Education Coordinators from Across the U.S. Share Ideas and Knowledge
A regional greeting featuring an excerpt from Regents' Professor Ofelia Zepeda's Prophecy poem kicked off the conference. APW offered a behind-the-scenes look at our Arizona Water Festival model, which now delivers 28 festivals per year. We dove into STEM instruction with underwater robots, offering others a chance to partner with Marine Advanced Technology Education as APW has done in Arizona. To help coordinators adhere to the Next Generation Science Standards, we used extreme weather phenomena to demonstrate meaningful, student-centered instruction. Participants got to delve in to APW's systems thinking method, which is designed to construct new knowledge and deconstruct misconceptions. We offered a glimpse in to how to activate wonder and learning about riparian areas and wetlands, having now incorporated Lawrence Hall of Science research to our outdoor learning programs.
Arizona's unique biodiversity was highlighted through a climate perspective by Extension Specialist, Dr. Mike Crimmins. The Director of Tucson Water, Tim Thomure, served as the content specialist in our discussion of water reuse education. Dr. David Yaden Jr. Professor of Language, Reading and Culture at the UA College of Education provided his expertise in the advanced training on Early Childhood Education.
Field trips featured a tour with Joaquin Murrieta to Sabino Canyon Creek where Watershed Management Group is working to connect surface water and groundwater and a trip to the raingardens installed through our Recharge the Rain project at Esperero Canyon Middle School. Finally, an overcast and showery morning at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum had many animals out and about for easy viewing.
To top it all off, APW developed a mural scavenger hunt offering a tour of our great downtown area. Let us know if you want a copy! All conference participants walked away with many things, but to most the Arizona Be Kind magnet from Ben's Bells carried the most meaning.