Initial Publication Date: August 20, 2026 | Revision: August 21, 2026
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NC-FEW 2.0 Curriculum Convening


Advancing FEW-Nexus Education as a Field:Developing a Shared Blueprint for Curriculum and Assessment

Friday, October 2, 2026 | 12:00 to 2:45 PM Eastern | Virtual via Zoom

Overview

In 2018, the Ecological Society of America endorsed the Four-Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) framework, a community-authored consensus framework that has since guided curriculum development, assessment alignment, and faculty mentoring networks across ecology education. That framework did not begin as a finished product. It began with a convening where educators came together, surfaced what they knew and what was missing, and built the architecture collaboratively.This convening is the equivalent moment for FEW-Nexus education.

 

The NC-FEW 2.0 Steering Committee is launching a year-long effort to develop a shared curricular blueprint for teaching across food, energy, and water systems. The blueprint will be modeled on the 4DEE precedent: a community-authored framework organizing learning outcomes, content exemplars, pedagogical approaches, and assessment practices for FEW-Nexus education across disciplines and educational levels. The effort builds on the integrated framework for interdisciplinary FEW-Nexus education (Scherer and Lombardi, 2025), derived from nine workshops with educators across disciplines, and on the TEE/NC-FEW 4DEE Faculty Mentoring Network, which has already demonstrated how 4DEE concepts can be applied to FEW content.

October 2 is where the community begins building that blueprint together.

Goals

  1. Ground participants in the integrated framework and its implications for FEW-Nexus curriculum design across disciplines and educational levels.
  2. Identify community starting points for teaching the FEW Nexus, surfacing both shared priorities and disciplinary differences.
  3. Surface exemplars, gaps, and assessment practices through collaborative mapping of existing courses and materials onto the framework.
  4. Build cross-disciplinary connections and establish the working groups that will carry the blueprint forward through the academic year.

What Comes Out of This Year

October 2 is the first step in a defined sequence. 

  • The convening produces an initial synthesis of community perspectives mapped onto the framework, a community bibliography of key teaching resources, and the formation of working groups organized around the themes that emerge. 
  • Monthly follow-up sessions beginning in mid-October will deepen the thematic conversations, develop the assessment and evidence standards for the blueprint, and build the collaborative relationships needed for future work. 
  • The target is a community-authored blueprint (version 1.0) by late spring 2027, positioning NC-FEW for competitive proposals to NSF, USDA NIFA, and related funding programs to support implementation, research, and an in-person national convening.

What Participants Will Do

  1. The session opens with a 30-minute plenary by Hannah Scherer and Doug Lombardi presenting the integrated framework and its organizing dimensions. 
  2. Participants then join two rounds of concurrent thematic breakout rooms, each addressing the driving question: What is the starting point for teaching the FEW Nexus through this lens, and why? 
  3. Topics will be shaped by registration responses and may include the following themes.
    1. Skills engagement and Workforce Pathways 
    2. Just transitions, equity, circularity, and materials
    3. Engaging non-majors and two-year colleges
    4. K-12 to higher ed continuity 
  4. Final themes and room count will be determined by registration responses. The public call lists these as "including topics such as" to signal openness to participant-driven additions.
  5. Every room also addresses two cross-cutting threads: how different disciplinary perspectives connect to the theme, and what meaningful assessment looks like.
  6. Following the breakout rounds and a large-group synthesis, participants choose one of two concurrent studios:
    1. Syllabus Mapping Studio: Bring a course, unit, or lesson and work in small groups to place it on the emerging framework, identifying what the community has and where the gaps are.
    2. Disciplinary Bridge Studio: Pair with a colleague from a different field to identify a shared FEW connection point between your courses and sketch a concrete activity that bridges them.

Artifacts from both studios will be collected as seed material for the blueprint.

Who Should Attend?

Educators and researchers working across food, energy, and water topics at any level, from K-12 through higher education. We welcome participants from all disciplines, and especially encourage those in physics, chemistry, engineering, geosciences, mathematics, and complex systems, fields that have been underrepresented in FEW-Nexus education conversations. The blueprint will be shaped by whoever is in the room, and diverse disciplinary perspectives will make it stronger.

Registration

  • Register by Monday, September 22, 2026: https://tinyurl.com/bdzxt3ah
  • The registration form will ask about your disciplinary background and the topics that matter most to you. Responses will inform breakout room themes.
  • Even if you cannot attend on October 2, you are welcome to join the monthly follow-up series and contribute to the blueprint effort. Join the NC-FEW community at Get Involved
  • Contributions to the community bibliography of FEW-related teaching resources can be submitted through the registration form or by emailing Nirav Patel (Nirav.Patel at colorado.edu).

Conveners

NC-FEW 2.0 Steering Committee

 

Questions?

Nirav.Patel at colorado.edu | Brian.R.Shmaefsky at lonestar.edu