24 JANUARY 2013
The Role of
Environmental Education
In the
Sustainability of the Baltimore Urban Ecosystem
Time: 8:30 AM
to 4:00 PM
Location: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Room 206, Technology Research Center (TRC)
Location: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Room 206, Technology Research Center (TRC)
AGENDA-24
January
Time
|
Topic
|
Presenters
|
|
8:30 AM
|
Light breakfast
|
||
Background, setting the stage.
|
|||
9 AM
|
The changing landscape of education
standards and the implications for environmental education in Maryland.
|
Gary Hedges - Maryland Dept. of Educ.
|
|
9:20 AM
|
From the Sanitary to the Sustainable
City: what is/could be the role of environmental education?
|
Steward Pickett - Cary Institute
[with City or County Sustainability
Office representative]
|
|
Insights from education research. Each speaker will
share current research related to environmental literacy in Baltimore.
|
|||
9:40 AM
|
Student understanding and learning of
key environmental science principles
|
Bess Caplan, Lia Harris and Eric
Keeling – Cary Institute and SUNY New Paltz
|
|
10:00 AM
|
What supports and constrains use of
effect teaching practices
|
Alan Berkowitz, Gel Alvarado, Molly
Van Appledorn, Natalie Crabbs Mollett, Tammy Newcomer – Cary Institute and
UMBC
|
|
10:20 AM
|
Public understanding of the
environment
|
Michele Romolini (invited)
|
|
10:40 AM
|
Break
|
||
Insights from practice. Each
speaker will address these questions:
1. How is your sector contributing to the sustainable
city/county/region and its resilience via education?
2. How could this sector play an even more important and substantial
role via education?
|
|||
11:00 AM
|
K-12
education
|
George Newberry or representative, Baltimore
County School System
|
|
11:15 AM
|
Informal education (youth programs, etc.)
|
David Christopher, National Aquarium
at Baltimore
|
|
11:30 AM
|
Community outreach efforts and
impacts
|
Seema Iyer, Baltimore Energy
Challenge, University of Baltimore
|
|
11:45 AM
|
Higher Education
|
Ali Whitmer, Georgetown University
|
|
Noon
|
Lunch
|
||
1:30 PM
|
Small Group discussions.
|
||
Charge:
1. Identify possible areas of
synergy or new activity to improve the role of EE in the sustainability of
the Baltimore ecosystem
2. Brainstorm ideas for an
education research agenda to support and guide work in EE and Baltimore’s
sustainability.
|
Possible Group Topics and facilitators:
1. K-12 initiatives – A.
Berkowitz (Cary/BES)
2. Informal/outreach initiatives
–
3. Higher education initiatives
– J. Wolfson (Towson), A. Whitmer (Georgetown)
4. Public education initiatives
5. other
|
||
2:45 PM
|
Plenary – Reports from small groups
|
||
3:45 PM
|
Evaluation and reflection
|
||
4:00 PM
|
Adjourn
|
||
1. Education
Meeting Goals
a.
Explore the conceptual underpinnings for
understanding the current and potential future roles of environmental education
in urban ecosystem sustainability and resilience.
b.
Consider the opportunities and challenges posed
by new education standards (Maryland’s Environmental Literacy Standards and the
national Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards) for urban
environmental education in and around Baltimore.
c.
Consider the opportunities and challenges for
environmental education posed by the new commitments and vision for achieving
sustainability among local and regional governments.
d.
Highlight, synthesize and learn from research
about environmental education practices and outcomes in Baltimore.
e.
Consider what a coordinated and targeted
research effort could accomplish in guiding and assessing environmental
education’s contributions to ecosystem sustainability and resilience.
f.
Identify opportunities for collaboration and
promising directions for programs to foster environmental literacy and
citizenship among students and the public.
2.
Potential Products
a.
One or more articles, possibly for the local
press or EE venue, summarizing current work and future opportunities.
b.
A research agenda and/or specific plans, e.g.,
for a coordinated teacher –school-school system survey or assessment.
c.
Ideas for new, collaborative initiatives or
programs involving but not limited to BES.
3.
Co-Conveners
a.
BES – Alan Berkowitz, BES Education Team Leader,
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
b.
Green Teaching Network/BES – Bess Caplan, Cary
Institute of Ecosystem Studies
c.
Towson/MAEO E – Sarah Haines, Towson University
d.
Baltimore County Schools – George Newberry,
Science Director
e.
Baltimore City Schools – Keisha Mathews
f.
Maryland State Department of Education – Gary
Hedges
BES Quarterly Project Meeting –24-25 January 2013
25
January 2013
BES III
Conceptual Structure
Time: 8:30 AM – 12:30
Location: USGS Conference
Room, 5522 Research Park Drive, Baltimore MD, 21228 (UMBC BWTech)
Agenda-25 January
8:30-9:00 Light
breakfast
9:00-9:15 Goal
statement and overview (Pickett)
9:15-9:30 Outline of
planning meetings
Between-meeting
interactions and mechanisms (Pickett/Walsh)
9:30-10:15 The BES
synthesis volume; update and time-line (Pickett, Grove, Irwin, Swan)
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00 BES III Guiding
Question (Pickett)
Discussion
of BES III Theory Domains:
Locational
Choice (Irwin)
Urban
Metacommunity (Swan)
Urban
Stream Dis/continuum (Kaushal)
11:00-11:15 Group
Discussion: Relating among the domains and with the Guiding Question (How
does your project advance the domains and their integration?)
11:15-11:45 Role of
modeling in project integration (Band)
11:45-12:00 Summary of
Action Items
Goals:
All BES members must have a clear and integrated understanding of BES III for
the Midterm Review, and to ensure the longer-term success of our conceptually
unified but spatially and disciplinarily diverse project. It is extraordinarily important that all
members of the project, including students, postdocs, and Co-PIs, understand
and can articulate the conceptual structure of the project and can effectively
state how their work, whether it be in research, education, or community
engagement, contributes to that structure.
This meeting is intended to:
1.
Reinforce and advance understanding of the
conceptual structure of BES III.
2.
Lay out the strategy for preparing for the BES
Midterm Review by NSF in October.
3.
Articulate the culture and mechanisms that will
facilitate these preparations.
