Conservation Education Workshop Series

Supporting conservation educators through hands-on programming and resources

The Education Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology North America (SCBNA) will be hosting a series of online, interactive workshops to provide pedagogical support in conservation education for educators in our network (SCB members &  non-members alike). Each workshop will focus on incorporating practical resources into classroom curricula and/or out-of-school-time programs, and will include opportunities for hands-on learning with our workshop facilitators. Moreover, each workshop will seek to connect educators with members of the wider conservation community, and provide space for additional collaborations to flourish amongst attendees.

Workshops are available to both SCB members and non-members, and will be recorded and posted to our SCBNA YouTube Page for future viewing (subscribe so you are notified when new recordings are posted!). Moreover, resources from all workshops will be posted to this site for use as needed.

Upcoming Workshops

Winter & Spring 2026 Workshops

Recordings Below

WORKSHOP RECORDING

Join the Project WILD national team to learn more about using wildlife-based conservation activities with K-12 students in formal and non-formal settings. Come ready for hands-on learning and curriculum links to help you get started right away! For more information, CLICK HERE!

Links to Workshop PDFs:

Workshop Leads:

Elena Tataki | Director of Leadership and Conservation Education, Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

Elena Takaki serves as Director of Leadership and Conservation Education at the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies. As an experienced educator, Elena is passionate about helping people move beyond understanding the world to truly experiencing it through exploration, curiosity, and wonder. Her career spans leadership roles at organizations including the North American Association for Environmental Education, National Geographic Society, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, where she led innovative programs, partnerships, and professional learning initiatives. Throughout her work, she has developed curricula and tools that empower students and professionals to collect, use, and apply data to make informed natural resource management decisions.

Marc LeFebre | Project WILD Sr. Program Manager, Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

Marc LeFebre serves as the Sr. Program Manager for the Project WILD program with the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies.  With many years of experience as an educator, including past roles as a school teacher and interpretive ranger with the National Park Service, Marc brings deep knowledge and a practical perspective to environmental learning and conservation education. His interests include paddling, camping, and using nature festivals as powerful ways to connect stewardship with community and place. 

Kathleen Freeman | Project WILD Program Associate, Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

Kathleen Freeman serves as the Program Associate for Project WILD. With over 20 years of experience in non-formal environmental education, Kathleen has dedicated her career to helping people understand and care for the natural world. Her work blends science, storytelling, and hands-on learning to make nature accessible and meaningful for all audiences. Passionate about connection as a catalyst for conservation, she inspires others to see themselves as active stewards of the environment.

Teaching about climate change is tough.

Let’s talk about it!

WEBINAR RECORDING

Join us on Friday, March 27, from 12:30–2 pm ET for an NCEP Community Exchange event in collaboration with the Society for Conservation Biology North America’s Education Committee. You’ll get a chance to connect with other educators and meet the author of an article on how the classroom can become a democratic space for change.

“Climate Change and the Voice from the Classroom” was published in Lessons in Conservation Volume 14, as a perspective article. During this event Luiz Caldeira Brant de Tolentino-Neto will use the article as a springboard to connect educators and practitioners navigating similar issues and topics in their classrooms to help them reflect on students’ perspectives around climate change education. This event is an opportunity for educators of all kinds to exchange strategies about incorporating student voices in the classroom, share their challenges, and find support in community.

Featured Resource: Climate Change and the Voice from the Classroom

Author: L.C.B. Tolentino-Neto

WEBINAR RECORDING

The second installment of our poetry workshop series continues the journey of how to use poetry to engage scientific audiences and contribute to conservation conversations. Poetry (and the arts more broadly) complements conservation science, but how can we deepen that relationship and use the poetic lens to come to new ecological understandings? When statistical intricacies, policy machinations, or syllabus minutiae muddle our brains, a moment of poetry reconnects us with our ecosystems, our more-than-human kin, and ourselves. Poetry invites us to re-find beauty, rekindle awe, redirect fear and dismay, and re-connect to place. In addition to using familiar techniques of close observation and working from found text, this workshop will add new tools to our poetry toolkit with new literary devices and possibilities.

Speakers:

Dr. Marjorie Wonham | Associate Teaching Professor, University of Washington

Dr. Marjorie Wonham (she/they) is a Canadian marine biologist who studies and teaches at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island, USA. Her biology research and teaching focus on marine invertebrate zoology, and the ecological impacts of introduced non-native species in coastal systems. Her pedagogical research and her teaching practice focus on cultivating learner self-authorship through guided inquiry. Marjorie has a passion for poetry-infused pedagogy, and co-teaches integrated, interactive science-arts courses and workshops for undergraduate students, graduate students, and the public.

Joelle Cook | Artist and Writer

Joelle Cook (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, fiction writer, and science-curious poet who currently lives in San Diego, California. Joelle graduated from the University of Washington, with a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts and Creative Writing. Her artwork and poetry is an exploration of symbiosis and relationality in the natural world, highlighting how form follows function in both the humanities and the sciences. Joelle was a 2025 Artist-in-Residence at Friday Harbor Labs. Her writing has been featured in the University of Washington’s literary arts journal Bricolage, Cornell University’s literary arts journal Rainy Day, and travel journal Voyage.

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Past Workshops & Recordings

Fall/Winter 2025 Workshops

Recordings & Resource Links Below

WORKSHOP RECORDING

Want to learn more about communities and their role in conserving biodiversity around the world? Want to learn how to work with communities to conserve biodiversity? If so, then join the SCBNA Education Committee for a virtual workshop that will cover the basics of community conservation and the process of working with communities, including initiating a relationship with communities, approaches and tools for working with communities, creating or supporting community groups, and designing activities. This interactive workshop will equip participants with the tools and strategies to develop meaningful partnerships as part of biodiversity conservation projects.

A recording of the workshop (along with useful resources) will be available for future viewing via our YouTube site. For more information on our speaker for this session, please continue reading below:

Speaker:

Dr. Teri Allendorf | Executive Director, Community Conservation

Dr. Allendorf has worked on issues of local communities and conservation since 1994. She earned her PhD in Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota and has substantial experience with conservation policy and community-level programs. She was a member of USAID’s Biodiversity Team, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, and has partnered with NGOs and communities on conservation issues around the world. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in journals and taught courses at the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Future Generations University, as well as short courses in India and Namibia. Currently, she is the Executive Director of Community Conservation. Community Conservation Inc has been catalyzing and supporting community-based organizations since 1989, working with communities in 18 countries. We focus our efforts on rare habitats and endangered species.

WEBINAR RECORDING & RESOURCE FOLDER

How can poetry engage and inspire you and your conservation biology students? Find out in this interactive workshop co-facilitated by a biologist/educator and an artist/poet. We believe that poetry (and the arts more broadly) complement conservation science. To be able to work with a species or habitat requires spending time in careful and curious observation. When statistical intricacies, policy machinations, or syllabus minutiae muddle our brains, a moment of poetry reconnects us with our ecosystems, our more-than-human kin, and ourselves. Poetry invites us to re-find beauty, rekindle awe, redirect fear and dismay, and re-connect to place. This workshop uses close observation – of sources, species, and places – as a science-friendly gateway to foster wonder and build relationships through creating and sharing poems.

In this science- and poetry-friendly workshop, you will:
1. Discover why and how adding poetry to your pedagogy can engage and inspire you and your learners.
2. Contribute to a poetry myth-busting activity you can use with your learners.
3. Test out three easy-access and surprisingly rich poetry prompts, share the results, and adapt the prompts for your learners.
4. Receive well-tested pdf and online resources for integrating poetry and biology at the lesson, course, and curriculum scales.

A recording of the workshop (along with useful resources) will be available for future viewing via our YouTube site. For more information on our speaker for this session, please continue reading below:

Speakers:

Dr. Marjorie Wonham | Associate Teaching Professor, University of Washington

Dr. Marjorie Wonham (she/they) is a Canadian marine biologist who studies and teaches at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island, USA. Her biology research and teaching focus on marine invertebrate zoology, and the ecological impacts of introduced non-native species in coastal systems. Her pedagogical research and her teaching practice focus on cultivating learner self-authorship through guided inquiry. Marjorie has a passion for poetry-infused pedagogy, and co-teaches integrated, interactive science-arts courses and workshops for undergraduate students, graduate students, and the public.

Joelle Cook | Artist and Writer

Joelle Cook (she/her) is an American artist and writer, who currently lives in San Diego, California. A military kid who grew up in different places around the country, Joelle graduated from the University of Washington, with a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts and Creative Writing. When she’s not writing or drawing, she likes reading comics, playing Dungeons and Dragons, making tea, and exploring the world with friends and family. Her writing has been featured in the University of Washington’s literary arts journal Bricolage, Cornell University’s literary arts journal Rainy Day, and travel journal Voyage.

Fall 2024 & Winter 2025 Workshops

Recording Links Below

WORKSHOP RECORDING

Join the SCBNA Education Committee for a virtual event where we will discuss how to have positive & productive conversations about conservation issues. Conversations about conservation often involve diverse perspectives and can become contentious, especially in today’s highly polarized world. The ability to engage in meaningful, solution-oriented conversations is essential for fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders and driving meaningful change in conservation initiatives. This interactive workshop will equip participants with the tools and strategies to communicate effectively and lead constructive conversations to create shared understanding in environmental and conservation efforts.

Speaker:

Dr. Rhea Waldman, Executive Director | South Dakota Discovery Center

Dr. Rhea Waldman is a scientist, educator, and passionate advocate for science communication. For over a decade, her research centered on the study of flight, with a focus on the aerodynamics, kinematics, and energetics of bat flight. In 2017, Rhea transitioned from academia to the nonprofit sector, becoming Executive Director of the South Dakota Discovery Center in 2020. While trained as a scientist, her true passion lies in science communication, where she navigates the challenges and rewards of effective advocacy, storytelling, and outreach. She is deeply committed to the Center’s mission of empowering the people of the Great Plains, fostering connections between Western Science and Indigenous Knowledge. Through board service and community engagement, Rhea works to strengthen partnerships and develop innovative ways to inspire curiosity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).

WORKSHOP RECORDING

Join the SCBNA Education Committee for a virtual event where we will introduce attendees to MacroBlitz, a NatGeo-funded citizen science project! MacroBlitz is a project to inspire and empower people to find and photograph aquatic macroinvertebrates and upload those photographs to iNaturalist for science and for learning. In this session, learn what MacroBlitz is and how you can contribute by photographing aquatic inverts using readily accessible supplies.

Speaker:

Anne Lewis, Special Projects Director | South Dakota Discovery Center

Anne Lewis is an educator and an advocate for public-involvement science, working at the intersection of people, nature, climate, and science. She is the PI on the MacroBlitz project, leading a team of National Geographic explorers to empower educators from the Canadian forests to Chilean Patagonia to teach how to survey aquatic macroinvertebrates using iNaturalist as a data platform. She was a 2019 National Geographic Education Fellow and a 2017 National Geographic Lindblad Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. She facilitates and advocates for braiding Indigenous ways of knowing and Western STEM in her work.

WORKSHOP RECORDING

Join the SCBNA Education Committee for a virtual event where we will support attendees in implementing MacroBlitz, a NatGeo-funded citizen science project! Are you ready to get into the field to MacroBlitz? In this session, we will explore the logistics of MacroBlitzing as well as do a deeper dive into the MacroBlitz iNaturalist project.

Speaker:

Anne Lewis, Special Projects Director | South Dakota Discovery Center

Anne Lewis is an educator and an advocate for public-involvement science, working at the intersection of people, nature, climate, and science. She is the PI on the MacroBlitz project, leading a team of National Geographic explorers to empower educators from the Canadian forests to Chilean Patagonia to teach how to survey aquatic macroinvertebrates using iNaturalist as a data platform. She was a 2019 National Geographic Education Fellow and a 2017 National Geographic Lindblad Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. She facilitates and advocates for braiding Indigenous ways of knowing and Western STEM in her work.

Workshop Resources:

January 22, 2025 – Intro to MacroBlitz:

Anne Lewis (Interim Executive Director, South Dakota Discovery Center): annelewis@sd-discovery.org

December 5, 2024 – Leading Constructive Conversations in Conservation:

Dr. Rhea Waldman (Client Executive, MaxStrat): rhea@maxwellstrat.com