List of EE Professional Learning Programs

“WFIT will change your life!” Come spend 5 days & 4 nights at the Watershed Agricultural Council’s summer intensive where you’ll explore the forests, waters, science, history, and world-famous partnerships of the NYC drinking water Watershed. WFIT is a FREE program for 4-12th grade classroom teachers and non-formal educators from NYC and the NYC Watershed. You’ll earn over 25 CTLE credit hours, practice dozens of hands-on activities, and get trained in the Project Learning Tree and Project WET curricula.

STEM It Up is a free two-day workshop at the Bronx Zoo for informal science educators. In this workshop, you will explore STEM through a conservation lens using WCS Presents Field Sight, a digital tool of global conservation stories. Be inspired by diverse perspectives on topics such as climate change, advocacy, sustainability and more. Learn through readings, meaningful conversations and modeled learning activities. Collaborate with peers from other science institutions in the region. Create connections to your work and leave with strategies that support your audience in their own STEM journeys.

Customized Programs are tailored to suit your professional learning goals. Please contact us to discuss.

Spring P-Credit Institutes

School Gardening 101—Creating a Garden (2 P-Credits)
Advocate for, plan, create, or revive a school garden. Hone skills for designing, budgeting, and incorporating the garden across the curriculum, utilizing the resources of the school community.

Increasing Representation in the Natural World (1 P-Credit)
Online, Asynchronous
Engage with natural objects and outdoor environments near you through facilitated routines of observation and reflection. Use curated readings and research to highlight disproportionate access to nature, reflect on personal experiences, and plan for equitable learning opportunities in the science classroom.

Summer P-Credit Institutes (3 P-Credits)
Plant, Learn, & Grow: School Gardening 201
Whether your school garden is plants on your windowsill or in the schoolyard, participate in hands-on gardening methods to build your background knowledge. Topics include pest management, soil quality monitoring, pollinator interactions and more!

Seedlings Institute: Nature and Science for Early Childhood Educators | Grades Pre-K−2 (3 P-Credits)
Come explore the resources of the New York Botanical Garden with us! Participants will learn how to use plants and nature to engage children in science across the curriculum, with connections to literacy, math, and art.

Ethnobotany for Educators: Exploring Plants Through Cultural Connections (3 P-Credits)
The relationship between people and plants have shaped foodways for thousands of years. Examine human and plant connections at the intersection of history, food, and culture. Develop strategies for engaging student-driven scientific investigations utilizing plants and food.

The NYC Solar Schools Education Program includes professional learning training opportunities for teachers, in-school classroom residencies with students, and a Career and Technical education program. The GDL curriculum explored during the training includes a combination of hands-on activities that give context for why solar is important – such as an introduction to power plants, fossil fuels, and climate change – and explores the science and applications of solar energy through building mini-solar systems, field studies, and experiments.

We offer both custom professional learning workshops for educators as well as "P" Credit courses in partnership with the ASPDP.
Custom workshops are tailored to support your professional development goals for science and other areas of study and may include inquiry-based classroom explorations, nature and plant community exploration, and guidance for hands-on "potting-up" horticultural activities.
Our current 3 "P" Credit courses are "What Did a Plant Ever Do for You?", an introduction to the science and art of botany and horticulture using plants and gardens both at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and in the community, and "Native New Yorkers: Exploring Native Plants at Brooklyn Botanic Garden", which focuses on plant ecology and experiential learning in the field. Both courses are grounded in CR-SE and our inquiry approach to teaching and learning.

CELF Civic Science: Inquiry to Action is a semester- or year-long program that engages educators and students in project-based STEAM learning outside of the classroom. Tailored to each school and community location, we offer professional learning workshops for teachers paired with on-site support to implement a project-based learning module that connects students to real-world challenges in their own neighborhoods. The program combines the development of 21st century skills with the motivation and creativity generated by solving a problem in one’s own community. During the 2020-2021 school year, CELF will be offering Civic Science Inquiry to Action in various configurations to educators across the country. To help us match you to the most suitable cohort and to available scholarship/stipend opportunities, please take a few minutes to complete this brief application. Based on your responses, we will notify you of acceptance and program details on a rolling basis as applications come in (by the end of January 2021). Link to apply https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XNRRR33

These workshops introduce classroom teachers to lesson plans and ideas for incorporating nature and natural resources into their existing curricula. Each teacher will receive a free book of activities and the workshop is primarily a chance to experience the activities first-hand, give and receive feedback from other teachers, and develop methods for incorporating these resources into the classroom. There is a focus on place-based education and modifying generic lessons to reference NYC to be more relevant to students. All workshops are free of charge and can be requested for a PD day at your school, after-school site, or educational non-profit.