The Community Education in Action program is a collaborative series of workshops to exchange ideas and promote the co-creation of climate justice and environmental justice educational resources, using the Just Transition framework as a guiding model. Front and...
Partner stories
These stories are a collection of educator professional learning experiences and opportunities provided by ESD, CBO and Tribal School partners.
Pacific Education Institute
Pacific Education Institute (PEI) delivers high-quality professional development and consultation services for educators in equitable, locally relevant, career connected, outdoor STEM education. PEI’s project, “Solutions Oriented Learning Storylines (SOLS),” is designed to strengthen teachers’ equitable climate science instruction through locally relevant storylines.
Do Ellensburg Cows Taste Like Beer? And Other Questions from PEI’s Food Waste Workshop
‘A group of teachers’ walks into a bar’ sounds like the setup for a groan-worthy joke, probably involving a pun. However, if the teachers in question just finished PEI’s Asynchronous Food Waste workshop, they might just be on a research mission. We hear you scoffing...
Braiding Sweetgrass Spring Book Study
From February through May this spring, 25 teachers from Pierce, King, and Snohomish counties met virtually to discuss the principles and practices of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s seminal book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Wisdom of...
Festival of Trees Workshop Prepares Educators to Teach Forestry
When Elizabeth Nightingale announced that she would offer forestry classes next fall, Eatonville High School students responded enthusiastically. By April, the classes were full – even though they won’t start until September. “I’ve gotten a lot of interest,” says...
Phenomena-based Learning Workshop Creates Record Attendance and Completion Rates
PEI’s workshops are typically well attended, but what happened in May was exceptional. Over one hundred people registered for a Phenomena Based Learning: Solutions Oriented Storylines workshop and of those who attended, nearly all completed the course requirements....
Solar Solutions: PEI & ESD 123 team up for professional learning on renewable energy
Richland Public Library provided the perfect backdrop for four Central and Eastern Washington educators to explore how solar energy interacts with surfaces and materials here on Earth. When Central Washington FieldSTEM Coordinator Megan Rivard brought out the 1873...
Can compost curb climate change? PEI and ESD 105 teachers dig in to this food waste solution
Teachers standing among the hedgerows of Natural Selection Farms (NSF) compost in various stages of breaking down took a collective deep breath. “Look at the color – it smells amazing!” Compost is one strategy for managing food waste, a major contributor to greenhouse...
Learning About Wetland Ecosystems at Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
What role do wetlands play in building ecosystem resilience? This is what an enthusiastic group of K-12 educators from Capitol Region ESD 113 wondered this past summer as they explored Pacific Education Institute’s (PEI) Coastal Wetlands storyline at the Billy Frank...
Exploring Coastal Hazards
How do you stop a beach from eroding? What do city planners need to consider to save their cities from sea level rise? These are just two of the questions teachers from NWESD 189 tackled at a November workshop with Pacific Education Institute (PEI) FieldSTEM...