2023 Program Overview In the 2023 Youth Engaged in Sustainable Systems (YESS) program, high school students across the state earned credit while building their skills and exploring natural resource careers. Over five-six summer weeks, class time was paired with hands-on service at community partner sites. At the end
Pacific Education Institute (PEI), Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), Cowlitz Ridge Tree Farm, and other community partners participated in the second workshop for Engaging Communities in Forest Education in the South Sound/Lower Columbia Region in the beginning of August! This workshop took a
PEI’s fiscal year ends on June 30th and the past 12 months have been big. For one thing, our staff has expanded to 20 part-time and full-time employees – a new record! Another first: the highest-ever percentage of workshop participants sent us documentation showing they’d implemented what they’d
What do eighth-grade students who have lived through a pandemic and Douglas fir trees have in common? Resilience. That was the message Lamont School District Superintendent Charles Pierce shared with the graduating class of 2023. On Arbor Day, students and staff gathered to plant a Douglas fir on
Here’s a question you’ve probably never considered: can a pinecone be played like a harmonica? The answer is not really, but it sure is fun trying, as one teacher at a Trees & Me: Early Childhood Outdoor Learning workshop discovered in May. Over 40 educators and educators-in-training from
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. “We ended up awarding STEM clock hours and stipends to
By Cindy Hall, Art Teacher, Olympia Middle School I have an avid interest in the concept of food waste as it has bothered me personally for my whole life. The lessons and information provided through the SOLS class has provided me with some great talking points and lessons
In May, 45 educators from 22 different K-12 schools and 11 community partner organizations came together for a week at Camp Reed north of Spokane to learn how to develop overnight outdoor school programming for 5th and 6th grade students by participating in the 2023 Outdoor School Washington
Julie Tennis approached her first meeting with Denise Buck with trepidation. It was 2015 and Buck had just been hired as PEI’s new Operations and Program Director. As one of a handful of PEI staff, Tennis would be working closely with her to develop programming in the coastal
Typically, Career and Technical Education (CTE) frameworks are written at a local level for use by a specific school or district. That approach has both strengths and challenges, according to PEI Project Specialist Michelle Townshend. “The frameworks are locally relevant,” she explains, “but the problem is that nobody outside
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