Bees, bats and butterflies all have one thing in common — they are pollinators! Pollination is a process that is imperative to the success of nearly all-terrestrial life on earth. Humans need healthy pollinator populations to support our food system...

In the first in a series of two workshops that will focus on using reflective writing as a means of promoting diversity and inclusion. In this eeINSPIRE webinar, we will use brief excerpts from books as inspiration and take a little time to discuss and...

Polls continue to show distressingly high percentages of people around the world do not accept that evolution has occurred. Even among individuals who accept evolution, surveys indicate that many do not understand its mechanistic basis, natural...

Earth Day Network is committed to supporting parents and teachers in providing engaging environmental education opportunities. As students and parents all over the world face a new reality of learning from home and teachers work hard to transition to...

Story is a powerful, provocative interpretive medium in botanical gardens. Plants already have a hard time attracting the interest of a plant-blind public, and lists of facts do little to bring them alive. Botanical gardens and their collections are...

Humanity faces numerous challenges in adapting to a changing planet. Public gardens are an ideal setting in which to engage the public on how to be part of the solution. Climate disruption, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss, food security,...

Interpretation is the best tool for orienting visitors and connecting them to a garden’s mission. Gardens also function as a gateway to the natural world and a lifelong learning tool for visitors of all ages. Studies have shown that over 80% of garden...

The United Nations has established a new decade, beginning in 2020, focused on the power of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). “ESD for 2030” calls for educators to help advance new skills, empower youth, increase public awareness, and build...

This webinar will introduce extension agents to concepts of urban ecology, which addresses the intricate relationship between humans and urban trees, air, water, soil, wildlife, and more.
The world has become increasingly urban with roughly half...

Academic campuses across the Great Plains can serve as landscapes for teaching and learning about native flora of cultural importance with regard to food, medicine, and lifeways. Campus visitors (tourists) and local community members could benefit from...

Despite the importance of bees, there is a gap in the public's understanding of them. To help address this gap, we developed the outreach tool Experience Bees, a series of simple learning and hands-on activities to teach community members about bees...

Educators know, based on years of research, that effective learning happens when learners are:

• Actively engaged (as opposed to passive recipients of information)
• Equal partners in the learning process
• Socially engaged
...

Plants permeate human life. Our physical and cultural environments are infused with the lives of plants. Even the oxygen in the air we breathe is the result of their biological processes. Indeed, “we rely on plants for food, shelter, fuel, and fibers...

The presenter for this webinar was Megan Bang, Associate Professor in Education and Indigenous Studies, Northwestern University. She focused on the intersection of environmental education and indigenous knowledge. This is a resource for gaining a new...

Opening a new or renovated garden/garden space doesn't end with construction and plants! That's when the communications and marketing teams gear up to prepare the space for visitors and then work to get the word out. Join us to hear from gardens across...

Public Gardens are positioned to not only support the protection of plants but lessons about how they intersect with thriving communities as well. Indigenous communities and their associated values are critical components to developing solutions to...

As public gardens become increasingly focused on visitor experience, the story they tell about themselves—and the way gardens use this story to engage their stakeholders—is more important than ever. Participants will hear from five professionals at...

Capturing the attention of those beyond the “usual suspects” of botanical garden enthusiasts often requires creative leveraging of all available assets. These assets may include emblematic “umbrella” species outside of the plant kingdom. In the case of...

Living collections are at the center of botanic garden interpretation and education. Increasingly, however, gardens implement learning approaches that disconnect the concepts from the collections. How do we, as garden education professionals, craft...

In the May 2019 installment of the eeINSPIRE webinar series, presented by NAAEE in partnership with the US Forest Service, we heard from Bora Simmons (National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education) and Anne Umali (NAAEE). Watch the...