Workshop Overview

The October 2019 workshop, Earth Education for Sustainable Societies, will bring together a diverse group of participants to articulate high-priority needs for strengthening Earth education and generate actionable new ideas to address those needs. The ideas generated will be publicized to the Earth education community of researchers, teachers and outreach experts to facilitate development of pathways forward, including projects related to curriculum, professional development, K12, college and universities, public outreach and more. The workshop will provide the time and space for a group of broadly recruited participants to share and develop ideas that can be moved forward by the entire community. This workshop will build on the legacy of the NSF-funded STEP Center InTeGrate to address grand challenges in the Earth sciences that intersect with some of NSF's 10 Big Ideas, namely, NSF INCLUDES, Growing Convergent Research at NSF, and NSF 2026. In doing so, outcomes of the workshop are aligned with meaningful, actionable national needs, to build on and expand the reach of the InTeGrate Project, which has had important impacts across the US on student learning about the Earth that has improved students' systems thinking skills, developed curriculum resources for teaching geoscience in the context of societal issues and the development of professional development programs and communities of practice.

Follow-on article: Gilbert, L. A., R. Teasdale, and C. A. Manduca (2020), A new vision of sustainability in Earth science education, Eos, 101, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EO146424. Published on 30 June 2020.

Workshop Goals

The primary goal of the 2019 Earth Education for Sustainable Societies workshop is to bring together people within and outside of the geoscience education community, including those focused on teaching, research, and outreach, to identify high-priority and exciting ideas for moving forward from the foundation built by InTeGrate Project to strengthen Earth education. The workshop will be designed to inspire diverse ideas for future work and provide a venue for new and diverse groups to envision and share ideas for new approaches and directions to address issues of sustainability through learning about the Earth by:

  • articulating needs
  • generating ideas that are actionable
  • making connections that facilitate forward progress

The workshop will focus on generative activities and network-forming events and bring together a new group of thought leaders.

Dates

October 14-16, 2019. Workshop begins at 9:00 am on Monday, October 14, and ends at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, October 16.

Expectations

  • To maximize the impact of time together at the workshop, a series of pre-workshop webinars will introduce participants to InTeGrate and to each other.
  • At the workshop, participants will be present and engaged for the entire 2 1/2 days, which includes large-group and break-out sessions.

This workshop is supported by Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College. Participants are expected to review and follow SERC's Code of Professional Conduct for SERC Events and the Code of Conduct for NAGT Activities.

Travel Support

Accepted participants will be provided hotel accommodation and all meals during the workshop, plus ground transportation from MSP Airport and up to $500 reimbursement for transportation. If additional travel funds are needed, the organizers will do our best to meet the needs of each participant.

Application and Selection Criteria

Applications for the workshop will be accepted from July 1- August 5. The application deadline for this workshop has passed.

We welcome applications from individuals with interests in sustainability education, including post-secondary and K12 faculty, informal educators, researchers and more. An important goal of the workshop is to generate new and innovative ideas and as such, we seek a diverse group of participants and perspectives, including representation from a many specialties and institution types.

Facilities

The workshop will be hosted at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Most activities will occur on campus in Weitz Hall and nearby buildings. Lodging also will be in Northfield, within walking distance of campus. Transportation to campus and around campus will be available as needed.

For More Information

For more information about the workshop program, please contact Lisa Gilbert (lgilbert"at"williams.edu) or Rachel Teasdale (rteasdale"at"csuchico.edu). For specific logistical information, please contact Caroline Smith (csmith3"at"carleton.edu).