During 2021, the Outdoor Wonders and Learning program has continued to grow in incredible ways. Not only is there a NEW activity in the guide (see Web Designers) in the Animals and Adaptations unit, but there are also five new facilitators in the state of North Carolina, and a fully online version of the workshop!

Toward the end of 2020 OWL provided its first completely online workshop over a period of three weeks. The workshop is hosted on the Schoology Learning Management System, as well as through Zoom. Participants complete some self guided work through watching videos and reflecting on how they would use the activities, and meet three times via Zoom to share ideas, go over content about the guide and the program with a facilitator, and to ask questions about their asynchronous work.  This online version of the workshop is worth 10 hours of Criteria 1 credit through the NC EE Certification Program.

In Spring of 2021, OWL also provided hybrid versions of the workshop. In these instances, participants complete some of the work online, like background reading and reflection, then met in person to do activities from the curriculum guide. Due to travel and Covid restrictions this format was not as successful, though workshop evaluation feedback did supply some amazing ideas for making the online work more accessible and “digestible” for participants. This led to a change in the format of the overall workshop (those provided in person and online).

In Fall of 2021, the first OWL Facilitator Training was held at Agape Camp and Conference Center. Five new facilitators  from both formal and non-formal education backgrounds, where trained on the history and intention of the OWL program, how to host a workshop, and opened the door to collaboration on a state-wide level. This new Advisory Team for the OWL program meets regularly to discuss curriculum updates, how to use activities with participants of all ages, and how the program can best interact with and reach more educators across the state.

2020 will bring a lot of big and much anticipated changes to the OWL program for North Carolina Educators. Coming in the new year you can expect to see new changes to the curriculum guide, a new website, and our first OWL facilitator training. These changes have been made possible with the state-wide expansion of the three initiatives of The North Carolina Arboretum: OWL, Project EXPLORE, and ecoEXPLORE, all funded by a grant from the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation.

For starters, after a year of updates and redesign, a new version of the OWL guide is available right now! The updates are only Phase One of a three part process to make this guide as comprehensive and usable as possible. Phase One has focused on making sure all of the activities are written using the 5E Instructional Model and showing how each activity can be used as its own learning state of a larger 5E lesson. Look for the bright yellow labels under the OWL logo of each activity to know how to use it in your programs and lessons. The next two phases of curriculum updates will involve adding new activities as suggested by our 2019 Teacher Advisory Committee, and finally, finding new an exciting ways to provide Environmental Education activities that focus on the Physical Science standards for K-5 in North Carolina. We hope to have this new activities added throughout the coming year and anticipate these edits being much easier with our new website.

Speaking of which, OWL will be getting a brand new website this year! We’re excited to work with a local WNC business – Integritive, and while the new site is being constructed this current site will remain active, as well access to the guide in its current form. Once the new site launches (we’re hoping for early Spring), you’ll see features like search filters for the guide, a calendar showing dates and times of upcoming workshops, and a feedback section for the activities so you can share your edits and variations directly with other educators. This is a feature we’re particularly excited about because it will continue our goal of creating a learning community of educators who are sharing their knowledge.

And finally, 2020 will bring the biggest change of all – OWL will be training the first round of workshop facilitators! The workshop will be at the end of August (after summer camps and before school starts) at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. This will likely be a 10 hour training, but it is still in the development stages. We’ll be looking for six to eight educators from all around the state, who are familiar with the OWL curriculum, and willing and able to lead at least one workshop in their area each year. More information about registering for this training will be announced in Spring of 2020.

As we use 2020 to look back at how much OWL has grown and changed, we are also looking ahead to increased opportunities for Outdoor Wonders and Learning!

After a successful pilot year, with many learning opportunities, the Project OWL team decided to re-calibrate the program based on participant feedback. While the curriculum is still a living document, and the suggestions and adaptations made by the 2017-18 teacher cohort have been added to this year’s version, the access to the workshop training has changed greatly – and we are very excited!

This year, Project OWL is going to pre-service Elementary Education teachers in the UNC System. There are two workshops scheduled so far this fall, one with Western Carolina University students, and one with Appalachian State University students. There is a second workshop scheduled for ASU’s Recreation Management students to help give them a background in providing Environmental Education programs for North Carolina teachers.

Introducing Project OWL to MECME classroom teachers.
Photo courtesy of Sean Russell, MECME

On August 17 Project OWL also had the pleasure of working with the classroom teachers of Millbrook Environmental Connections Magnet Elementary (MECME) in Raleigh, NC. The school’s 25 classroom teachers participated in the curriculum workshop, experiencing the activities, learning about the schoolyard, and using their own lesson plans to practice using an inquiry-based format and inserting a Project OWL activity that best fits the unit.

Teachers learning about the impact of squirrels in their schoolyard.
Photo courtesy of Sean Russell, MECME

“This workshop was very engaging, authentic and informative. I was really excited to learn all the ways I can incorporate the 5E’s in my lessons and just an overall understanding that I can get my students excited about the environment.”
— Kishma Harriott, MECME teacher

MECME teachers engage in the “What Am I?” classification activity.
Photo courtesy of Sean Russell, MECME

This fresh start and new approach to Project OWL has been well received and we are excited to offer workshops to both formal and non-formal educators this year. Stay tuned for more updates!

MP