MEEA 2012 Conference Call for Presenters Deadline Extended Until Jan 31st

MEEA members...it is once again time to start thinking about our exciting 2012 conference.  If you have a workshop to share please note the deadline for submission has been extended until Jan 31st... please consider submitting a proposal for a workshop!  For unline proposal submission head to the MEEA website at http://www.meeassociation.org.

Read on for more info on workshop strands:

We invite you to submit proposals for the 2012 Maine Environmental Education Association (MEEA) Annual Conference in Wiscasset, Maine on Friday, March 23. 

"Building Partnerships for Sustainable Communities:  Gathering the Usual and Unusual Suspects"

  

MEEA seeks to gather not only our usual environmental education population, but also people from across sectors - land trusts and conservation organizations, outdoor recreation, government, business, sportsmen, agriculture and health care.  MEEA is an active member of the Maine Outdoor Coalition and through our year-round promotion of environmental education, including our annual conference, proudly joins sector and statewide partners in efforts to engage Mainers of all ages in the outdoors.  We will be looking for workshops that consider or reflect the strands below.  

We look forward to reading your proposal!

MEEA Conference Committee

Conference Strands

Effective Partnerships:  How do effective partnerships work? What are the challenges and outcomes of such partnerships? How can individuals and organizations from across sectors come together to work toward a common goal? Systems Thinking: What is "systems thinking," and how does it relate to community vitality?  How can we use systems thinking to maximize the effectiveness of our work? Environmental Literacy:  What is "environmental literacy," and how does it relate across sectors?  How can programming for environmental literacy enhance our work? Outdoor Engagement:  Address the growing trend in decreased outdoor activity in our culture.  How is it affecting our health and well-being?  Is it affecting our investment in and care for our natural resources?  What are creative solutions to this issue? Business and Tourism:  How is business and tourism impacted by outdoor engagement and environmental literacy?  What is the role of business and tourism in the promotion of these topics, and can these sectors be enhanced through this work?

PLT and MEEP announce GreenSchools Workshop Coming Soon...

Hello MEEA members, 


Thought you might be interested in the announcement that PLT and MEEP is hosting a GreenSchools workshop in Maine.  Read on for more info:

Maine Energy Education Program (MEEP) and Maine Project Learning Tree (PLT) Present
An Introduction to GreenSchools Workshop
Date: March 6, 2012 from 3:30 to 7:00 p.m.
Location: Washington Academy, East Machias

This workshop is designed for grades 4 through 12 teachers and will:
  a.. Prepare teachers to conduct GreenSchools Investigations with their students.
  b.. Provide information about both in-school and local resources from Maine Energy Education Program, Project Learning Tree and others.
  c.. Give teachers the first steps to forming GreenSchools teams of students, staff, teachers and community members.
Learn about tools used for collecting energy data in your school; explore the PLT PreK-8 Activity Guide and the PLT GreenSchools website and Investigations.

Pizza will be provided plus a certificate of attendance.

Workshop presenters include Stefany Gregoire, Director of Operations with MEEP and Pat Maloney, ME PLT Coordinator.

With thanks to the Maine Office of Energy Independence & Security , there is no charge for this workshop, however we require that you register to attend no later than February 28, 2012 by contacting Pat Maloney at meplt@gwi.net or calling 626-7990


Patricia Maloney
Maine PLT Coordinator
153 Hospital Street
Augusta, Maine 04330
207 626-7990
www.mainetreefoundation.org
www.plt.org

Energy Related Feild Test Opportunity for 9-12 Teachers

Hi MEEA members,
Just saw this information about a new field test opportunity for an energy course and thought some of you high school teachers might be interested-if so read on for more info: 

Energy concepts are fundamental to all science disciplines, and a basic understanding of energy concepts is essential to thoughtful civic participation on issues of foremost national interest. To help teachers more effectively teach energy-related concepts, BSCS, Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), the National Teacher Enhancement Network (NTEN), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) are developing and researching an online course entitled Energy: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Teachers (EMAT). Funded by NSF, EMAT will be an innovative online, multimedia, professional development course focused on energy-related concepts within a context of the production and use of alternative energy.

The EMAT course will address three major energy concepts across a variety of alternative energy contexts: 

A systems approach is necessary when considering energy and energy transformations.  Energy is neither created nor destroyed in energy transformations. It is possible to track energy and matter inputs and outputs in energy transformations.  In all energy transformations, some energy is lost from the system as heat. This energy is not destroyed; it merely leaves the system under consideration. The efficiency of an energy transformation is related to the amount of energy lost from the system as heat.  The EMAT course is composed of the following six units:
> Energy in Coal
> Energy in Nuclear Reactions
> Light Interactions with Matter (Solar Energy)
> Biofuels
> Heat Transfer Across the Globe (Energy from Wind and Waves)
> Energy Inside the Earth (Geothermal Energy) 

In addition to helping teachers enhance their knowledge about energy concepts, theEMAT course will help teachers enhance their teaching practice by learning strategies to create coherent science content storylines as well as strategies to reveal, support, and challenge student thinking. 

Teachers and students are valuable, critical friends and help us design and improve programs like EMAT. Teachers like you are key partners in the development process by helping us test what will benefit teachers and students in the future. Due to the online nature of the new materials, participating teachers will need a computer and Internet access to complete the online course and participate in this project.

 BSCS will work with each teacher's district to fulfill the district's research requirements. Once BSCS has met these requirements, field-test teachers must agree to participate in a process that extends over two academic years and includes administering pretests and posttests to students (during the 2012-13 school year AND the 2013-2014 school year), filming themselves (using a camera provided by BSCS) teaching an energy-related lesson sometime between September and December 2012, taking the online EMAT course during summer 2013, filming themselves teaching the same energy-related lesson sometime between September and December 2013, and answering questions about the EMAT course in online surveys.  Field-test teachers receive a $400 stipend for their participation ($200 during the 2012-2013 school year, and $200 during the 2013-2014 school year) and three (3) graduate credits from Montana State University for completing the EMAT course.

Note: teachers must pay a $200 deposit to take the course, but the deposit will be refunded after all course requirements have been met.

BSCS is excited about working with classroom teachers around the country to develop the EMAT course. If you are interested in being a field-test teacher, please complete the online application and submit the required signature page. If you have questions, please contact me. The deadline for submitting applications is April 1, 2012.

Please share this opportunity with colleagues who may be interested. We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Sue Kowalski

Science Educator, 

Project Director

(719) 219-4148
skowalski@bscs.org

Announcing MEEA's 2012 Conference and Call for Presenters

The 2012 MEEA Annual Conference will be held on Friday March 23 at the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine.

We invite you to submit proposals for the 2012 Maine Environmental Education Association Annual Conference Conference Theme: "Building Partnerships for Sustainable Communities: Gathering the Usual and Unusual Suspects" MEEA seeks to gather not only our usual environmental education population, but also people from across sectors - land trusts and conservation organizations, outdoor recreation, government, business, sportsmen, agriculture, and health care. MEEA is an active member of the Maine Outdoor Coalition and through our year-round promotion of environmental education, including our annual conference, proudly joins sector and statewide partners in efforts to engage Mainers of all ages in the outdoors. We will be looking for workshops that consider or reflect the strands below. We look forward to reading your proposal! MEEA Conference Committee Conference Strands Effective Partnerships: How do effective partnerships work? What are the challenges and outcomes of such partnerships? How can individuals and organizations from across sectors come together to work toward a common goal? Systems Thinking: What is "systems thinking," and how does it relate to community vitality? How can we use systems thinking to maximize the effectiveness of our work? Environmental Literacy: What is "environmental literacy," and how does it relate across sectors? How can programming for environmental literacy enhance our work? Outdoor Engagement: Address the growing trend in decreased outdoor activity in our culture. How is it affecting our health and well-being? Is it affecting our investment in and care for our natural resources? What are creative solutions to this issue? Business and Tourism: How is business and tourism impacted by outdoor engagement and environmental literacy? What is the role of business and tourism in the promotion of these topics, and can these sectors be enhanced through this work?

Who can submit? MEEA is seeking proposals from educators, conservation professionals, entrepreneurs, business leaders, naturalists, artists, scientists, state organizations and others who have experiences or resources that relate to our workshop strands. We encourage professionals from a wide range of fields to join us. Traditionally, workshops have been 1-1.5 hours in length. If you have a workshop that is practical, instructional, or inspirational, we hope that you will share it at the 2012 MEEA conference. Click here to submit your proposal on line. Questions? Contact Tamara Whitmore, Conference Co-Chair. Deadline for submissions is January 30, 2012. Notification of selected workshops expected by February 10, 2012. Workshop presenters will be required to register for the MEEA Conference. Conference Registration will be available online by February 1.

MEEA Members...Green Schools Webinar Opportunity.

Hello MEEA Members...
We thought this upcoming webinar might interest many of you!
Click here to register: http://www.classroomearth.org/gswebinars

Going Green through the Curriculum Webinar
The National Environmental Education Foundation (www.neefusa.org<http://www.neefusa.org/>) in partnership with the National Education Association Foundation (www.neafoundation.org<http://www.neafoundation.org/>) and Green Schools National Conference (www.greenschoolsnationalconference.org<http://www.greenschoolsnationalconference.org/>) is hosting its third webinar to help educators around the country learn from experts and peers how to green their schools and curriculum. In this series of three webinars, participants will interact live with national experts and teachers who are transforming their schools for the 21st Century.

Wednesday January, 18, 2012 7pm EST- 8:30pm EST
Whether you are an environmental educator or a classroom teacher, you will love this webinar!  David Sobel, Gerald Lieberman, and Jennifer Seydel have teamed up to provide you with some ideas and practical strategies to use the local community and environmental issues to teach science and socials studies content AND improve reading, writing, and math skills!

David Sobel, Senior Faculty
Antioch University New England
David will provide examples of how teachers use local case studies to integrate the 3rd-8th grade standards in social studies, science, reading, writing, and math.  These examples are illustrative of how teachers across the country use place-based education to meet and breathe life into state standards and benchmarks.

Gerald Lieberman, Director
State Education and Environment Roundtable
Jerry will discuss California's new EEI curriculum, a wide-ranging set of K-12 instructional materials that teach science and social studies standards in the context of California's adopted environmental principles and concepts, while strengthening students’ reading and writing skills.

Jennifer Seydel, School Designer
Expeditionary Learning
Jenny will share planning templates that teachers can utilize to design lessons and units using environmental and social justice topics to teach state science, social studies, reading, writing, and math standards.

Registration is free! Registered participants will receive webinar login information via email prior to the webinar. Registered participants who complete the webinar are eligible for a special discounted registration rate for the National Green Schools Conference on February 27-29, 2012 in Denver, CO (http://www.greenschoolsnationalconference.org<http://www.greenschoolsnationalconference.org/>).
The first 100 registered participants that log in and complete the webinar will be eligible for a webinar drawing to receive a complimentary registration to the Green Schools National Conference (www.greenschoolsnationalconference.org<http://www.greenschoolsnationalconference.org/>), February 27-29, 2012.

Cornell University Offers Spring 2012 Online Course - Measuring Environmental Education Outcomes

Hello MEEA members,

This interesting opportunity was brought to our attention and we thought some of you may be interested in participating in this course this fall...

 

Spring 2012 Online Course: Measuring Environmental Education Outcomes

Apply: Jan 2, 2012 – Feb 3, 2012
Course Dates: Feb 20, 2012 – May 13, 2012
Cornell University’s Civic Ecology Lab announces an online course offered through EECapacity, the EPA-funded national environmental education program. This 12-week, non-credit professional development course will focus on identifying individual, community, and ecosystem outcomes of environmental education and exploring quantitative measures of outcomes, such as environmental behaviors, sense of place, and connectedness to nature. Limited to 16 participants.
Course webpage http://civicecology.org/course-meeo.php
Questions? Please email Tania Schusler tms23@cornell.edu