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Trails to Sustainability Conference – PD Summary (May 24-27, 2007)

Goal: to experience and explore environmental education in order to expand my skill set

Theme: Trails to Sustainability: environmental education

Sessions:

1. Environmental Education Research Symposium (all day): open discussion sessions on topics such as impediments to engaging teachers with environmental education and the role of technology in environmental education.

2. Outdoor Play with a Purpose (all day): Experiential Learning through hiking and biking and an introduction to risk assessment, which yes, involved hiking and biking along mountain trails around Kananaskis.

3. Re-connecting with Nature:  examples of activities to help people deal with the overwhelming social and environmental issues facing us, through reflection, and making interpersonal connections. Activities modeled for use in classroom.

4. Teaching Green in the Middle Years (Tim Grant, editor of Green Teacher magazine): examples of activities to engage students in environmental education.

5. Sustainability Education: based on the presenter’s experiences (in Mexico) in promoting environmental awareness at the community level through school-based activities. The session included aquatic sampling, collecting data on the ecological footprint of a community through surveys, an overview of his experience in working to educate a community to conserve endangered habitat, and a student film about the concept of ecological footprints.

Keynotes:

• David Schindler: The Myth of Abundant Canadian Water- Climate warming and the impact on our water supplies

• Karsten Heuer: Being Caribou: the spiritual journey of a scientist who followed the migrating caribou (as a warm-up, he traveled the route of wolves from the Yukon to Yellowstone Park in order to get a better understanding of the role of wildlife corridors

• Stephen Lewis: The problems and challenges we face as a society. Addressing the relationship of the western world with the third world

• Hunter Lovins: Hope for the future? Critical role of environmental education, as well as economic incentives for businesses to be environmentally and socially responsible, and resources for communities to reduce their carbon emissions

Strengths of Conference: 

• Over 500 people interested and experienced in environmental education attended the conference, which included educators, researchers and youth; the networking opportunities were invaluable.

• Session topics were diverse and relevant

• conference was well-organized

• keynotes were inspiring

• presenters were knowledgeable and experienced, as well as extremely passionate about environmental education

Weaknesses of Conference: 

• People booked into the Delta Hotel (where the conference was held) were subjected to $12 breakfasts consisting of toast/warm bread and fruit loops. Accommodation was likewise overpriced, with the most reasonable alternative being a youth hostel 30-45 minutes away on foot.

• Some sessions could have easily been much longer; however, given the time available and the large number of interesting sessions available, it was the best fit.

• Some sessions differed from their description sufficiently to frustrate/disappoint a few people

How did this conference apply to your Professional Growth SMART goal? 

• Two days spent immersed in the topic of environmental education with leaders and innovators across Canada as well as from the US, Brazil and Japan allowed for indepth exploration of a range of topics within environmental education.

How do you plan to apply your learnings?

• I will integrate environmental education into my current practices, beginning with  Grade 7 ELA instruction (examples: having students calculate their ecological footprint, having students develop social action plans) and apply relevant content to the WBLRD resource I am developing (including a social action project as a means of developing information processing skills.

• I may consider pursuing graduate studies or apply for a MacDowell Research grant at a future date as a result of being exposed to other educational researchers. You never know.