The NOAA Environmental Science Training Center offers workshops for educators. These training sessions offer the knowledge and tools educators need to help teach today’s students, who will be tomorrow’s Bay stewards. We hold workshops at our location in Oxford, Maryland, and at partner locations around the Chesapeake watershed. We also hold online webinars.
Our workshops connect regional educators with science content from NOAA and our partners. The workshops also include how to apply this science with students in the classroom as well as in the field. This knowledge helps educators and teachers deliver meaningful watershed educational experiences. Our instructors include NOAA staff and experts from partner organizations. Topics we explore include climate change, fisheries science, and water quality. We are part of the Mid-Atlantic Climate Change Education Collaborative, which brings people and organizations together to advance education for climate action.
Upcoming Training Sessions
The Environmental Science Training Center offers a variety of training sessions. Webinars are usually about an hour long and are intended for larger audiences. Workshops are often in person and are daylong or multiday opportunities that focus on themes relevant to the environmental literacy community.
We will offer several webinars during the upcoming winter and spring:
- January 23, 2025, 2:30 p.m. EST: Stories from Three Division Environmental Literacy Plans. Learn how public school systems in three Virginia counties developed their environmental literacy plans.
- February 24, 2025, 2:30 p.m. EST: Linking the Past, Present, and Future: Integrating Social Studies into Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences. Hear from Pickering Creek Audubon Center how they use social studies in their middle and high school programs.
- February 26, 2025, 12 noon-3 p.m., EST: 2025 Environmental Literacy Forum Virtual Recap. Hear about the training resources shared at the in-person January 2025 Environmental Literacy Forum.
- March 27, 2025, 2:30 p.m. EDT: High-Quality Environmental Education Programming: A Self-Assessment Rubric for District Success. Join us to learn about a new resource to help educators describe how their environmental education programs align with school district priorities.
- April 10, 2025, 2:30 p.m. EDT: NOAA Data Online Courses. Learn about two online courses to help educators use data in their teaching.
We also offer courses online through Chesapeake Exploration, including:
- MWEE 101, which offers an introduction to the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience framework and includes a sample MWEE each for elementary, middle, and high school. Continuing education credits for educators are available in some states.
- MWEE 201, which provides more in-depth instruction on how to plan or update a MWEE. It emphasizes planning and conducting outdoor investigations as well as incorporating student voice and choice throughout the MWEE program.
- Next Generation Science Standards and Environmental Literacy, which provides an introduction to the Next Generation Science Standards, supporting materials for science learning, and information on how the Standards connect to environmental literacy efforts.
- Teaching Climate Change: Climate Change Science and Storytelling, which provides a review of climate change evidence, Earth and climate system science, climate change effects on the natural and human systems, and climate change solutions. Throughout the course, participants develop a story to connect climate change to their students' lives and community.
- Data Tutorial: Climate, which provides information on how to use various climate data tools focused on temperature, water, and wildlife. Each lesson starts with a tool tutorial, highlights a story from across the watershed where towns or community groups have used the tool in their planning, and models how you can use the tool with students by answering a climate question.
Ask us about upcoming workshops.
Past Workshops
For almost a decade, the Center has offered multiple workshops for educators each year. These sessions have focused on new and exciting topics relevant to Chesapeake Bay science. Topics have included climate change and resilience, techniques for teaching environmental science, and the latest science on fish, other species, and related Chesapeake Bay issues. Presentations and other materials from a wealth of workshops have been archived. We'd be happy to share information and materials from past workshops with you. Contact us for more information.
