We teach about the Earth in and by means of places, which are localities given meaning by human experience, and thus are cultural features embedded in the physical landscape. On the first day, participants in this workshop will explore and practice methods of leveraging the multicultural and natural attributes of places—and our own senses of place—to develop, deliver, and evaluate context-rich, place-based, culturally informed, inclusive curriculum and pedagogy. We will draw ideas from the rich cultural landscapes at hand in the Southwest as well as from the places and multicultural experiences that are important to the participants in the workshop. On the second day, we will unpack experiences from day one to understand how social-science theory can explain the effectiveness of this approach and assist geoscience educators with engaging a broad variety of students.

Workshop participants are also encouraged to attend the Thursday afternoon plenary address by Dr. Greg Cajete, for its direct relevance to our workshop themes.

The post-Rendezvous field trip to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is offered in conjunction with this workshop. Participation in the field trip is optional, and participants can choose to participate in only the field trip, only the workshop, or both the workshop and field trip. If you are interested in participating in the field trip, you can sign up when you register for the Rendezvous (cost is $8 and includes transportation and admission to the museum). Space for the field trip is limited to the first 15 registrants.