How are you teaching your environmental and Earth systems students about energy solutions to climate change? Join fellow Energy, Earth and Environmental Educators (E4) to share best practices and learn new techniques. The E4 community building workshop will take place on June 26 at the start of the AESS conference. Explore classroom issues (content, curriculum and pedagogy), advancing diversity, connecting with campus and community practices, secondary education and creating and sustaining degree and sub-degree programs in presentations and small group discussion. Marilyn Brown, Regents’ and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech will speak about Why and How to Connect Energy, Earth and Environmental Education. This workshop will be organized by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) in collaboration with AESS. It builds on workshops previously held at AESS conferences and at three National Energy Education Summits, organized by the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), one of which was held at the 2016 AESS conference.

As Howard Zinn put it, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.” Those of us who teach science are not exempt from his indictment. Here’s why. Representation Matters. One day as a substitute teacher for a second-grade classroom, I pulled out my deck of Black History flashcards and spread them out on the rug. The students gathered around. One gazed at the faces on the cards with a puzzled expression and queried, “Are all those MLK?” Another snatched up the Mae Carol Jemison card and demanded urgently: “Wait, wait…do you mean I could be an astronaut?” Do the authors of assigned readings reflect the diversity of your students? When selecting images for PowerPoint slides that aim to represent unmarked human models, what message do they send about what “normal” looks like? Context Matters. Science is too often taught in a way that obscures the political context in which research is undertaken, funded, and written about. How do we create a learning community that prefigures the society we hope our students will help shape? How do we teach the fundamentals of science without reinforcing oppression? We will learn from each other’s missteps and epiphanies in a light-hearted, non-judgmental space.

This workshop will provide participants to the opportunity to develop their abilities to lead interdisciplinary collaborative teams composed of diverse members. As a teacher, researcher, or employer, our goal should be to take those who are under your mentorship to some place new. To take them someplace new requires change, and learning is a prerequisite to change. The methods and strategies embedded in the workshop activities will engage the brain to maximize learning about the collaborative leadership action model that will make your teaching, coaching, and leading more effective. A collaborative approach requires at the very minimum the creation of a common vision that unites your team. To create a common vision among the different people requires a range of approaches; this requires knowledge of who you are as a leader and identities of those you are leading so as to minimize assumptions about those you are leading. People are different, yet they are all valuable and can contribute uniquely to the team if given the opportunity. An overall outcome of the workshop will be that participants will be able to create an environment for more effective communication that will be foundational to successful leadership.

EcoTypes (jimproctor.us/ecotypes) is intended primarily for undergraduate students in environment-related courses to learn more about the fundamental ideas that shape how they and others approach environmental issues. Over 2500 participants have completed the EcoTypes survey in the last two years, including roughly 50 U.S. institutions of higher education. The workshop offers instructors a theoretical background to EcoTypes and pedagogical guidance for use in their courses. Participants will get a general background on environmental ideas and typologies, then we will delve into EcoTypes axes (fifteen total), three aggregate themes derived from these axes, and six topics designed to provide concrete applications of EcoTypes. Participants will learn how the EcoTypes survey was constructed and how they may analyze student data, including EcoTypes axis and theme scores, and grid-group survey results, and compare with overall results. We will then share with participants what instructors have learned over the last two years in bringing EcoTypes into their classes, with a variety of workable instructional approaches tailored to the amount of time available. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a concrete plan for teaching with EcoTypes, and sufficient theoretical background to feel comfortable doing so.

The Workshop is intended for scholars at any stage in their career desiring an opportunity to learn more about how to prepare manuscripts for publication in an interdisciplinary environmental journals such as the Journal for Environmental Studies and Sciences. The workshop will address the review process and the special challenges of writing for interdisciplinary audiences. During the first part of the Workshop, experienced journal editors will discuss how manuscripts are reviewed and suggestions for preparing manuscripts. Generous opportunity will be provided for questions from participants. The second part of the Workshop will involve draft manuscripts which participants are invited to submit in advance of the Workshop. During this session, participants will be divided into small groups, each consisting of 2-4 authors and a Journal editor or otherwise qualified reviewer. Each paper will be read by the other group members in advance of the meeting. Suggestions for revision or improvement will be discussed. Other workshop participants may observe these small group discussions. The workshop will close with a final collective meeting to discuss issues and ideas from the feedback session.

Run by early career faculty for new (to ESS) faculty, our workshop addresses the growing pains experienced in new and emerging ESS programs. We offer a safe, conversational, and constructive space to share challenges and successful strategies of professionals working in or responsible for new and growing ESS programs. By engaging in individualized network mapping activities, we will identify, analyze, and strategize solutions to participant case studies dealing with program growth as well as personal and professional support. The workshop will be discussion-driven and solutions-focused, providing each participant the opportunity to explore their situation in the context of colleagues’ experiences. The workshop will also explore ways to create an extended support network comprised of participants and workshop leaders that can supplement on-campus resources.