Reflecting On and Celebrating the Past Five Years of BEETLES Institutes
We celebrate the close of the National Science Foundation grant that funded the past 5 years of BEETLES Leadership Institutes.
In 2016, we received funding from the National Science Foundation to broadly share the BEETLES Building Capacity Model with the environmental and outdoor science field. Under this grant, we led five BEETLES Leadership Institutes, reaching 217 leaders at 104 organizations that, pre-pandemic, employed over 3,000 education staff and served over 1.4M learners annually. In addition, we set out to gather evidence and contribute knowledge to the field of informal science education about the features of informal science learning experiences that support meaningful outcomes for learners. Combined, we hoped to support the systematic elevation of the informal outdoor science education field to a position of prominence and centrality in the effort to realize the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards.
This series of Leadership Institutes and research was part of a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal Science Learning program called Broad Implementation of a Building Capacity Model for Outdoor Science Organizations (Principal Investigators: Craig Strang & Rena Dorph, award #1612512).
To mark the close of this chapter, we hosted several events during the Summer of 2021 to celebrate and share our findings. Find recordings of each event below.
PAST EVENTS
Reflect & Celebrate (for BEETLES Leadership Institute alumni) – July 20th, 12pm – 2pm PT
Under this grant, we led five BEETLES Leadership Institutes, reaching 217 leaders at 104 organizations that, pre-pandemic, employed over 3,000 education staff and served over 1.4M learners. We’re full of gratitude for this community and all of the exemplary leaders and educators we’ve been able to connect with over the past 5 years.
Impact of BEETLES on Outdoor Educators’ Pedagogical Practices – July 28th, 10am – 11am PT
Using data from our NSF-funded study of programs participating in the BEETLES Leadership Institutes from 2017-2019, this webinar shared results from The BEETLES Research Team on the impact of the BEETLES Leadership Institute, materials, and resources on pedagogical practices in outdoor science programs.
- Here is the link to watch the recording: Zoom Recording.
The Financial, Educational, and Organizational Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the BEETLES Network – August 18th at 10am PT
In this webinar, the BEETLES Research Team shared results from a survey conducted in the spring of 2021 to understand how organizations within the BEETLES network were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We detailed the estimated financial, educational, and organizational impacts of the pandemic, as well as implications for the future of BEETLES and the field.
- Here is the link to watch the recording: Zoom Recording.
Impact of Participation in Outdoor Science Programs on Youths’ Dispositions Toward Science and the Environment – September 15th, 10am – 11am PT
Using data from our NSF-funded study of programs participating in the BEETLES Leadership Institutes from 2017-2019, this webinar shared results from The BEETLES Research Team on the impact of participating in outdoor science programs on youths’ dispositions toward science and the environment.
- Here is the link to watch the recording: Zoom Recording.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1612512. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
2 Responses to “Reflecting On and Celebrating the Past Five Years of BEETLES Institutes”
BEETLES alumni. Is there a list serve for updates? Missed out on summer sessions. Thanks and greetings to the team!
Absolutely. We announce all events (and other cool stuff) in our newsletter (link to subscribe), and as an alum, you can join our online community here. See you there!
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