Conferences

Key next steps

NAAEE 2020: record 10-minute video by 9/11. Our original submission.
AEE Intl: design 90-minute workshop and workshop ahead of time. Our original submission.
AEE Intl: preconference workshop. Our original submission.
local conferences: see whether we can present - may have missed deadlines.

PE conferences

MAHPERD 2020

Ethan and I are registered and members 10/19/20. We are presenting early November.

Experiential Education

Memberships

We are member of AEE.

Northeast AEE 2021

Not sure if we have missed the deadline for submission. Need to check.

International AEE 2020, Virtual, Nov 12-14

Our presentation: Teaching Map Navigation: Designing a Progression of Games
- 90 minutes
- Barb & Ethan presenters
- See below for details of what we submitted; google doc with our proposal.
I believe this will be a live workshop, and we need to do a lot of work to prep for it. Fortunately, that dovetails with what we need to do on our progression anyway.

8/18, Callie Auman wrote asking for a headshot of me. I sent one to her on 8/28/2020.
We will offer an extended education course. An example of a course that will be offered: Risk Management for Outdoor Programs, 4 live online sessions, weekly Nov 11-Dec 2 with independent individual and group work between the sessions. Cost $259. (I think one of us should take this!)
There is a workshop for conference presenters 9/2 2-3pm ET (will be recorded and sent around).
Navigation Games membership with AEE renewed in Oct 2020.
We have registered for the conference (Barb, Ethan).

Workshop Title:

Teaching Map Navigation: Designing a Progression of Games

Workshop Description:

How do we transform passive lesson plans into active learning? Navigation Games teaches map skills using a progression of games. We start with no map, and no compass. We emphasize exploration, search, remembering, and building up a mental map before we advance to a paper map. In this workshop, participants will play a game or two, and learn about our elementary school orienteering curriculum. You will come away with orienteering lesson plans, as well as ideas for transforming how you teach your own subjects.

Content / Learning Objectives:

Attendees will (1) know the value of orienteering-based education, (2) know how to execute one of our core elementary school lesson plans, (3) envision how to include map navigation in their own programs, (4) re-write a lesson plan to transform it from passive to active, (5) discuss three forms of transfer of learned material to the students’ future (specific, non-specific and metaphorical).

Significance:

Orienteering is a good example for transforming traditional to experiential education, for several reasons. Despite being an outdoor adventure activity, orienteering is often taught in a pedantic way that is confusing for recipients. Here, we break it down into components and ask how to build fun games that develop skills and build toward competency. Educators who participate in this workshop can use this as an example for the subjects that they are teaching.

Format:

A mixture of lecture, discussion, and hands-on activities. Participants will play two of our games, reflect on it, and be guided to extrapolate to their own content.

Audience Level:

Open to All -- Topic does not depend on level of knowledge or involvement with the topic

Audience:

K-12 Education

Size limit:

Logistical Needs:

Need a lot of space in which to move around.

Environmental Education

MEES 2020

Not sure if we have missed the deadline for submission. Need to check.

Oct 13-16, 2020: NAAEE, North American Association for Environmental Education

Conference link
Session 1671847: Orienteering as a Framework for Inclusive Experiential Environmental Education
Presenters: Barb & Jen -- update 9/2: removing Jen bc costs $230/person and all must register. Barb's registration # is NYNVLDZXXSJ
On-demand; Bright Spot (10 minutes)
Monday Oct 5 9-10am
Submit pre-recorded MP4 file by 9/11/2020; In mid-September, we will have access to speaker page in conference platform to upload supplementary materials (handouts, slides, photos, links to websites).
tips for recording presentation
Deadline for presenter registration: 9/21/2020 -- all presenters must register; link on conference home page.

Contacts

Lori Mann, NAAEE Senior Conference Manager

Navigation Games uses map-based activities to engage children in outdoor play and environmental awareness. We will share a progression of hands-on orienteering lessons and games suitable for K-12 students. We will describe our experience delivering programs in the greater Boston area, before and during the pandemic.

Description (used for reviewers to evaluate our proposed session) (updated 9/2/2020):

The first step to environmental education is to get kids outside, having fun and building awareness of their surroundings. Our goal at Navigation Games is a progressive curriculum based on orienteering (a map navigation sport), to engage children in outdoor play, develop spatial awareness, and build competency at navigation in unfamiliar terrain.

We lower cultural and economic barriers to outdoor experience by working with whole school districts to implement map navigation education starting in PE, thus reaching all students regardless of economic status. Our goal is for every student to experience orienteering, and in so doing, have increased access to public parks, forests and other outdoor spaces. We will share strategies for working with urban, diverse districts and for obtaining grant funding to make the programs affordable. We also discuss creating sustainable programs by enabling and inspiring school teachers to deliver the curriculum on their own. By starting our programs in schools and on school grounds, and building competency over several years, students develop a familiarity with the activities that can overcome cultural barriers to comfort in previously unvisited terrain of a larger park or forest.

We will share our progression of fun lessons. Our games build spatial awareness and mental maps before introducing a paper map. Orienting maps with landmarks instead of a compass reinforces children's sense of place. We limit the use of compass to outings with older children in the forest. During and after each activity, we encourage reflective conversation, including the application of navigation skills to other areas of school and life. The game progression can be adapted for students in grades K-12.

Keywords: elementary school programs, middle & high school programs, underserved audiences

Session Type

Bright Spot

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