Environmental Education Professional Development
Supporting Equitable and Engaging Science Learning
Our professional development opportunities are designed to support powerful learning experiences that connect to students’ lives and communities. In this time of increasing awareness and activism, we are joining with teachers in working to address the vast racial, economic, and environmental disparities in our communities and classrooms.
Through our courses, workshops, and focused 1:1 supports (including individualized planning sessions), we hope that you’ll join us in creating community, sharing resources, and building a way forward together within the unpredictable landscape of remote teaching and learning, collective anti-racist action, and a growing commitment to addressing climate change through an intersectional lens.
As a result of our workshops, teachers will:
- Incorporate local phenomena and NGSS Science and Engineering Practices into science units
- Practice the use of NGSS-aligned teaching practice and pedagogy while investigating locally relevant phenomena
- Use the schoolyard and local community as a learning space
- Understand how using local phenomena, engineering design, and community-based engineering projects supports greater equity in science learning
- Incorporate climate science and water systems content into science units
- Share ideas and resources with other educators (formal and informal) to support students
STEM Clock Hours are available for both courses and workshops, pending approval. Stipends will also be provided to teachers upon successful completion of each course. Clock Hours must be claimed and paid for through pdEnroller. Please contact Brad Street at brads@islandwood.org for any questions about claiming your Clock Hours or stipend.
All of our workshops and courses include:
- Ideas for application in both classroom and distance learning settings.
- Conversations around how to embed equity and justice in your teaching.
- A deposit for registration that is returned after you attend the course or workshop. Please contact Brad Street at brads@islandwood.org if this deposit will pose a financial hardship for you.
- Clock hours (pending approval from educational service districts). You will need to claim and pay for clock hours online after completing each workshop.
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)* call for students to use the practices, concepts and content of science and engineering to understand phenomena and solve problems that are relevant to their lives. Starting from a student’s own experiences and community makes the science meaningful and increases engagement while helping students understand how global issues like climate change are present and addressable in their lives. In our courses and workshops, we examine how you can use the new science standards and your community to understand and address real world environmental problems and explore together how to integrate NGSS into your district’s classroom science units.
* Next Generation Science Standards is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this PD series, and do not endorse it.
Courses
Our courses are primarily intended for teachers and educators who teach science to K-12 graders. Each course takes place over three months, and includes multiple large and small-group sessions. Upon completion of each course, teachers will earn a stipend and STEM Clock Hours!
Registration is now open for Community Science, our upcoming professional development course!
Registration for this course has passed.
When | September – December
Who | K-5 Grade Teachers
Clock Hours | Teachers who complete the course can earn up to 14 STEM clock hours.
Stipend | Washington State public school teachers will receive a $380 stipend upon submission of teacher and student work and completion of assessments.
Collaborate with IslandWood staff and teachers to bring science alive for your students. Learn how local phenomena, a concept at the center of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), can be used to guide unit planning and delivery across disciplines. Develop strategies for empowering students to identify local phenomena that is interesting, relevant, and draws on the strengths of their own communities. Integrate the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices into exploration of your schoolyard or your student’s neighborhoods to respond to the context of remote teaching and learning. Throughout the course, we will be engaging in critical dialogue and reflecting on the role of localized science in supporting equity, justice, and anti-racism in education.
Learn more and register here.
When | November – December
Who | 6-12 Grade Teachers
Clock Hours | Teachers who complete the course can earn up to 9 STEM clock hours.
Stipend | Washington State public school teachers will receive a $315 stipend upon submission of teacher and student work and completion of assessments.
Running November through December for 6 – 12th Grade Teachers
Even during the disruptions facing in-person school, science learning can continue at home. Are you working on ways to make science meaningful for your secondary students amidst the challenges and disruptions of COVID-19? Explore with IslandWood staff and other teachers how local phenomena and investigations in YOUR community can be centered in a Next Generation Science Standards storyline to connect to the interests and identities of your students and support understanding of the impact of climate change. We will use an example phenology storyline to explore possibilities during our two large group sessions in October. Two small group follow up sessions will provide the opportunity to develop and discuss with other teachers what a hyperlocal storyline approach could look like for your students in YOUR community.
Register for this course here!
More information coming soon!
More information coming soon!
Workshops
Our workshops are primarily intended for teachers and informal educators who teach science to elementary and middle schoolers (Teacher Philosophy & Positionality is aimed at K-12 grade teachers). Other grade levels may attend but could find the examples less relevant to their students. Unlike our courses, workshops can be taken individually and do not need to be completed in a series.
When | October 10 from 10am – 12pm
Who | K-5 Grade Teachers
Clock Hours | Teachers who complete this workshop can earn up to 2 STEM clock hours.
We interact with water systems every day, but don’t often think about how the water on our streets, under our streets, and in our homes is connected and impacts our regional ecosystem – and how climate change will impact each of those systems. Join IslandWood staff to uncover the often-hidden water systems in our region, and collaborate with fellow teachers to brainstorm ways to integrate this content and related phenomena into your teaching.
When | October 24 from 10am – 12pm
Who | K-8 Grade Teachers
Clock Hours | Teachers who complete this workshop can earn up to 2 STEM clock hours.
Have you ever wondered what neighborhood assets, opportunities, and problems could help make science more relevant and engaging for your students? In this workshop, you’ll gain strategies for helping your students investigate and map their own communities, including local ecosystems, water flow, patterns, and changes over time. You’ll also gain ideas for how you and your students can use this information to contribute to local ecosystem mapping efforts!
When | November 21 from 10am – 12pm
Who | K-12 Grade Teachers
Clock Hours | Teachers who complete this workshop can earn up to 2 STEM clock hours.
The workshop will center on a key aspect of being an effective, inclusive educator: self-exploration and reflection. We will use concepts from education and social justice scholarship to discuss how our identities impact our teaching, explore our approach to education and passion for this work, and clarify our role in creating equitable learning opportunities for our students.
Our staff are collaborating with teachers in the Olympic, Puget Sound, and southern Northwest ESDs to support them with incorporating local phenomena, field experiences, and community assets into their curriculum.
These sessions are often an extension of the work started in a workshop but don’t have to be. Serving teachers at their schools helps address equity issues for those who do not otherwise have opportunities for nearby teacher training.
Apply here.
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS & COURSES
TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP: MAPPING COMMUNITY ASSETS
TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: COMMUNITY SCIENCE COURSE
Focused Supports
OSPI Climetime is funding focused supports for teachers to assist with incorporating local phenomena, field experiences, and community assets into their curriculum. Support can include one or more of the options below.
For more information and to register, please email Brad Street at brads@islandwood.org.
Explore your schoolyard or community and discuss how it could fit into your storylines work and/or other lessons.
Gain support in developing your storylines work.
Learn how to adapt one of the following lessons to fit your students and schoolyard:
- I notice, I wonder activity – Observational activity focused on student observational skills and curiosity.
- Stormwater Runoff in your Schoolyard – Students investigate pervious and impervious surfaces and where water flows around their schoolyard.
- Ecosystem Services Investigation – Students look for ways their schoolyard is useful to humans and animals.
- Bioblitz Investigation – Students compile a list of the organisms that live around their school and how they interact with humans.
“The workshop is a great way to deepen understanding of the NGSS and to recognize opportunities to connect learning to local phenomena.”
– Kristen Soltman, teacher at Louisa Boren STEM K-8
OUR IMPACT
TAKING LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
85% of teachers report they are more likely to use the schoolyard as a classroom two months after participating in our series.
A LASTING IMPACT ON TEACHERS
73% of teachers report a lasting impact on their teaching, such as increasing inquiry-based learning and making connections to the community and larger systems.
Our teacher professional development opportunities are made possible thanks to generous support from King County and a grant from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
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