Rendezvous Overview
Themes
The Rendezvous' combination of workshops, posters, talks, panel discussions, and plenary presentations is designed to help guide participants through a suite of interrelated challenges that are characteristic of Earth Education in schools, colleges, and universities today by:
- providing instructors who are teaching Earth topics at all educational levels (K-16) with examples of instructional strategies that have been shown to improve student learning
- addressing teaching challenges specific to particular settings (e.g., large classes, labs, field work), topics (e.g., teaching about sustainability, atmospheric science), or skills (e.g., spatial reasoning)
- developing students' competency in a range of geoscientific tasks that involve higher order skills such as systems thinking, data analysis and quantitative skills
- supporting instructors and administrators in creating lessons and programming to increase the number and diversity of students who learn about Earth
- helping graduate students and post-docs prepare for an academic career in Earth-related disciplines
- collaborating with colleagues across the disciplines to situate learning about Earth in a societal context
- supporting current and future teachers in successfully implementing the Next Generation Science Standards
- pursuing education research that supports our ability to address these challenges
Program
The Earth Educators' Rendezvous program will bring together these themes into a rich tapestry of workshops, contributed talks and posters, panel discussions, and plenary sessions, and working groups. Drawing across the work currently taking place in geoscience, environmental, and sustainability education, meeting attendees will have the opportunity to learn broadly, focus on a particular issue or challenge, or something in between. All are invited to submit abstracts to the contributed program of posters and short presentations.
Morning workshops and working groups will meet for two or three days. Workshops are interactive, with participants learning from experts and from one another in formats that build on research-based pedagogies. They provide an opportunity each day to synthesize ideas from the afternoon sessions and put them to use in your own institutional context. These sessions feature time to work on your own introductory or upper-division course, to plan new ways to strengthen your program, or to focus on a particular teaching skill.
The extended lunch hour provides a break and an opportunity to network with colleagues. Poster sessions will begin during the lunch hour on two days and the posters will remain available through the close of the day's program, with authors present after afternoon sessions.
During the afternoon you can either pick from a mix of mini-workshops, panel discussions and/or contributed talks. These sessions allow you to sample areas where you have specific needs or interests. Sessions will range from a focus on program or curricular change (e.g. adding service learning or sustainability education) or technique to a broad challenge faced by our community (e.g. increasing the diversity of your graduates or creating an effective assessment program). A technical program committee will select oral and poster presentations and will arrange them into a set of themed sessions.
The formal program will end each day with either a plenary speaker or poster session providing a common experience for all participants. Plenary speakers provide an opportunity to hear from experts who bring to light new ways of thinking about Earth related topics, ways of teaching, and interdisciplinary perspectives on the topic. Posters allow us to get together for informal conversations. Our location in Madison provides participants with plenty of venues to continue these conversations and have some fun with colleagues in less formal settings.
We anticipate that there will be some supplementary programming in the evening for specific groups of participants (e.g., graduate students, geoscience education researchers) and we invite research groups or working groups to meet jointly with the Rendezvous and have reserved space for these activities.
Expectations
Participants will be asked to prepare in advance for their workshops, to attend all sessions of the workshop for which they are registered, and to participate fully in the workshops and the Rendezvous. Given the relatively large proportion of attendees that are new to the topics under consideration, we encourage all participants to communicate freely with others to create a welcoming encouraging work environment that honors all levels of experience with Earth education.
Dates
The Rendezvous will begin on the evening of Sunday, July 17th with an icebreaker and end after the Friday town hall session. Morning workshops last three days (beginning on Monday) or two days (beginning on Thursday). Participants can register for any number of days however, your fifth day is free! Key dates include:
- Hosting a working group application deadline: February 1, 2016 (passed)
- Travel stipend application deadline: April 1, 2016 (passed)
- Early registration deadline: May 2, 2016 (passed)
- Late poster submission deadline: May 15, 2016 (passed)
Registration and Abstract Submission
We welcome participation by all who are interested in teaching and learning about the Earth, including faculty and administrators from two-year and four-year colleges and universities, teachers of high school Earth science, faculty in all disciplines who teach about some aspect of the Earth or would like to incorporate such teaching in the future, students and post-docs interested in these topics, and program leaders in geoscience, environmental science, environmental studies, sustainability, or other programs with an Earth component. All participants are invited to submit an abstract to be considered for inclusion in the contributed program of short presentations and posters. There will be some need-based stipends available to help defray travel and registration costs. Sign up to receive Rendezvous updates to learn when the application becomes available.
2016 Registration Fees*
| By May 2 Early Registration |
After May 2 Standard Registration |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 day | 2 day | 3 day | 4/5 day | 1 day | 2 day | 3 day | 4/5 day | |
| NAGT member fee | $125 | $250 | $375 | $500 | $225 | $350 | $475 | $600 |
| Standard fee | $225 | $350 | $475 | $600 | $325 | $450 | $575 | $700 |
*Cancellation policy: Registration cancellations must be made in writing to Krista Herbstrith (kherbstr @ carleton.edu) and received by May 15, 2016 to receive a full refund minus a $30 processing fee. No refunds will be given after the cancellation deadline of May 15, 2016 .
Facilities
The workshop will take place on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison is the state's capital city with a population of just over 200,000, and the campus is located close to the downtown area. Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodations. Participants can choose to stay in dormitories or in the conference hotels, which are both within walking distance of the meeting and of downtown Madison.