One way RIEEA supports our members is with professional development (PD) scholarships to support lifelong learning. Recently, we awarded a scholarship to Angel Bazinet. Angel is the School Programs Specialist at the Roger William’s Park Zoo. Read on to see how she used the scholarship to expand her connections and inclusive environmental education programming knowledge!
From Angel Bazinet:
I attended the Massachusetts Environmental Education Society (MEES) Conference on March 8th. It was great to meet some educators and professionals from Massachusetts and visit some of the booths from organizations I hadn’t known much about previously. I attended four sessions throughout the day, and loved hearing about what others are doing to improve their programming. In the morning I went to a session on environmental justice education with the New England Botanic Garden, and environmental education and outreach best practices. In the afternoon I went to a session about sensory friendly programming, and a session with Mass Audubon about incorporating nature-based activities into environmental education. I got a lot of great resources and ideas that I will be using in my future programs. Some of the art projects from Mass Audubon will be great to incorporate into after school programming, and Allison Daigle from Autism Alliance gave some amazing resources for making on site programs more accessible to neurodivergent audiences. We are also trying to incorporate more environmental justice into our programs as well and the first session was a wonderful example of some more ways to do that.
Attending a conference or workshop related to environmental education and want to apply for a scholarship? Learn more here!