Archives of past webinars

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“Schoolyards Re-Imagined: School Ground Innovation in the San Francisco Bay Area and Beyond”
(original date - March 27, 2012)
Presenter: Sharon Danks

Schools around the world are using their grounds to enhance hands-on teaching and learning, enrich outdoor play, and improve the ecology of their neighborhoods.  Sharon Danks will present a vibrant slideshow that takes us on a journey to explore the growing movement toward "green" school grounds.  Along the way, we will “visit” some of the world's most innovative green schoolyards including schools with: edible gardens with fruit trees, vegetables, chickens, honeybees, and outdoor cooking facilities; wildlife habitats with ponds or forest ecosystems; schoolyard watershed models, rainwater catchment systems, and waste-water treatment wetlands; renewable energy systems that power landscape features or the whole school; waste-as-a-resource projects that give new life to old materials in beautiful ways; curriculum connections for a wide range of disciplines from science and math to art and social studies; and creative play opportunities that diversify school ground recreational options and encourage children to explore the natural world while they run, hop, skip, jump, balance, slide, and twirl. The talk will also ground these examples in a practical framework that schools can use to make their schoolyards more comfortable, enjoyable, and sustainable, and describe a participatory design process to engage school communities as stewards of their own public spaces.

Suitability:  All formal and non-formal youth educators, school administrators, parents, environmentalists, and design professionals

Sharon Danks is an environmental planner and a founding principal of Bay Tree Design in Berkeley, California. Over the last twelve years, her professional work and passion have focused on transforming school grounds into vibrant public spaces that reflect and enhance local ecology and nurture children as they learn and play.  An accomplished schoolyard researcher and an advocate of ecological design, Sharon has traveled the world to study hundreds of school grounds. She applies this international experience to her work, and celebrates it in her recent book, Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, published by New Village Press in November 2010. Danks has facilitated green schoolyard master-planning processes for more than two dozen green schoolyards in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Sharon holds a MLA-MCP from UC Berkeley and a BA from Princeton University.  She is the mother of two expert playground testers.

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“Deep Climate Change Education: Learning and Teaching for Personal and Social Transformation”
(original date - March 8, 2012)
Presenters: David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa

Building on their Fall 2011 article in Green Teacher, Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby will critique mainstream manifestations of climate change education as a shallow and insufficient response to the global and human condition. They will offer an elaboration of a 'deep climate change education' that examines values issues, explores the dynamics of climate change avoidance and denial, investigates the complicity of economic growth in fomenting climate change while cultivating intimacy with nature, an ethic of denizenship, and commitment to global climate justice. The links between climate change education, sustainability education and disaster risk reduction education will be explored, the whole being exemplified through practical activities.

Suitability:  All formal and non-formal youth educators

David Selby is Founding Director and Fumiyo Kagawa is Research Director of Sustainability Frontiers, a new not-for-profit international organization with offices in Canada and the UK. (See www.sustainabilityfrontiers.org.) They are editors of Education and Climate Change: Living and Learning in Interesting Times, published in 2010 by Routledge. They have recently written the UNESCO Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development teacher education program and support materials for Africa, Asia, Europe and North America and the Small Island Nations. They will be holding two summer institutes on Deep Climate Change Education in the seaside town of Sidmouth, Devon, England, July/August 2012.

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“Exploring Place-based Education – What, Why, and How”
(original date - February 9, 2012)
Presenter: Clifford E. Knapp

You have no doubt heard about place-based education and the importance of teaching in and about your local surroundings. This webinar will explore some big ideas about this emerging field and attempt to shed more light on the topic. For the first 25 minutes, Dr. Knapp will present some important concepts and raise some questions to ponder. These will include some definitions, guiding principles, and characteristics of place-based education. Other topics will include: Living Well in Place, Place Attachment, Displacement, Ecoliteracy, Bioregionalism, Pedagogy of Place, Identity, Powerful Places, and Reading the Landscape. These big ideas will be referenced so that webinar participants can follow up with additional reading. The last 35 minutes of the program will consist of a question and answer session that will likely include mention of additional resources for teaching more about your place. Come prepared to dig deeper into your locale.

Suitability:  All formal and non-formal youth educators (and others who may be interested)

Clifford Knapp is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Northern Illinois University. Since his retirement, he has stayed active in the field of outdoor teaching and learning by reading, writing, traveling, and teaching in the United States and abroad. He was a featured speaker at the first Place-based Education Seminar at Raffles Institution in Singapore in 2009, and delivered the Hahn address at the 37th annual International Association for Experiential Education in Montreal. He contributed the lead chapter to Gruenewald and Smith’s 2008 book, Place-Based Education in the Global Age. In 2003 he co-presented a paper, on place-based pedagogy at Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow, Scotland. He currently is associated with the Children and Nature Network and the Chana School Museum in Oregon, Illinois. Dr. Knapp has developed and leads a number of nature workshops: see wonderearth.org for details.

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“Thinking About Change: What Do We Know, What Can We Do?”
(original date - February 1, 2012)
Presenter: Richard Kool

Change, be it emotional, spiritual, cognitive and/or behavioural, is something that educators are concerned about and work towards. But what do we know about the various ways in which change comes about? Why is change in some contexts so hard, and why in other contexts does it seem to be so easy? Does knowledge lead to change, or does change lead to knowledge? This webinar will attempt to open up some thinking about the nature of change and its relationship to the work we do as environmental educators and communicators.

Suitability:  All formal and non-formal youth educators

Richard Kool has an MSc in Zoology from the University of British Columbia and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Brigham Young University. He has been a secondary school science teacher on Vancouver Island, a biology and ecology instructor at a Douglas College in New Westminster BC, and a post-secondary instructor at both the University of Victoria and now as an Associate Professor at Royal Roads University. He has also worked outside the formal education system, managing the public programs department at the Royal BC Museum and developing environmental education and park interpretation programs for the British Columbia Government.

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“Forest Kindergartens”
(original date - January 31, 2012)
Presenter: Judy Kane

Judy Kane will briefly discuss how young children learn, the importance of open-ended fantasy play in childhood development, and how play in nature enhances the benefits of play. Drawing on the “Walderkindergarten” article she co-wrote with her daughter Amanda for Green Teacher’s Fall 2011 issue, she will describe how early childhood educators in Germany and North America are using nature kindergartens to promote learning, and how educators can adapt these programs to their schools.

Suitability:  Formal and non-formal educators of children aged 2-6

Judy Kane is a retired teacher, assistant head of school and curriculum director in Alexandria, Virginia, Judy Kane is interested in non-traditional approaches to learning, and in ways to communicate why and how children need to play, to learn conflict management skills, and to practice metacognition.

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“Strategies for Successfully Engaging Culturally Diverse Audiences”
(original date - January 30, 2012)
Presenter:  Gus Medina  

Are you finding it difficult to engage increasingly diverse audiences in your community? Have you tried to attract visitors from diverse cultural backgrounds to your environmental education programs and met with limited success? This webinar will examine how similar challenges led three organizations to seek more effective strategies for working with culturally diverse audiences. Gus Medina will share the experiences of these organizations and strategies that can help program managers and educators make their programs more inclusive. There will be about 25 minutes for participants to ask questions and share strategies based on their experience.

Suitability:  All formal and non-formal youth educators

Gus Medina manages EECapacity, a national project intended to help anyone who wants to increase their effectiveness as an environmental educator. The project is addressing the question, What does environmental education look like in a society that is increasingly urban and culturally diverse? Cornell University is the managing partner and U.S. EPA funds the EECapacity Project. Between 1995 and 2010 Dr. Medina served as Project Manager for the Environmental Education and Training Partnership (EETAP), a consortium of organizations that increased the capacity of education professionals to deliver high quality environmental education. He was also responsible for several EETAP activities that produced What’s Fair Got To Do With It: Diversity Cases from Environmental Educators, a day-long workshop that examined the intersection of environmental education and cultural diversity, and an online course on how make environmental education more relevant for culturally diverse audiences. Prior to EETAP, Dr. Medina served as a Senior Program Officer with World Wildlife Fund-US. Dr. Medina holds PhD in Natural Resources Management from the University of Michigan with a specialization in environmental education.

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“Promoting Competencies for Sustainability”
(original date - January 26, 2012)
Presenter:  Diane Pruneau

In a world where the environment is under increasing strain, what are the competencies that allow citizens to positively transform their communities? Futures thinking? Risk prediction? Strategic planning? Dr. Pruneau’s research team examines the competencies that allow citizens to improve the sustainability of their communities. They have observed citizens who, in their efforts to construct sustainable neighbourhoods, have demonstrated the complementary competencies of problem solving, decision-making, openness to new situations, planning, linking, futures and retrospective thinking, and risk prediction. During this presentation, Dr. Pruneau will offer a synthesis of her team’s research on sustainability competencies, and on the educational strategies that help students reason in terms of viability, sustainability and vitality.

Suitability:  Educators of all ages

Diane Pruneau is a professor at the Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, who specializes in environmental and science education. She is the Director of the Littoral et vie Research Group (www8.umoncton.ca/littoral-vie), whose objective is to help adults and young people become more aware of the state of their environment and to successfully take action. Dr. Pruneau’s research programs have dealt with the understanding of the link people have with their environment, climate change education, healthy cities education, the process of taking on environmental actions and the development of sustainability competencies such as risk prediction, futures thinking, decision making and liveable planning. She has conducted research projects in Morocco, Romania and Brazil.

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“Using Nature Journals to Teach Students How to Think, Communicate and Act like Scientists” 
(original date - January 25, 2012) 
Presenter:  Mark Baldwin

Successful science teaching and learning depends on knowing how to make accurate observations, ask the kind of questions that lead to productive scientific inquiry, and plainly communicate what has been learned. One of the best methods for cultivating these skills is to keep a nature journal. In this webinar we will introduce the necessary tools and a basic set of exercises to make nature journaling a part of how you teach science, and discuss practical applications in the classroom and in the field.

Suitability:  All formal and non-formal youth educators

Mark Baldwin serves as Director of Education at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, New York where for the past 20 years he has worked with teachers to infuse their curriculum with the outdoors and the natural world. Mark has a special interest in keeping nature journals to observe and record natural events and in teaching the discipline to others. Mark also has a longtime interest in place-based education, especially creating maps and using them as tools for evoking a sense of place in both children and adults.

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“Sustainable Happiness, Hope & Resiliency”
(original date - January 24, 2012)
Presenters: Catherine O'Brien and Elin Kelsey

Join Catherine O'Brien and Elin Kelsey for an inspiring conversation about sustainable happiness, hope and resiliency. In the Summer 2011 issue of Green Teacher, Catherine and Elin introduced the concepts of sustainable happiness, hope and resiliency and why it's so important to move beyond "gloom and doom." In this webinar, they invite you to join them in a lively conversation about how these ideas are catching hold and causing ripples of optimism across the disciplines of environmental and sustainability education, health and well-being and conservation biology, and around the world. After short presentations, they will share some of the ways they are seeing this work moving out in the world so that participants can start to think of implications for their personal and professional life.

Suitability:  All formal and non-formal youth educators

Catherine O'Brien, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Education at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Elin Kelsey, PhD, lives in Pacific Grove, California where she works as a consultant with Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other institutions committed to sustainability and public engagement. Her newest children's book, Not Your Typical Book About the Environment (Owl Kids 2010), aims to allay children's fears about environmental doom by showing them what a remarkable time they live in. Learn more at www.elinkelseyandcompany.com.

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"Outdoor Teaching Mistakes" 
(original date - December 7, 2011)  
Presenter:  Dr. Brad Daniel

This webinar will present part one of what is usually a two part series illustrating a dialectical approach for training outdoor teachers. It should be noted that this training was designed for novice teachers. While experienced teachers will be familiar with many of these mistakes and suggestions, it can still be valuable to review them. I usually do this training in two 2-hour blocks. Part one includes a skit/video illustrating a variety of common mistakes made by outdoor teachers along with solutions to each mistake. Part two (not included in this webinar) continues this discussion by illustrating a lesson taught in the outdoors by an instructor that tries to eliminate these mistakes.

Suitability:  All formal and non-formal youth educators

Brad Daniel is Professor of Outdoor Education and Environmental Studies at Montreat College where he currently serves as Co-chair of the Outdoor Education Department. Brad is a North Carolina state certified environmental educator and coauthored one of the two required course modules for the North Carolina Environmental Education certification program. He has been the recipient of several awards for teaching excellence and was recently honored as “Professor of the Decade 2001-2010” at Montreat College. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, backpacking, and photography.

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"Greening Education with Courage and Compassion" 
(original date - May 30, 2011) 
Presenter:  Julie Johnston   

Most educators don't go into teaching because they want to become heroes, but it's going to take courage and compassion, along with a whole lot of creativity and critical thinking, to green the heart of our education system. We are already beyond peak oil (IEA, 2010) and into dangerous greenhouse gas levels. The global climate change emergency is already impacting vulnerable regions and populations around the world, with 300,000 or more people every year losing their lives and many more losing their livelihoods, homes, food security and water sources. What should our response be? Is simply tweaking a 20th century curriculum enough, in light of 21st century realities?

This webinar will suggest some transformative and provocative "big idea" principles for greening the heart of education, and then outline what teachers need to know and need to do in order to help their students create the best possible future in a carbon-constrained and climate-changed world.

Age appropriateness:  K-12  (for formal educators)

Julie Johnston is a teacher and sustainability education consultant with GreenHeart Education. Since receiving her BEd in outdoor & experiential education at Queen's, she has taught in Saskatchewan, Prince George and the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, has worked with student teachers at four universities, and has given presentations on environmental education in Canada, the Philippines, India and Thailand. After two recent years as the Coordinator of Environment and Sustainability Programs at Toronto's Upper Canada College, Julie is back living on Pender Island near Victoria, where she works with homeschooling families and runs GreenHearted.org. GreenHeart’s mission is to help educators around the world to green their classrooms, curricula, school communities — and the heart of their teaching. In her spare time, Julie works with her husband, a retired family physician, to educate about the dangers of the climate change emergency (see www.climate-change-emergency-medical-response.org).

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"Green Craft-Making" 
(original date - May 25, 2011)

The why and how of focusing one’s eco-art activities on using natural materials easily found intheoutdoors.

Age appropriateness:  K-12  

Zabe MacEachren is the coordinator of the Outdoor and Experiential Education program in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. A former president of the Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario, Zabe has long been an innovator in outdoor learning experiences. In “Swimming with Animals”, her most recent contribution to Green Teacher magazine (GT#81, Winter 2007), she described how one could use simple swimming lessons to foster connections to other life forms and an appreciation of what they have to offer us.

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"Do a Little or Do a Lot: Sustainability Education"
(original date - May 19, 2011)
Presenter:  Dave Wilton

Sustainability provides a real-world framework for connecting community issues to global issues and seeing them as opportunities for positive change rather than as insurmountable problems. Using the theme of Do A Little or Do A Lot, participants will see examples of how to integrate education for sustainability into their classrooms, schools, or districts. The intent is not to add more content to the curriculum, but to illuminate interconnections between existing classroom or school themes and capitalize upon the opportunities for critical thinking that arise from examining these interconnections.

After attending this webinar, participants will leave with an understanding of what education for sustainability is and how they can incorporate sustainability into their teaching practices. You/they will learn about free curriculum resources that examine interconnections between economy, environment, and society.

Age Appropriateness:  K-12

Dave Wilton is the Assistant Outreach Director for Facing the Future, in Seattle, Washington.  Dave develops and conducts educator workshops & webinars, oversees the organization’s Peer Educator network, and supports its educator, community, and service learning outreach programs. He has presented over 100 workshops at conferences, schools, universities, zoos, and community events to students, pre-service and in-service teachers, and non-formal and community educators. Before joining Facing the Future, Dave worked as a classroom teacher, a county land-use planner, and bike mechanic and volunteered as a small claims court mediator.

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"Water Stewardship – From Source to Sea" 
(original date - May 16, 2011)
Presenter:  Cate McEwen

This presentation will identify elements of water literacy through a stewardship study with grades 4/5 school students. While drawing from a specific school project, it will identify elements that can be transferred to other situations – and higher grade levels. The project involved field learning immersed in local community, making personal connections that lead to community activism. Topics to be discussed include: watershed study; creek habitat investigations and rehabilitation; water monitoring (includes constructivism and critical thinking); invertebrate life in the creek; creekside poetry and journaling; structured unstructured play; local water issues; global water issues; and evolving from awareness to action.  Cate will use a 3-D model to demonstrate how a watershed works, describe how to intervene with a local government and create interpretive signs for public creekside walks.

Age appropriateness:  Grades 1-8

Catherine (Cate) McEwen has a background in biological field science, and has been involved in environmental education for 25 years. During this time, she has been a facilitator within the WildBC network of educators, a GLOBE trainer (see www.globecanada.ca & www.globe.gov), and a director with Gulf Islands Centre for Ecological Learning.  Her focus is to engage learners in the interconnectedness of life, developing an informed and compassionate relationship with all life. She includes herself as one of these learners. In the past 4 years, she has focused on water education projects that promote river and water stewardship, both locally and in Mongolia. Most recently she has worked directly with teachers in a local school on an award-winning watershed project. (See www.bcgreengames.ca).  When not facilitating learning, she can be found enjoying music, teaching yoga, or on the water near her Salt Spring Island home in British Columbia. 

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"FROG SONGS: Poetry and Essays, Field Ecology and Entomology"
(original date - May 10, 2011)
Presenter:  Brian Fox Ellis

A poet’s eye and gift for language is very similar to the detailed observation and ability to communicate complex ideas required of scientists. Learn to use haiku to teach entomology. Learn to use poetry to help students write clearer more exciting essays. This simple set of lesson plans can be used by classroom teachers or informal educators to get students outdoors on a warm spring day to explore the relationships between insects and biodiversity. Come to celebrate the voices of nature and find your voice as a poet.

Age appropriateness:  K-12  (for formal and non-formal educators)

Since 1980, Brian “Fox” Ellis, storyteller, author and educator, has been touring the world collecting and telling stories. He has been a keynote speaker and/or featured workshop presenter at hundreds of conferences ranging from The International Wetlands Conservation Conference to the National Association of Gifted Educators Conference. His presentations are always custom tailored with a mix of pedagogy and practice, humor and inspiration. He has also published more than a dozen books, written 20 musical theatre productions and is a frequent contributor to a wide range of magazines including Green Teacher. Fox will engage you as a learner and give you practical ideas you can use the next day!

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"Using the Environment as a Context for Learning in Standards-Based Education Systems"
(original date - May 2, 2011)  
Presenter:  Gerry Lieberman

The webinar will discuss the instructional components of the Environment as an Integrating Context (EIC) Model™ that was first developed by the State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER) in 1998. Describing how these practices can help schools meet the academic needs of their students, it will summarize some of the evidence about the educational efficacy of the EIC Model™. Finally, it will provide an overview of SEER’s recent work in helping schools implement the EIC Model™ and briefly discuss how environmental educators can support schools restructure their programs in order to implement an environment-based education program.

Age appropriateness:  K-12

Gerald Lieberman is an internationally-recognized authority on school improvement using natural and community surroundings as interdisciplinary contexts for education. He led the development of the EIC Model™, and more recently, the development of California's EEI Curriculum, which is now being disseminated to K-12 classrooms throughout the state. In 1995 Dr. Lieberman founded and has since directed the State Education and Environment Roundtable, a cooperative endeavor of departments of education in 16 U.S. states. Dr. Lieberman is the principal author of Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning, a ground-breaking, national study that recently received an award from the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation for "bringing environmental learning into the mainstream of American K-12 education."   He has designed and coordinated curriculum development programs in the United States, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia and Argentina.  He lives in San Diego, California.

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"School Grounds for Healthy Play and Learning – Research and Case Studies of Good Design and Teaching Excellence on School Grounds"
(original date - April 28, 2011)
Presenter:  Cam Collyer

How might school grounds now have a greater importance in a child’s development than 20 years ago? How far has the school ground movement in North America come in the past 20 years?   Cam will share some excellent examples of school ground design from North America and Europe and contrast them.  He’ll also share some approaches to teaching on the school ground that are working well and describe the momentum that, in some areas has school districts working in support of schools improving their grounds.

Age appropriateness:  K-12

Cam Collyer is Program Director at Evergreen, where he has played a key role in helping Canadian schools green their grounds in his work since 1997. Overseeing Evergreen’s award winning Learning Grounds Program from the organization’s Toronto offices, Cam established a national network of school ground design professionals; guided seminal research into the benefits of school ground greening; supervised the creation of 17 publications that include how-to manuals and videos, case studies, lesson plans, plus an elaborate and unique suite of web-based content; developed a funding program that’s distributed more than a million dollars in grants to schools; and played a pioneering role in building partnerships with school boards to provide ongoing institutional support for school ground greening. An educator by training, he has a passion for play and learning in nearby natural environments.

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"Innovative Curriculum Design for Sustainability"
(original date - April 12, 2011)
Presenter:  Jaimie Cloud

Useful to both Pre K-12 Educators and non-formal educators of adults and young people, the main idea of the first part is that thinking drives behavior and behavior causes results. Identifying and naming the changes in thinking required to make the shift toward sustainability is critical to the design of transformative education for sustainability (EfS) experiences. Jaimie will present the “big ideas” that frame EfS, and will then walk participants through the EfS curriculum design and innovation process.

Age appropriateness:  K-12  (for formal and non-formal educators)

Jaimie P. Cloud is the founder and president of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education in New York City. The Cloud Institute monitors the evolving thinking and skills of the most important champions of sustainability. It then transforms this new thinking and skills into educational materials and a pedagogical system that inspire young people to think about the world, their relationship to it, and their capacity to influence it in an entirely new way.

Jaimie founded the Sustainability Education Center in 1995 which was renamed The Cloud Institute in 2004. She is one of the pioneers of Education for Sustainability (EfS) in the U.S. She writes and publishes extensively, and consults, coaches and teaches in schools and school districts around the country and beyond. She has developed exemplary curriculum units and full courses of study, and has produced a set of EfS Standards and Performance Indicators that schools are using to create their own innovative curricula to educate for sustainability. Cloud also serves on a great deal of boards and advisory groups: She is Chair of Communities for Learning, Inc., a member of the Advisory Committee of The Buckminster Fuller Institute, and she serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Education for Sustainable Development. You may contact her at Jaimie@cloudinstitute.org

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"Shades of Green: Developing Artistic Approaches to Environmental Education"  (original date - April 7, 2011)
Presenter:  Hilary Inwood

This webinar explores the emerging field of eco-art education, an integration of art education and environmental education, as a means of helping to develop environmental literacy in students and teachers. Hilary will introduce artwork and artists focusing on environmental issues in Canada and beyond, as well as some of the eco-art work that has been created in Toronto schools in recent years. Participants will be invited to share their own ideas and projects for creative approaches to EE.

Age appropriateness:  K-12

Hilary Inwood is a Lecturer in the Initial Teacher Education program at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She holds degrees in education (M.Ed, University of Toronto), art history (MA, York University) and art education (Ph.D), Concordia University. Her research focuses on integrating art education with environmental education to develop learners’ environmental literacy in school and community settings. Her work as an educator and artist extends beyond the classroom to include school gardens, outdoor education centres, parks and galleries.

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"Plugged In; But Tuned Out: The Need to Reconnect with Nature"
(original date - March 30, 2011)
Presenter:  Herb Broda

In this age of alluring techno-gadgetry we need to be very cautious about maintaining a balance between indoor and outdoor activity. At a time whenchildren's natural curiosity about the outdoors is eclipsed by the demands ofbusy schedules and the ever-present glow of video screens, schools and outdoor centers may be the only places where kids are encouraged tointeract with nature. Kids need to go outside for both learning and play—indeed there is a need for old-fashioned unstructured play in nature – the kind of invented play that “older” folks fondly recall.

Herb Broda is a professor of education at Ashland University in Ohio. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. His areas of concentration are middle school education, outdoor/experiential education, environmental education, curriculum development, and instructional design. Herb is a past-president of the Environmental Education Council of Ohio, the state-wide professional organization for persons working in the areas of outdoor/environmental education. He is the author of Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool (2007) and Moving the Classroom Outdoors: Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning in Action (May, 2011) both published by Stenhouse, Portland, Maine.

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"Energy Education: How & Why?"
(original date - February 24, 2011)
Presenter:  Pat Higby

At the outset, Pat will explain why energy education is especially important at this moment in history. Then she will share some simple experiments that you can use to convince others of its importance, before directing us to some of the best energy education resources for youth educators. Note: Pat strongly encourages all participants to have on hand - at the beginning of the webinar - 2 styrofoam coffee cups, 2 ziplock bags large enough to place a full cup inside, and at least a cup each of very hot and lukewarm water.

Age appropriateness:  grades 2-12

Pat Higby began her career as a science/math/physics teacher then discovered that non-formal education in science museums is more challenging, because your audience can leave if your presentations are boring! She has taught for the physics and science education departments at the University of Northern Iowa, and has been energy educator at the UNI Center for Energy & Environmental Education for ten years. She serves on the Iowa Power Fund Board, an organization responsible for distributing $100 million over a four year period to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy businesses, research, and implementation in Iowa. She currently chairs the Green Schools Committee of the Iowa chapter of the US Green Building Council.

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Two-Eyed Seeing, from a Mi’kmaq Elder named Albert Marshall, is an expression that refers to the importance of looking at the world through two sets of eyes: those of Western sciences, and those of Indigenous sciences. In her presentation, Annamarie Hatcher will describe the challenges for marginalized students in the school science classroom, which is dominated by the Western eye. She will provide some ideas for teachers to help them bridge the cultural gap between these two worldviews, through some hands-on activities.

Age appropriateness:  grades 5-9

Annamarie Hatcher has been a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Integrative Science & Health at Cape Breton University since 2008. She came to Cape Breton in 2005 as an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department, teaching various MSIT (Mi’kmaq word meaning ‘everything’) and Biology courses both on campus and in the community.She obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in Biology from Dalhousie University and a PhD in Zoology from the University of Western Australia. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles in several disciplines including Biology, Geology and Education and taught in classrooms ranging from pre-primary to post-graduate in Canada, Australia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

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"How to Create Engaging Environmental Education Programs
Using a Narrative, Storyline Approach"
(original date - February 22, 2011)
Presenter:  Alan Warner

Stories organize and provide meaning in our lives, yet educators typically teach through outcomes and activities. Young people become more engaged when they come to the learning context with a purpose or role that is meaningful to them, where they become the actors or leaders in a story (e.g., detectives, aliens, adventurers, entrepreneurs, teachers, leaders, etc.). This webinar presents the framework for a storyline/narrative approach to program design, enabling participants to apply the concepts and develop storyline ideas for their learners in their classroom, outdoor or community learning contexts. The result is adventurous, meaningful and engaged learning.

Age appropriateness:  Storyline program design really applies across all ages from 5 to 85. In his talk, Alan will use examples from grade 2 to adults. It is a philosophy and approach to designing curriculum, whatever the age.

Alan Warner has been designing, directing, and evaluating environmental education programs for more than 30 years with children and youth in Nova Scotia. He is known for creative and transformative program development and teaching, andreceived the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication award for excellence in 2007. He is an associate professor at Acadia University in Wolfville Nova Scotia and teaches in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Recreation Management and Community Development. He has written numerous articles and books on creative program development, and has been a frequent contributor to Green Teacher.

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"Sustainability 101: Teaching the Ecological Footprint"
(original date - February 17, 2011)
Presenter:  Susan Santone

Looking for ways to effectively teach sustainability "basics"? This webinar will highlight strategies and activities for teaching fundamental sustainability concepts using the Ecological Footprint as a context. Preview examples of hands-on, engaging activities to teach human-environmental impact, the Commons, interdependence, policies, and other topics essential to effective instruction on sustainability.

Who should attend? Educators interested in getting started with or reviewing essential sustainability concepts.

Susan Santone is the founder and Executive Director of Creative Change Educational Solutions, a nonprofit focused on sustainability education based in southeast Michigan. A former classroom teacher, she specializes in instructional design and training for sustainability, ecological economics, and cultural issues. As head of Creative Change, she has led multiple curriculum reform and teacher education initiatives, working nationally with public schools, universities, and nonprofit organizations. She is also an adjunct instructor in Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University, where she has taught "Schools in a Diverse and Democratic Society" and "Teaching Ecological Economics." She earned teacher certificates in social studies, music, and TESOL; and has a Master's degree in Intercultural and International Management from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.

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