El Yunque is all about water, and we will discover how it flows from its origin in the peaks down into the formation of all the forest rivers.

After a stop at the El Portal Visitor Center, you will ascend to the Cloud Forest, hiking along the Mt. Britton trail where a forest ranger will be waiting to guide you and share the rich natural history of the only tropical rain forest in the U.S. National Forest System. This trail starts at the elevation of the Sierra Palm forest and will lead us to the Mt. Britton observation tower with spectacular views of the northern and southern coasts of the island. You will be then embedded inside clouds, and have the chance to see and feel the elements that form a cloud forest, which can be observed all around the tower and trail area.

After the experience at the Mt. Britton tower, participants will descend from the peaks along El Yunque trail, where we'll meet the Palo Colorado Forest. During this downward hike, we will discover the legacy of the hard workers that built all our trails. The Civilian Conservation Corps structures are noticeable along trails and will provide another view of our history in the forest. The guided tour will end at the Palo Colorado recreation area.

Depending on the group dynamic and pace, after arriving at Palo Colorado there may be time to relax around the Palo Colorado picnic area, Baño Grande Pool, or take a self-guided visit to La Mina waterfall, the most popular natural water feature of El Yunque.

Use the new Environmental Issues Forums publication, Let’s Talk About Water, to create your own issue guide for public or classroom deliberation on local water issues. You’ll also learn how to apply this “issue framing” process to other problems, and use Let's Talk About Water as an educational tool.

Youth Outside has been championing cultural relevancy in the environmental education field since 2010. When the Green 2.0 report came out in 2014, it confirmed what we already knew, and allowed us to build a stronger case for equity, inclusion, and cultural relevancy within the field. The green 2.0 report made it apparent that work on the organizational level needed to be done do dismantle the green ceiling. Youth Outside set to work on just that task in 2015, with the creation of the Cultural Relevancy Series. In 2016, the David and Lucille Packard and the Morgan Family foundations asked us to deliver the series to their environmental portfolio, deliver a toolkit, and report on our finding to the field, and we were happy to oblige. Our workshop will deliver a brief history of the need and the delivery of the Cultural Relevancy Series. Additionally, Youth Outside will share tips and tools that we developed to increase equity, inclusion, and cultural relevancy at an organizational level. Participants will walk away with a better understanding of the work their organization can do to strengthen their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, as well as tools, including worksheets, to bring back to share with their organizations.

The Caño Martín Peña (CMP) is a 3.5-mile natural tidal channel located at the heart of the San Juan Bay National Estuary (SJBE), the only tropical estuary in EPA’s National Estuary Program. For decades, the CMP has been a symbol of urban poverty and environmental degradation. The Eastern half of the CMP is currently closed in with debris and waste, obstructing the water flow between San José and the San Juan Bay. Over 3,000 structures discharge raw sewage to the CMP, mainly through a precarious storm water system, contributing to environmental degradation of the CMP and the Estuary and affecting public health.

We'll begin with an introduction to the communities of Caño Martín Peña, and then embark on a Bici-Caño bicycle tour through the area to see the issues first-hand. Bici-Caño is a micro-enterprise that seeks to increase the visibility of the struggle of the CMP residents. Experienced community residents will guide our tour, providing an intimate look into the communities, their history, and the varied commercial enterprises that affect the area. A committee composed of eight community leaders from the CMP, G-8 Inc. coordinates Bici-Caño and its employees are residents of the communities. This model of community reinvestment is an innovative, self-management mechanism that helps to fund the non-profit organization.

After a lunch of authentic Puerto Rican fare, the group will join Excursiones ECO, another micro-enterprise, for a guided boat trip through the San José, Corozos, and Torrecilla lagoons in the SJBE. Participants will appreciate the SJBE ecosystem and how the condition of Caño Martín Peña directly affects it. You will learn more about the communities surrounding the CMP and how historical events have impacted these waterways. The micro-enterprise is managed by former community leaders and residents, and is focused on ensuring that travelers understand the past, present and future of the largest estuary in the metropolitan area of Puerto Rico.

Open deliberations on values associated with relationships between people, and people and their environment are central to (re)emerging concepts of environmental stewardship, sustainability, conservation, eco-justice and other notions that capture people-environment interactions. This brings values and ethics into focus in environmental education processes and practice. But many educators are daunted by the philosophical and pedagogical challenges of enabling such exploratory, open-ended learning processes, or integrating them with school or higher education curricula. This workshop responds to these challenges by providing hands-on activities that provide educational entry points into the process of examining environmental ethics as an everyday activity.

This workshop explores some of the educational processes that could enable deliberations on values and ethics and how these may foster creative explorations of more environmentally and socially responsible forms of development, environmental justice and social-ecological change. In this sense, ethical thinking is about involving people in processes of exploration and understanding values and how they might transform themselves and their society.

Using contemporary examples from newspapers, advertisements, and curriculum guides, participants are encouraged to identify deeply embedded assumptions within these cultural artifacts regarding how we value, represent and act in relation to each other and the natural world. During the workshop, each activity focuses on critical thinking, reflexivity and explorations of alternative ways of thinking and being. This is related to the workshop’s focus on "re-imagining possibilities." Here participants will develop some practical ideas about redesigning their language of instruction, pedagogical orientations, and perspectives on curricula.

The ideas and activities shared during this workshop will draw on new activities that have been drafted and are being tested for inclusion in the second edition of the UNEP activity book now titled Environmental Education, Ethics and Action: A Sourcebook for Educators, intended for use in teacher education and other educational settings.

For years, stream ecologists have used slimy clumps of leaves called leaf packs, to assess the health of a stream. More recently, these scientists collaborated with environmental educators to create the Leaf Pack Experiment Network® and through this unique technique, trained teachers and citizen volunteers on how to use leaf packs to study the life in—and assess the health of—their local streams. Leaf Pack promotes inquiry-based interdisciplinary watershed education and engages diverse audiences in conducting their own experiments, gathering relevant ecological data, exploring food webs, learning classification skills, using technology to share data, comparing data with those of other communities and applying that information to solve local watershed problems. Hundreds of teachers, watershed groups, naturecenters and citizens from all over the world—from New York City to the suburbs of Philadelphia to rural parts of Michigan as well as indigenous villages in Africa, Peru and Costa Rica—have used the Leaf Pack Experiment to identify the health of their local stream and to understand the story the stream is telling about how surrounding land use is affecting its waters. The Leaf Pack teacher’s guide and student pages are available in Spanish and English. The Leaf Pack Network® is a rich, online resource even if an educator decides not to conduct the Leaf Pack Experiment, as participant data is free and available for all to view.

Educators will learn how their participants can create artificial stream substrate to study stream life and determine the health of the stream. All data gathered can then be posted on the Leaf Pack Network® web site (https://leafpacknetwork.org/). The Network is emerging as a rich web-based resource that provides access to data gathered by participating schools and organizations across the world, as well as information on macroinvertebrates, watershed research, riparian ecology, and water resources. Participants in this session will also learn how to identify macroinvertebrates using online and print versions of identification resources and how to analyze macroinvertebrate data.

Why have Informal Science Institutions not made significant advances in the field of environmental education in fostering diversity, equity and inclusion? Is it because we lack understanding of inclusive approaches? Do we understand good practices but lack cultural competence to put them in place? Do we lack the funds, resources, and/or commitment to get the job done? Or is something else entirely going on?

We know that strong, equitable and lasting partnerships are key to successful implementation of EE projects in diverse communities. But, partnerships are complicated and difficult to navigate—especially between large Informal Science Education (ISE) Institutions and Community Based Organizations (CBOs). Understandings of success, transparency, and commitment vary depending on your perspective. This bilingual workshop will explore four fundamental themes in developing and maintaining partnerships between ISE institutions and CBOs. These themes were identified by CBOs leading community-based participatory research through an NSF AISL grant. Led by one of the partner CBOs in the study, we’ll share CBO perspectives, questions, and answers focused on four themes: 1) trust and transparency, 2) power and privilege, 3) commitment and collaboration, and 4) realities and relevancy. 

Workshop participants will receive a step-by-step guide to creating equitable partnerships for the successful implementation of EE Projects (created by the CBOs). Participants will explore their own understanding of each of the themes to gain a better understanding of the nuances and differences in perspectives. For example, what actions demonstrate trust in partnerships? What does transparency really mean? Then, we’ll share first-hand experiences that highlight stark differences in perspectives and illustrate how the best intentions can break down quickly. By exploring our own questions and understandings of the issues and actively listening to community perspectives we will uncover barriers and opportunities for achieving real impact through environmental education in underserved communities.

When science is taught primarily as information delivery (even “fun” information delivery), or as a recipe of steps (“the scientific method”), it can kill curiosity. But when outdoor science is taught as discovering mysteries, and attempting to explain them, it ignites wonder and curiosity about interacting with nature!

The scientific enterprise is about wonder and curiosity, tackling mysteries, and coming up with evidence-based explanations for them. Providing students with inquiry routines, encouraging them to engage in science practices, like making observations, asking questions and making evidence-based explanations to attempt to answer questions, gives life-long tools to increase curiosity and ensure that they will never be bored in nature. Engaging in these practices, developing this mind-set cultivates students’ relationships with nature, and ultimately helps to create a more scientifically literate society.
This session is for program leaders to guide instructors to teach students how to make explanations from evidence and to evaluate the quality of evidence. The session also focuses on the importance of using language of science, especially for underprivileged populations. These important science practices promote long term academic success and social justice.

We will discuss connections with Next Generation Science Standards, model a routine that introduces students to how to become curious about and attempt to explain mysteries in nature, introduce participants to the value of coaching students in the language of science, how language of science reflects the approach of science, as well as how instruction related to language of science relates to issues of equity and inclusivity. Participants explore three criteria for evaluating the strength of evidence (quantity, size of assumption, and quality of source) by sorting cards and engaging in discussion.

This session models one of seven for program leaders to use for professional learning with staff. All are active experiences that encourage instructors to look at different specific aspects of research-based science pedagogy and inspire shifts in instructors’ thinking about their own teaching and learning. These sessions are part of the BEETLES professional learning system. All our resources are available free online.

In the middle of the huge coastal valley of Río Grande de Manatí existed one of the most important sugar plantations of the 19th century. The carefully restored structures today serve as the headquarters for Hacienda La Esperanza Nature Reserve and Historical Site. Participants will tour the fascinating workings of the old plantation, and discover how it is intricately linked to this important river. This short walk through the historic area of Hacienda La Esperanza entails walking on a clear but partially uneven path.

After lunch, we'll move to a northern strip of Hacienda La Esperanza in Manatí to experience the mogotes that are an essential part of the Puerto Rican landscape. This karst ecosystem is underlain by limestone that has been eroded by dissolution, creating the hills and sinkholes that are characteristic of the mogotes. 

Participants will hike for two hours, going through a tropical forest typical of the karstic formations in the region and learning its natural history, together with the flora and fauna of the area. By visiting a natural spring born at the foot of one of the formations in the reserve, we'll also witness firsthand the importance of the karst region in filtering the water we drink. We'll also go through the mangrove forest in the wetlands that also serve as natural filters for the communities of Puerto Rico. The tour will end at the ocean, with your feet in the sand and a lot of great memories.

HHMI BioInteractive presents a new online citizen science platform where students are scientists─identifying animals in trail camera images provided by researchers tracking jaguars and their prey in two national parks in Panama. Participants will work through free hands-on activities using trail camera data to investigate ecological questions.

Scientists in Panama are tracking jaguars and their key prey using trail cameras to monitor their populations in relation to human activity. HHMI BioInteractive has developed an online citizen science platform for the public to aid this effort by identifying animals in thousands of trail camera images. A new companion platform, built for educational settings, allows students to explore and download trail camera data to investigate their own ecological questions. In this presentation, participants will learn how to use the platform, which contains real trail camera photos and data, to teach students about ecological principles, investigating testable questions, and the importance of scientific inquiry in conservation.

The session facilitator will introduce the ecology and status of jaguars in Panama, explore the use of trail cameras by park scientists, and demonstrate the citizen science platform. Participants will engage in two activities that involve exploring and analyzing real trail camera data. In the first activity, participants act as scientists by making observations and asking scientific questions using trail camera photos. They will discuss what makes questions testable, how to generate hypotheses and predictions, and how to analyze trail camera data to answer their question. In the second activity, participants will use trail camera data to measure biodiversity in different vegetation types in Panama by calculating species richness, the Shannon Index, and evenness.

This presentation will explore classic ecological principles and conservation practices through innovative data collection—citizen science via online crowdsourcing. The trail camera project platform is an example of public participation in scientific research (PPSR). The resources presented in this session allow educators to bring real data into the classroom, letting students experience the process of science in a meaningful way. Participants will leave with tangible resources they can use to demonstrate conservation in action while teaching the process of science.

NASA-sponsored GLOBE program and the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA have formed a partnership to provide training and support for K-12 teachers in their efforts to bring meaningful, real-world experiential learning opportunities to their students. While the GLOBE program provides the rigorous citizen science, helping to develop student understanding of the Earth system and global environment, Eco-Schools USA provides students the framework and tools to continue data collection and analysis, create action plans, and make positive, student led school- and community-wide environmental change.

We will focus on the following Disciplinary Core Ideas: Weather and climate; Humans impact on Earth systems; Interdependent relationships in ecosystems; Ecosystem dynamics, functioning, and resilience; and Biodiversity and humans, through the integration of science, sustainability, and school-gardens.

In this workshop, participants will visit a San Juan Eco-School and see how students use hydroponics, outdoor gardens and water quality studies at an adjacent stream. Participants will also gain access to materials that integrate GLOBE science and Eco-Schools sustainability in real-world, relevant ways for student learning.

This workshop provides critical information for universities to become a NAAEE Distinguished College and University Program. It includes in-depth review of standards, strategies for incorporating them into curriculum, sample assessments and exemplary models with faculty members who have completed applications. Participants should bring laptops and documents to begin the process.

In this workshop, participants will receive training in the use of NAAEE’s new Environmental Education Guidelines for Community Engagement and will begin to develop preliminary plans to provide Guidelines Trainings in their respective regions and professional communities.

This session is part of a dynamic and rewarding journey. Diversity and inclusion work is not swift: it is an iterative process of awareness building, information gathering, analysis, vision development, planning, and action. There is no magic shortcut. We start by creating a safer, braver space and a forum for deep learning, honest exploration and open dialogue. From here, we begin to develop an understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion in our lives, our relationships and our work, and explore the many dimensions of diversity in our personal and professional interactions. This includes: building self-awareness; developing a common language to describe the fundamental principles of diversity, inclusion, racism, and equity; evaluating and acknowledging problem areas (barriers to inclusion); tips on building relationships across difference (community building and “in-reach” versus outreach) understanding the case for action; developing a willingness to stretch and change; and committing to a process that is, by nature, dynamic. The work before us is both a great challenge and a wonderful opportunity! The work before us is vital.

Without solutions, climate change information is very overwhelming. To avoid instilling the sense of crisis that leaves people feeling overwhelmed and helpless, you must describe what can be done about climate change in all your climate messaging. By presenting practical solutions as the norm and reinforcing that action is happening all around us, you can foster hope, agency, efficacy and issue engagement.

The National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI) mission is to change the world through better communication techniques around climate change. We know that 64% of the country is currently concerned about climate change, but they lack confidence that anything can or will be done about it. Despite the majority concern, climate change conversation is stifled because people don’t believe they hold the majority view, they don’t feel confident explaining climate change, and they don’t have faith that talking about it will make a difference. Our research shows that through better framing of why it matters, what’s going on and what we can do about it—our visitors leave more hopeful and prepared to act on behalf of climate that those who do not visit institutions with NNOCCI trained interpreters. Furthermore, we know that our tools empower people to converse and break the spiral of silence that is hindering effective climate action.

The workshop will include hands-on activities and a dynamic presentation of recommendations from Strategic Framing, a research-based approach to communications that is grounded in understanding what’s already in people’s minds about climate change, knowing where the gaps in understanding are, and using tested tools to productively fill those gaps. The result is an empirically-driven communications process that makes academic research understandable, interesting, and usable to help people solve social problems.

Participants will learn what are the most effective solutions to share and how to craft an impactful solutions story. They will also hear from network members’ experiences in applying Strategic Framing in their programs, training, and classes. By the end of the workshop, participants will try out strategically framed approaches to discussing community-level climate change solutions.

Científicos en Panamá están usando cámaras trampa para investigar al elusivo jaguar, y para comprender cómo la actividad humana afecta a sus poblaciones y a las de sus principales presas. HHMI-BioInteractive ha desarrollado una nueva plataforma en línea que permite a científicos-ciudadanos identificar a los animales capturados en estas fotografías, y así contribuir a estos esfuerzos. Esta plataforma puede además ser usada por educadores para exponer a sus estudiantes a una experiencia científica, en la cual los estudiantes contribuyen nuevos datos (identificando animales en las fotos), hacen observaciones, y proponen y evalúan sus propias preguntas e hipótesis ecológicas utilizando los datos generados por las cámaras trampa.

Durante este taller, los participantes primero aprenderán sobre la ecología y el estatus actual del jaguar en Panamá, sobre los proyectos de investigación que se están llevando a cabo usando cámaras trampa, y sobre el uso de la plataforma interactiva. Los participantes luego realizarán dos actividades usando datos recolectados por cámaras trampa. En la primera actividad, los participantes realizan observaciones y elaboran preguntas científicas usando fotografías. Una vez que desarrollan preguntas que pueden ser contestadas con datos de cámaras trampa, los participantes acceden a los datos a través de la plataforma para tratar de contestar sus preguntas y discutir hipótesis ecológicas. En la segunda actividad, los participantes usan este mismo tipo de datos para medir la biodiversidad asociada con diferentes tipos de vegetación en Panamá, calculando riqueza de especies, el índice de Shannon y uniformidad.

Este taller explorará principios ecológicos y de conservación usando datos recolectados a través de ciudadanía científica en línea. Los recursos que se presentarán en esta sesión permiten a educadores llevar datos reales al salón de clases, dando oportunidad a que los estudiantes sean parte de un proceso científico auténtico. Los participantes recibirán recursos tangibles y específicos que podrán usar en sus labores educativas. Todas las actividades presentadas utilizan plataformas y datos que pueden ser usados libremente por cualquier persona interesada en participar en estas iniciativas de ciudadanía científica.

This workshop highlights relevant findings from recent environmental education-related (EE) research, focusing on tools that help practitioners infuse research findings into their work. We use design-thinking principles of brainstorming, ideating, and rapid prototyping to incorporate research findings in EE practice and open the research-practice dialogue.

Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute &
UN Messenger of Peace

In the summer of 1960, a young Englishwoman arrived on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in what is now Tanzania, East Africa. She was about to venture into the African forest to study chimpanzees—a highly unorthodox activity for a woman in those days. In fact, British authorities had insisted that the young woman have a companion, and so her mother would share this adventure for a time. As Jane Goodall first surveyed the mountains and valley forests of what was then called the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve, she had no idea her coming efforts would redefine the relationship between humans and animals or that the project would continue into the 21st century.

This African adventure was the fulfillment of Goodall’s childhood dream. She had been fascinated by animals even as a small girl—once frightening the adults in her household by disappearing for hours to hide under some hay in the henhouse to wait for a chicken to lay an egg. “It was Jane’s first animal research program,” her mother, Vanne, would say later. Goodall read countless books about wild animals and dreamed about living like Tarzan and Dr. Dolittle.

As a young woman, Goodall searched for ways to realize her dream. When, in 1957, a school friend invited Goodall to her parents’ farm in Kenya, she eagerly accepted. Within a few months of arriving, she met the famed anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey. Dr. Leakey had been searching for someone to begin a study of chimpanzees, not only to better understand these little-known primates, but also to gain insight into man’s evolutionary past. Goodall’s patience and persistent desire to understand animals convinced him she was the right person. He believed that a mind uncluttered by academia would yield a fresh perspective.

At first, the Gombe chimps fled whenever they saw Goodall. She persisted, however, watching from a distance with binoculars, and gradually the chimps allowed her closer. One day in the fall of 1960, she saw chimpanzee David Greybeard strip leaves off twigs to fashion tools for fishing termites from a nest. Scientists thought humans were the only species to make and use tools, but here was evidence to the contrary. On hearing of Goodall’s observation, Dr. Leakey said: “Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as humans.” This would be one of Goodall’s most important discoveries.

Also in her first year at Gombe, Goodall observed chimps hunting and eating bushpigs and other animals, disproving theories that chimpanzees were primarily vegetarians and fruit eaters who only occasionally supplemented their diet with insects and small rodents.

In 1961, she entered Cambridge University as a Ph.D. candidate, one of very few people to be admitted without a college degree. She earned her Ph.D. in ethology in 1966.

It is hard to overstate the degree to which Dr. Goodall changed and enriched the field of primatology. She defied scientific convention by giving the Gombe chimps names instead of numbers, and insisted on the validity of her observations that animals have distinct personalities, minds and emotions. She wrote of lasting chimpanzee family relationships. Through the years, her work continued to yield surprising insights, such as the unsettling discovery that chimpanzees engage in primitive and brutal warfare. In early 1974, a “four-year war” began at Gombe, the first record of long-term “warfare” in nonhuman primates. Members of the Kasekela group systematically annihilated members of the Kahama splinter group. In 1987, Dr. Goodall and her field staff would also observe adolescent Spindle “adopt” three-year-old orphan Mel, even though the infant was not a close relative.

The Gombe Stream Research Centre, which Dr. Goodall established in 1965, eventually became a training ground for students interested in studying primates. Today, it hosts a skilled team of researchers and field assistants, including many Tanzanians.

Said Gilbert Grosvenor, chairman of The National Geographic Society: “Jane Goodall’s trail- blazing path for other women primatologists is arguably her greatest legacy. During the last third of the 20th century, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, Cheryl Knott, Penny Patterson, and many more women have followed her. Indeed, women now dominate long-term primate behavioral studies worldwide.”

Perhaps most significantly, Dr. Goodall’s work opened a window to the world of chimpanzees for a public with a strong curiosity about one of its closest genetic relatives. Through her books, particularly In the Shadow of Man and Through a Window, people worldwide are on a first-name basis with the chimpanzees of Gombe. Gombe’s greatest mother, Flo, and her offspring became internationally known. When homely old Flo died in 1972, The London Times printed an obituary.

In 1977, Dr. Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute. The Institute supports the continuing research at Gombe and is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. It also is widely recognized for establishing innovative community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa, and Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, the global environmental and humanitarian youth program, which has groups in more than 130 countries.

In 1986, after a conference session with startling news about deforestation and the rapidly dwindling chimpanzee populations across Africa, Dr. Goodall realized she would have to leave her beloved Gombe and begin working to save chimpanzees. She continues this work today, traveling an average of 300 days per year to visit schoolchildren and speak in packed auditoriums about the threats facing chimpanzees, other environmental crises, and her reasons for hope that humankind will ultimately solve the problems it has imposed on the earth. Dr. Goodall continually urges her audiences to recognize their personal responsibility and ability to effect change. “Every individual matters,” she says. “Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.”

Dr. Goodall also emphasizes the interconnectedness of all life. The Roots & Shoots program embodies this principle by encouraging member groups to undertake service-learning projects benefiting people, animals and the environment.

Dr. Goodall’s scores of honors include the Medal of Tanzania, the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, Japan’s prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, UNESCO 60th Anniversary Medal, and the Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. In April 2002, Secretary- General Kofi Annan named Dr. Goodall a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Messengers help mobilize the public to become involved in work that makes the world a better place. They serve as advocates in a variety of areas: poverty eradication, human rights, peace and conflict resolution, HIV/AIDS, disarmament, community development and conservation. In 2004, in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, Prince Charles invested Dr. Goodall as a Dame of the British Empire, the female equivalent of knighthood. In 2006, Dr. Goodall received France’s highest recognition, the French Legion of Honor, presented by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in Paris.

Dr. Goodall has received honorary doctorates from numerous universities, including University of St Andrews; Goldsmiths, University of London; Utrecht University, Holland; Ludwig- Maximilians University, Germany; Stirling University, Scotland; Providence University, Taiwan; University of Guelph and Ryerson University in Canada; and Buffalo University, Tufts University and other U.S. universities.

Dr. Goodall’s list of publications is extensive, including two overviews of her work at Gombe— In the Shadow of Man and Through a Window—as well as two autobiographies in letters, a best- selling autobiography, Reason for Hope, and Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating. In 2009, she released Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species are Being Rescued from the Brink about the successful efforts of conservationists determined to save endangered species. Her many children’s books include Grub: the Bush Baby, Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours and My Life with the Chimpanzees. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior is recognized as the definitive work on chimpanzees and is the culmination of Dr. Goodall’s scientific career.

Dr. Goodall has been the subject of numerous television documentaries and is featured in the large-screen format film Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees (2002) and the documentary film about her life, Jane’s Journey (2010). Discovery Channel Animal Planet specials featuring Dr. Goodall include: Jane Goodall’s Return to Gombe, Jane Goodall’s State of the Great Ape, When Animals Talk, Jane’s Goodall’s Heroes, and Almost Human.

For more information, please visit www.janegoodall.org.

Carmen Guerrero Pérez is the Director of the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division (CEPD) at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Before assuming her current post, Carmen was Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) from 2013 to 2016.

Carmen started her career in 1995 at the Office of Policy and Planning of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C. She returned to Puerto Rico to join the San Juan Bay Estuary Program as a Project Coordinator. For more than 15 years, she served as environmental and conservation planner and consultant to numerous organizations and government entities, among them: Puerto Rico Conservation Trust, El Yunque National Forest, Corporación ENLACE del Caño Martín Peña, University of Puerto Rico, Banco Popular Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy. Carmen also founded an environmental non-government organization that provided volunteer advisory services on environmental and sustainable development issues to local communities across Puerto Rico.

She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Public Policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She has a Masters’ Degree in Environmental Planning from the Graduate School of Planning at the University of Puerto Rico and a Masters’ Degree in Environmental Management from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University in Connecticut. She also participated in sustainable development study programs at Costa Rica and at the University of California in Berkeley. She is a licensed professional planner in Puerto Rico.

Chat with exhibitors, review the Poster Presentations, find out what your state Affiliate is up to, bid on a prize auction item, and more—all during the Exhibit Fair luncheon. 

In addition to the exhibits, during the Poster Session from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, presenters will be staffing their Posters, eager to interact and discuss their work. Many of NAAEE's state Affiliates will be available to welcome you and share information about the many services they offer on the state and provincial levels. 

The Exhibit Fair luncheon is included with full conference or Thursday conference registration. Guest tickets are available for purchase. 

Vicki Arroyo, Moderator
Executive Director, Georgetown Climate Center and
Professor from Practice, Georgetown Law

Vicki Arroyo is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Climate Center at Georgetown Law, where she also serves as the Assistant Dean of Centers and Institutes and a Professor from Practice.

She oversees the Center’s work at the nexus of climate and energy policy, supervising staff and student work on climate mitigation and adaptation at the state and federal level. She teaches “experiential” environmental law courses to both law and public policy students.

She previously served at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, including serving as the Pew Center’s Vice President for Domestic Policy and General Counsel. For over a decade, she directed the Pew Center’s policy analysis, science, adaptation, economics, and domestic policy programs. She also served as Managing Editor of the Center’s book and oversaw publication of numerous reports and policy briefs.

In addition to teaching at Georgetown Law, she has taught courses on environmental policy and climate change at Catholic University, George Mason University’s graduate public policy program, and Tulane Law School. Previously, she practiced environmental law with Kilpatrick Stockton and other private firms and served in two offices at U.S. EPA: the Office of Air and Radiation and the Office of Research and Development where she reviewed development of standards under the Clean Air Act. From 1988 - 1991, she created and directed the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s policy office, and served during some of that time as Governor Buddy Roemer's environmental advisor.

Professor Arroyo has served on several federal panels, including those reviewing economic modeling of climate legislation (DOE’s Energy Information Administration) and on climate change adaptation along the Gulf Coast (Climate Change Science Program). She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the National Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences and as a member of the Board’s study committee on the future of the interstate highway system. She previously served for seven years on the Advisory Board to the National Science Foundation’s Geosciences Directorate, and for three years on the Board of Trustees to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.  She previously served on the external advisory committee to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and on California’s Economics and Allocation Advisory Committee. She currently serves on editorial boards of the Climate Policy journal and The Georgetown Environmental Law Review. As a student at Georgetown, Professor Arroyo served as Georgetown International Environmental Law Review’s Editor-in-Chief.

She holds a B.S. in biology, high honors, from Emory (double major in philosophy); a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard (receiving the Don K. Price award for academic achievement and commitment to public service, the top honors in her program), and a J.D., Magna Cum Laude, from Georgetown Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of The Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.

Dr. William Spitzer
Vice President for Programs, Exhibits, and Planning
New England Aquarium, Boston

William Spitzer is the Vice President for Programs, Exhibits, and Planning at the
 New England Aquarium in Boston, MA. He is responsible for the development of mission-driven exhibits and programs, including oversight of exhibit design and animal husbandry as well as volunteer and education programs. He has served as Principal Investigator for a number of informal science education projects funded by the National Science Foundation.

Prior to coming to the New England Aquarium in 1996, Billy gained seven years of experience at TERC, an educational research and development arm in Cambridge, MA. There, he directed research and development in
science education. For several years, he directed the LabNet project, an electronic community that served over 1,500 science teachers with forums for professional discussion, resource sharing, and collaborative projects. Billy holds a Ph.D.
in Oceanography from MIT and the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution and a B.A. in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard University.

Vernard Williams
Director of Equity & Inclusion
ACE, Alliance for Climate Education

Vernard served as a founding member of ACE’s New York City region in 2009 before establishing its Las Vegas region in 2011. He spearheads initiatives to improve ACE’s understanding of how social issues intersect with climate change so its programming best assists youth in infusing their values into the climate movement. He is also skilled at supporting young people to discover their authentic selves, which he believes best allows them to offer solutions for their communities.

Vernard's days as a 4-H youth in Brooklyn fostered this passion. While competing against some of the best basketball players in New York City, Vernard planted trees, grew a community garden, and engaged in beautification projects alongside fellow 4-H youth. The lessons Vernard learned working alongside peers to improve his community spearheaded his commitment to earning a J.D. from Howard University School of Law — an institution noted for its leadership in civil and social rights causes.

Vernard is also an engaging speaker and facilitator who has served the United States Court of Appeals as a staff attorney.

Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez

The evening’s entertainment will include our fun-filled live auction, which features special treasures in all price ranges, including a fabulous trip to the Galapagos Islands donated by Lindblad Expeditions. Also be there to slip in your final bid and snatch up a great variety of books, arts and crafts, jewelry, clothing, pottery, and more as the silent auction concludes.

Auction Donations Needed

Our annual Stapp Scholarship Auction helps support NAAEE’s student scholarship fund. We welcome your donations; the more great items we have to auction off, the more students we can help support.

The conference culminates with our annual awards ceremony and luncheon.

Awards will be presented for outstanding Affiliate organization, contributions to research, and service to environmental education by individuals and organizations at the local, regional, and global levels. We will also recognize the K–12 Educator of the Year and the recipient of the Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Outstanding Service award. And, finally, exemplary achievements in the field of EE will be honored through the Board Chair Award and NAAEE's highest honor, the Walter E. Jeske Award. 

Following the awards presentation, we will close the conference with a panel of inspirational young leaders at the forefront of environmental change. The talented and dedicated speakers will be selected from NAAEE's "30 under 30" program. Watch for more details.  

Sorry, this field trip is full and no longer accepting participants. 

In 1975, Para la Naturaleza acquired Las Cabezas de San Juan Nature Reserve. Para la Naturaleza rescued this site of immense ecological importance from a tourist development proposed for the area. Join in this extraordinary experience, and you'll see why.

We start the night with an interpreter-led trolley ride to the imposing lighthouse on the highest part of the Reserve. The lighthouse and the surrounding view have become one of the main attractions for visitors to Las Cabezas de San Juan Nature Reserve.

After visiting the lighthouse, we'll head to Laguna Grande. This lagoon is one of the few of places in the world where we can appreciate the natural phenomenon of bioluminescence throughout the year, but only under ideal conditions! Depending on the moon phase and concentration of the bioluminescent organisms, you might be able to witness this phenomenon right in front of you in this kayaking part of the adventure.

After a short bus trip to Old San Juan, the group will start out with an introduction at Casa Ramón Power y Giralt, the restored birthplace of one of the first native-born Puerto Ricans to fight to equal representation of Puerto Rico in front of the parliamentary government of Spain. The building is now home to the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.

Then, on a walk through Old San Juan, you'll visit the Bastion of the Palms and the Gate of San Juan and learn about the raw materials that went into the buildings. You'll tour the National Park Service restoration workshops at Polvorín de Santa Elena and the Morro, and discover different materials and processes used to preserve the history and heritage of Old San Juan. The tour ends in the Fort Chapel to reflect on environmental conservation and historical preservation.

Following the walking tour, you'll have about two hours to explore the rich history, shops, and restaurants of Old San Juan on your own before the bus returns to the Caribe Hilton.

With stops, the walk will last about 2½ hours. Sidewalks are narrow, but wheelchair accessible. You can expect average temperatures (70˚-89˚) and about one hour of exposure to direct sunlight.

This field trip begins with a brief description of the Protected Natural Area of ​​Medio Mundo and Daguao. The group will then move (by bus) to the Machos de Ceiba wetland to participate in citizen science—observing birds and taking limnological samples (salinity, temperature, wind speed, and more). The data collected will be added to the Ebird Puerto Rico and Para la Naturaleza databases. Following lunch, the group will move to a new location for a kayaking excursion through the canals of the wetland. The route will go by (but not into) the dwarf mangrove forest, with stops along the way to learn more about natural history of the ecosystem. Then, returning to the kayaking entry point, you'll have a chance to snorkel in the periphery of the mangrove to observe the organisms that inhabit the roots of the red mangrove.

Participants can expect high temperatures (85˚-95˚F). The trip entails moderate constant activity, requiring swimming and regular exercise with arms. The total time in kayaks is about 3 hours, with some moments against a slight current.