Empowering diverse youth and adults towards environmental action is vital to building resilient communities. But, to what degree do citizen environmental efforts in environmental action programs make a collective ecological and community impact? We quantified the impacts of 167 conservation efforts by intergenerational partnerships in UCONN’s Natural Resources Conservation Academy.

Experts predict a gap in STEM workers prepared to deal with complex environmental issues. It’s critical that informal learning centers increase capacity to work with schools. Riverbend’s Philadelphia Children Access Nature program is a catalyst for change, using a comprehensive supports and aquaponics in the classroom.

Experts predict a gap in STEM workers prepared to deal with complex environmental issues. It’s critical that informal learning centers increase capacity to work with schools. Riverbend’s Philadelphia Children Access Nature program is a catalyst for change, using a comprehensive supports and aquaponics in the classroom.

Connecting place, people and story, through the design of inclusive outdoor spaces for schools, communities, and parks. Designing with the 8 senses and the Autism Design Guidelines to allow for collaboration and connections with nature in an educationally intentional way. Discuss types of outdoor space that afford learning for all age groups, nimble spaces with inter-related programming. All of course from the perspective of a landscape architect.

For 20 years, School of the Wild has provided weeklong wildlife experiences for students in the Iowa City Community School District. Join our panel to hear how we went from an exploratory pilot to a districtwide program serving all students. Let our team’s experience help you grow your programs.

Environmental education is unique in that it brings together place-specific needs and global-scale awareness at the intersections of the physical and social worlds. Yet, how can lessons learned in one location be repositioned elsewhere without applying one-size-fits-all solutions? Attendees will explore and expand upon this question during this session. The file attached to this post is the handout used during the session, and is an excellent starting point for understanding network leadership. Feel free to reach out to me if you would like more information.

Learn about the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Campbell Creek Science Center’s efforts to welcome and acclimate refugee youth to their new home through a special environmental education program. You’ll also find out about the partnerships that made the program possible and plans for its future.

This session discusses “Science Strikes Back” (SSB), an annual, all-ages community science fair held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. SSB increases access to environmental education for diverse students in urban settings through place-based, community-oriented programming. The session will highlight SSB’s successes and suggestions for best practices in environmental education.

Freelance educators are uniquely positioned to connect the public to history, culture, and nature in a variety of informal learning environments. The contributions freelance educators make to lifelong learning is unknown. Who are freelance educators? What do they do? How do they create change? These are some of the questions I aim to answer in my investigation, "The Freelance Condition & Lifelong Learning in Communities." Freelance educators working in natural resource fields and environmental education are encouraged to share how they create change in their communities.

Calling all Urban Engineers: You are the director of this Anthropo(s)cene! Our citizens need your help designing their future. Your objective is to take ancient wisdom and combine it with cutting-edge ideas to create resilient and adaptable cities! Using tools like systems thinking, causal maps, story chips and hands-on models, your team will define the big ideas, design for a specific geography & climate, test the resiliency of your design and ultimately tell your city story. Our future depends on how we decide to shape it!