The second annual Madison Area Green & Healthy Schools Summit will be held at northside Madison’s Lake View Elementary School on Wednesday, Aug. 7, from 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m., according to Madison365. The summit will host over 100 local educators, child care professionals, parents, and local, state, and regional organizations.
The event, themed “Embracing Nature Connection & Outdoor Learning for ALL,” will feature over 20 sessions on nature connection, pedagogy, and current science. Participants will learn about outdoor lessons, logistics, advocacy, and justice, and will have opportunities to connect with community organizations.
Dexter Patterson, UW–Madison educator and co-founder of BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin, and Nou Vang-Vue, Lake View Elementary School’s principal, will speak at the event. Patterson’s morning keynote, “Bird Joy for All,” will focus on inspiring educators to create spaces of belonging and further incorporate science and nature into their teaching. Vang-Vue will deliver an afternoon keynote, titled “Cultivating Learners and Leaders in the Outdoors.”
Additional workshop and session presenters will include recreation specialists, artists, environmental nonprofit leaders, occupational therapists, nature mentors, storytelling naturalists, librarians, and educators focused on topics like community gardens, wild food, farms, forestry, water, energy, reading and language, and more.
The event is sponsored in part by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Green & Healthy Schools Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, Madison Gas & Electric, Willy Street Co-op, Outdoors We Learn, and Victoria Rydberg-Nania and Jeff Nania with Feet Wet Writing. Click here to register.
