Multicultural Programming

PEI Celebrates Latino Conservation Week with Outdoor Learning - and Food!

One way to measure an event’s success: tamales. More specifically, the consumption of tamales. 
 
PEI’s recent Latino Conservation Week events are a case in point. PEI’s Multicultural Program Coordinator Lourdes Flores brought 30 tamales to an activity at Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on September 14, and by the end, they were all gone. 
 
“That’s how you know it was a good event,” says Flores. 
 
The day marked the first of three PEI events celebrating the week by connecting Latino families with opportunities for outdoor learning. Latino Conservation Week, or Disfrutando y Conservando Nuestra Tierra, was born in 2014 as an initiative of the Hispanic Access Foundation. The national event encourages and inspires the Latino community to get outdoors and participate in activities to protect natural resources. During the week, community, non-profit, faith-based, and government organizations and agencies hold events throughout the United States. PEI collaborates with multiple partners to host events in Washington State.

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Culturally Responsive Learning

Teachers Put Culturally Responsive Learning into Immediate Practice after CREST Workshop

It’s one thing to talk about culturally responsive education or seek resources to deepen one’s understanding. But what about attending an immersive five-day training program, turning around and putting what you learned to use with students one week later while being observed by the same people who trained you? 
 
That’s what 14 teachers from Whatcom and Skagit Counties signed up for last month. From August 5 - 9 they attended a Culturally Responsive Elementary Science Teaching (CREST) workshop at Western Washington University (WWU) using the Explore the Salish Sea Curriculum (ESSC) as an avenue to explore the topic. 

Climate Change Education   

Climate Science and Forestry Converge at Lake Crescent Workshop

According to professor and science writer Richard Dawkins, “Science is the poetry of reality.” 

This August, fifteen teachers at PEI’s Engaging Communities in Climate Education workshop turned that statement on its head by converting scientific data into various forms of poetry. Each teacher observed one tree at various times over three days, considering it through different lenses based on what they were learning about tree benefits, social and emotional connections, economics, how trees store carbon, and ways that climate change impacts forests.

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Welcome New Staff  

Lauren Troyer, South Sound FieldSTEM Coordinator

Welcome New Staff

Mid-Sound FieldSTEM Coordinator Jen Daniel

Tools & Tips for Teachers

European Green Crab Math Performance Task

  

Did you know that one European Green Crab can consume 40 clams in a single day? Not to mention mussels, snails, other crabs and oysters. Not surprisingly, this invasive species puts a dent in Pacific Northwest marine ecosystems. To help students understand those impacts, what environmental scientists are doing about them, and how they can help, check out PEI’s Green Crab Math Performance Task for grade 5. This task offers students an opportunity to participate in solving a real-world problem while learning locally relevant math and science.

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Upcoming Events 

  With Gratitude

Thank you to September's donors and funders!