks

Presenters: Michelle Viney, Michelle Viney Leadership Consulting; Sophia Stephenson, Arkansas Environmental Education Association

This interactive workshop explores how environmental education can fortify community resilience through knowledge, skill-building, and empowerment. Participants will examine how reciprocal relationships and co-created learning can build networks with the power to amplify impact. Designed for highly participatory engagement, the session guides participants through a progression of concepts, dialogue, and applied activities that connect theory to practice.

The workshop begins by grounding participants in shared definitions of environmental education, community resilience, and a basic introduction to social network theory, emphasizing EE as a collaborative and action oriented process rather than a one-way transfer of knowledge. Participants will examine how EE networks already appear in their own lives and communities.

Building from a network foundation, the workshop continues by examining how EE contributes to community resilience via pathways including fostering knowledge, building practical skills, encouraging behavior change, and strengthening social connections and civic empowerment. Participants will be engaged in an exercise that models the interconnections of networks and demonstrates how local knowledge, participation, trust, and collaborative involvement can benefit EE design and delivery.

Building on the appreciation of stakeholder engaged EE design, participants explore how formal and informal networks can serve as structural links between EE and community resilience by unifying EE initiatives to amplify knowledge exchange, create feedback loops, generate community benefits, and sustain long-term impact. Participants will leave the workshop with practical strategies for intentional collaboration and strong networked action to expand reach, strengthen partnerships, and scale impact.

Taste of the Tides: Introducing Students to Aquaculture and Sustainable Seafood

Presenters: Maile Sullivan, Washington Sea Grant/NAME; Casey Ralson, NOAA; Megan Ewald, NOAA

This three part workshop introduces environmental educators to effective ways of teaching aquaculture and marine science across formal and informal learning settings.

Part 1 draws on the success of NOAA and NAAEE’s eeBLUE mini grant program and was developed with Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME) and Washington Sea Grant. Participants will explore classroom ready curricula, regional case studies, and instructional strategies for engaging learners of all ages in sustainable seafood, marine ecosystems, and Pacific Northwest aquaculture. Hands on demonstrations will model activities focused on shellfish biology, ecosystem services, marine food systems, and connections between aquaculture and conservation. Educators will leave with practical tools, adaptable lessons, and a clearer understanding of how NOAA, NAME, and regional partners support high quality marine education.

Part 2 features an expert panel with voices from industry, education, Pacific Northwest tribes, and local government. Panelists will discuss sustainability, Indigenous stewardship and food sovereignty, policy and permitting, and the economic and ecological roles of seaweed, shellfish, and finfish aquaculture. The discussion will address common misconceptions and provide educators with balanced perspectives, real world examples, and accessible language to support nuanced classroom conversations.

Part 3 concludes with a cooking demonstration and sensory seafood tasting. Participants will sample local farmed seafoods while learning how they are grown, their nutritional value, and how to prepare them. Through the “anatomy of a dish,” educators will connect food, science, and sustainability—leaving inspired and equipped to teach students about responsible seafood farming.

Two Trees, One Seed: Pairing Guidelines for Excellence with EE Curricula

Presenters: Renee Strnad, North Carolina State University; Beth Cranford, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences; Emily Van Laan, NAAEE; Michelle Pearce, Environmental Educators of North Carolina

It is vital for young children to develop positive emotional connections with nature. The resources shared in this session provide an introduction to environmental education at a key developmental period in children's lives, while encouraging them to explore, discover, and communicate in expressive ways. The materials have been developed by early childhood and environmental education experts to help young children, early childhood educators, and families address environmental issues in developmentally appropriate ways. With low-cost, hands-on activities, multiple language translations, and research-based recommendations, these resources embody, exhibit, and explain key characteristics of high-quality early childhood environmental education programming.

Through a series of hands-on activities, this participatory, engaging, and inspiring workshop introduces recognized tools that will help participants develop nature-based programs for young children. To support, honor, and celebrate the many ways young children learn, play, and thrive in nearby nature, all participants will receive resources from NAAEE’s Early Childhood Environmental Education Guidelines, Project Learning Tree's Trees & Me: Activities for Exploring Nature with Young Children, and the recently revised Discover the Forest program.

The Guidelines for Excellence can feel overwhelming and disconnected from practice, especially for those new to EE or early childhood education. Using award-winning EE curriculum to introduce the Guidelines’ key characteristics provides educators with a solid foundation of how EE content overlaps with pedagogy in practice. Using this model, we will introduce the Early Childhood Guidelines key characteristics within the context of accessible and engaging EE activities from PLT and Discover the Forest.

The session will begin by grounding our common understanding of early childhood education by using a method called storytelling and story catching. Participants will move through the six characteristics in tandem with EE activities, ending with a concrete plan towards implementation back at home.

Participants will:

Become acquainted with, review, and learn how to use three different but complementary Early Childhood resources
Gain functional understanding of NAAEE's Early Childhood Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence
Participate in select Early Childhood activities from PLT's Trees & Me and discovertheforest.org
Develop a plan to integrate these materials into participant programming