Category: News and Events

News and Events for April 2025

1. Data Initiative for Environmental and Climate Action in California’s TK-12 Schools Webinars

Cover image

Dates: April 15 and April 16, 2025.

Location: Virtual webinars

Description: The purpose of the Ten Strands Data Initiative is to develop and maintain an interactive database that communicates data related to scale, equity, context, and progress on indicators of environmental and climate action in schools. Join a webinar to explore the report’s findings and learn how to apply them at both broad and local levels. This report equips educational leaders and changemakers with interactive tools and data-driven insights to advance environmental and climate action in school communities.

Educational Leaders (4/15, 1:00-2:00 pm) Register Here.

Grassroots Leaders (4/16, 4:00-5:00 pm) Register Here

2. CAELI COE Community of Practice

Date: April 24, 2025, 9:00-10:30 am

Description: Now in its fourth year and growing, this community of practice brings together staff from a variety of roles in County Offices of Education across the state. They meet every month for networking, professional learning, and focused discussions on self-selected topics. April Topic: Youth Programs
Register Here.

3. CAELI CBP Innovation Hub Virtual Community Gathering

Date: April 25, 2025, 12:30-1:30 pm

Description: Building Bridges: Sharing Resources, Strengthening Community

Meet with other program leaders to discuss the shifting landscape, address current challenges, and crowdsource ideas for how to best support your staff and communities. Learn valuable tips and strategies that will help CBP Program Leaders and your organization grow and thrive. April Topic: Advocacy and Messaging & Marketing
Register Here.

4. AEOE Spring 2025 eeCourse: Universal Design for Learning in EE

Dates:  April 30 to June 15, 2025

Location:  Online – Moodle

Description: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching approach that works to accommodate the needs and abilities of all learners and eliminates unnecessary barriers in the learning process. UDL improves and optimizes teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. UDL is a framework to guide the design of learning environments that are accessible and challenging for all and that gives all students equal opportunity to succeed. This course is designed to encourage you to reflect deeply on your practice to focus on how you plan and teach to support all learners.

For more information or to register, visit the AEOE website.

5. AEOE Annual Conference

Dates: May 2-4, 2025

Location: Walker Creek Ranch, Petaluma, CA
Description: This year’s theme is Roots and Branches: Strengthening Community and Expanding Impact.

Join your friends and colleagues for a weekend of learning, networking, and fun in Marin County! The conference is held Friday afternoon through Sunday lunch and includes 40+ workshops, a keynote speaker, an awards ceremony, resource fair, live and silent auction, EE Certification Program presentations, evening entertainment, and more. Lodging and meals are offered onsite starting with dinner on Friday and going through lunch on Sunday.
To learn more and to register, visit the AEOE website for details.

News & Events for March 2025

1. School Garden Coalition

School Garden Coalition Seeks Support for SB 341Letter of Support Sign on deadline: March 12, 2025

Description: About SB 341
The California School Garden Coalition seeks support for SB 341 which would update and expand California’s Instructional School Garden Program (ISGP) to include instruction and maintenance so all California students can have ongoing access to garden-based learning.

Why SB 341 Matters

Despite broad support for garden-based education and proven academic, health, and environmental benefits, the vast majority of school gardens remain unused due to a lack of dedicated funding for instructional programs and maintenance.

SB 341 does not provide direct funding but creates a phased plan to bring instructional school gardens to more schools statewide.

Visit the CA School Garden Coalition website to learn more about the details of the legislation and information about providing support.

2. CBP Program Leaders Webinar Series



Date: 12:30-1:30 pm, March 21, 2025
Webinar: Online Community Gathering
Description: Join the California Environmental Literacy Initiative Community- Based Partner Innovation Hub and the Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education in an online webinar for Program Leaders of organizations that work to advance environmental literacy. Learn valuable tips and strategies that will help your organization grow and thrive.

CAELI and AEOE Online Community Gathering

The CAELI Community-Based Partner Innovation Hub and AEOE invite you to participate in a free webinar series for environmental education program leaders.
Meet with other program leaders to discuss the shifting landscape, address current challenges, and crowdsource ideas for how to best support our staff and communities.

Register HERE.

3. Understanding Global Change for Grades 9-12



Date: 4:00-5:30 PM, March 19, 2025
Webinar: CASE Understanding Global Change
Description: Understanding the Earth as a system can help learners of all ages explain how and why our climate and ecosystems are changing and the many ways we can take action in response to these changes. Join us for an interactive virtual workshop about a local phenomenon where participants will be immersed in a data-driven sequence of learning that includes modeling practices using the Understanding Global Change (UGC) Earth System Modeling Tools. Participants will also learn how the UGC Framework can support the planning of interdisciplinary instruction to interweave global change topics across curricula. CASE invites K-12 educators to participate in this workshop series on Understanding Global Change.
Jessica Bean, PhD, is a scientist and educator at the Museum of Paleontology at UC Berkeley. She is the leader of the Understanding Global Change Project and the Director of Outreach and Science for the FieldScope community science platform. She designs tools for learning about the Earth as a dynamic, interconnected system that help learners understand and engage in the process of science. Jessica studies how marine invertebrates respond to and provide records of environmental change along the California coast, has taught college and graduate level biology and Earth science courses, and partners with K-12 educators across the country to develop and implement new resources for learning about the nature of science.
This workshop is offered for high school educators. Free for CASE Members, $15 for non-members
Register HERE.

4. AEOE 2025 Video Contest

Deadline: April 15, 2025

Contest Theme: What is the value of environmental education?  AEOE invites you to share your perspective on the vital role of environmental education in shaping a sustainable future. In this contest, they want to hear from YOU—their community members—about the impact that environmental education has on individuals, communities, and the planet. Whether you’re an educator, student, advocate, or a passionate nature enthusiast, your voice matters!

Video Contest Guidelines: In your video, explore the importance of environmental education. Share how it has influenced you personally or in your work, the communities you serve, or the broader global environment. Highlight specific examples, experiences, or lessons learned from environmental education.

Click HERE to read the contest guidelines for eligibility, video length and content requirements, judging criteria, how to submit your entry, and prizes.

5. CEE-Change Fellowship 2025


Deadline: April 23, 2025
Description: The Fellowship is NAAEE’s latest initiative to support leadership and innovation in civics and environmental education (CEE) across the country. NAAEE recognizes the value in bringing together environmental and civic engagement educators to learn from each other and collaborate to scale up our impact as we work to create a more equitable and sustainable future.
The CEE-Change Fellowship is a twelve-month fellowship that will provide opportunities to learn, network, and share through online professional development, technical assistance, and face-to-face training. The fellowship will also build a strong foundation for continued professional growth after the program ends. The twelve-month fellowship will take place July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, and Fellows will have the option to extend an additional six months (through December 2026). Fellows will receive continued professional development, networking support, and travel support to attend an in-person Leadership Institute in Shepherdstown, WV, from August 24-29, 2025.

For more information about the 2025 CEE-Change Fellowship and eligibility, please read through the full Request for Proposals. At this time, we can only accept U.S.-based applicants for the 2025–2026 cohort. 

To learn more about the Fellowship or to apply, click HERE.

6. Teach Climate Network Summer Institute



Dates: July 14-15-16, 2025
Location: Virtual
The Teach Climate Network Summer Institute is a virtual, three-day conference focused on climate change education for both formal and non-formal educators.
Join Ten Strands, Climate Generation, and 20 regional climate change education leaders from around North America as we practice what it means to teach climate change as an interdisciplinary, justice-centered issue. 
Are you looking for a community of educational professionals and mentors who can support your climate change knowledge and teaching strategies? Our Summer Institute network is full of educators and climate change practitioners doing just that! Discover best practices, activities, lesson plans, and tools that will help you strengthen your climate curriculum and better support your learners. 
Whether you’re a formal classroom teacher or a non-formal educator, this is the perfect opportunity to grow your climate change education skills and connect with like-minded professionals. Plus, scholarships are available.
On July 16, join us for the California Cohort Day, hosted by Ten Strands! Participants will engage in sessions focused on how to integrate trauma informed practices into climate literacy. It also features special presenters from Ten Strands’ Climate Change and Environmental Justice Program.
Register HERE by June 27.