As a Washington state clock hour provider, RE Sources offers professional development to Whatcom County educators through our Sustainable Schools program. We want teachers and students alike to see firsthand that together our actions make a difference.
Bring climate hope and resilience into the classroom! 3 STEM clock hours, 1 Equity hour, $100 stipend and various teaching materials
Calling all Whatcom County educators for grades 3 – 12 who want to connect real-world solutions to climate change: These field-based workshops focus on equitable solutions currently being implemented in Whatcom County. The Teaching for the Climate Collaborative will guide participants through classroom-ready STEM activities that illustrate how climate change is affecting different stakeholders and ecosystems. Community members will share their expertise in developing solutions. Together, participants will co-design ways to bring engineering design solutions into the classroom.
The workshops are designed to answer the following questions:
What are the climate change effects on that specific environment (farms, freshwater, marine, forests)?
What community members, tribes, CBOS, etc. are doing about it in Whatcom County?
What are the Indigenous Ways, currently and since time immemorial, to solve these issues?
How do you bring Engineering Design solutions into your classroom based on what you learned today?
All workshops are stand-alone and take place in Whatcom County with transportation (and lunch!) provided.
Workshop Schedule
Land & Agriculture
Saturday, Oct. 22, 9-1
Register by 5pm, Oct. 12, 2022
Location: Alluvial Farms, Everson, WA (transportation provided)
Funding for these workshops is provided by the Washington State Legislature through the ClimeTime proviso.
ClimeTime workshops from the Teaching for the Climate Cooperative Partners include:
ClimeTime: Teaching Outside
Using the outdoors and teaching climate change. 2 STEM clock hours, receive $50 stipend upon implementation of an outdoor lesson!
Calling all Whatcom County elementary teachers and staff serving grades K-5 looking to integrate the outdoors into everyday lessons: Gain skills to incorporate the outdoors and climate-related lessons with students. Our Teaching Outside workshops are designed to provide teachers and other education staff with the basic skills and tools to implement experiential activities on school sites, in local parks, and in urban settings. Each workshop is stand-alone and takes place in Whatcom County.
Workshop Schedule
Meridian
Thursday, Oct. 27, 4-6
Cohort A
Irene Reither Elementary (Meridian School District)
Funding for these workshops is provided by the Washington State Legislature through the ClimeTime proviso. The Teaching Outside series is presented by the following partners:
Have an idea for teacher professional development?
In the past, RE Sources’ Sustainable Schools program has also offered these professional development opportunities:
ClimeTime: Teaching Outdoors 101
Using the outdoors and teaching climate change. 4 STEM, 1 Equity clock hours, receive $100 stipend upon completion!
Self-paced course on Canvas open November 30th, 2021 until April 30th, 2022.
Calling all 3rd-8th grade educators in Whatcom: Gain skills to incorporate the outdoors and climate-related lessons with students. Join the Teaching for the Climate Collaborative’s fourth year for a self-paced online course! Participants will gain skills to incorporate the outdoors and climate related lessons with students. Time commitment: Approx. 3 hrs of learning in Canvas plus 2 hrs implementing and assessing a lesson with students. More info on this flier.
Rain Garden in a Box: Protecting waterways through reuse
Who: Whatcom County educators for grades 3 through 12 Where: Outside the RE Sources main office, 2309 Meridian St, Bellingham WA 98225 Clock hours: 2 Instructors: Priscilla Brotherton
This workshop will provide educators with a tangible, hands-on solution for protecting our waterways using repurposed material from the RE Store that you can bring back to your students and school grounds. Participants will 1) learn how rain gardens improve filtration and slow down the flow of water to protect waterways and 2) leave with a blueprint of how to build a rain garden in a box using repurposed materials. Come join our Education Specialist and skilled RE Store staff for a fun, educational, solution-based workshop!
Whittling Away Waste: Climate solutions at your school
Who:3rd-8th grade educators, students, parents, custodians, food workers, paraeducators and community members in Whatcom County Clock hours: 1
Join our interactive virtual event to learn about the climate and health impacts of landfills, and get ideas from actions schools are taking around the country to reduce plastics, increase recycling, and stop wasteful practices. We will also share tools to form a Green Team at your school who can take on projects like the ones other schools have done!
Coho Conundrum: Stormwater and salmon (8 STEM clock hours)
For all middle and upper elementary schools educators in Whatcom:Coho Conundrum is a free, in-person three-part professional development series designed to help educators looking to bring real-world issues into their classrooms.
This series will focus on a local anchoring question: Why are Coho Salmon dying? Educators (playing the part of a student), will walk through multiple sequential transferable lessons with content relating to salmon lifecycle, water quality, and human impacts on the environment. Lessons incorporate hands-on experiments, data analysis, modeling, mapping and tips to implement both virtually and in-person. Educators will spend time in multiple learning environments. This series is designed to support 3-D NGSS performance expectations for the middle school grade band, though the material can be altered to reach upper elementary as well. Much of the course will be offered in an outdoor setting.
Participants will:
Earn 8 STEM clock hours
Learn from a scientist, teacher and local resource, Kirsten McDade
Learn to bring a real-world local phenomena into their classrooms
Gain expertise in understanding the different types of contaminants in water and how this affects not only salmon but orcas and eventually human health.
Be exposed to different hands-on tools and experiments that can be transferred to classroom use.
Learn how to engage their students to take what they are learning and put it into action.
The lessons in this course are sequential and build off knowledge learned in previous lessons. Attendance for all three days is requested. If your schedule doesn’t permit, we hope to offer this course again.
As always, our programs are free. For more information, contact Kirsten at kirstenm@re-sources.org
This training will most likely be in-person. We are requiring proof of vaccination for COVID-19 and reserve the right to reschedule in an alternative format if circumstances require. If your circumstances disallow you to be vaccinated, please reach out to Kirsten at kirstenm@re-sources.org.
Tracking Energy — Seed to Table to Compost (6 STEM clock hours)
Calling all 3rd through 8th grade educators in Whatcom County: Tracking Energy is a three-part professional development series designed to help educators understand food systems; growing, producing, processing and disposing of food. Learn to help students draw connections to climate change and food justice issues.
This series will focus on the question: What are we throwing away when we throw away food? Educators (playing the part of a student), will walk through multiple sequential transferable lessons that incorporate creating and revising models, data collection and analysis, and designing solutions. Educators will spend time in multiple learning environments. This series is designed to support 3-D NGSS performance expectations for the 5th grade band endpoint, though the altered material will be demonstrated to reach middle school.
The lessons in this course are sequential and build off knowledge learned in previous lessons. Attendance for all three days is requested. This opportunity is a collaborative effort of RE Sources and Common Threads Farm.
Date/Time: November 8, 9 and 10, 4:30 – 6:30 PM Location: RE Sources main office, 2309 Meridian St, Bellingham WA 98225 Platform: Synchronous – In-person unless public health concerns require virtual STEM Clock hours: 6 Cost: Free! Participants: Whatcom County educators for grades 3 – 8 Instructors: Sasha Savoian, Chelsea Hilmoe and Jenna Deane
When students learn about environmental, social, or civic topics the next question is, “now what”? This training is for classroom teachers and club advisors that are looking for ways to engage students in solutions based learning in-person or online. Action projects can begin or end a unit, can be woven into art, language, history, science, or focus a social action, leadership, or environmental club. Join our Sustainable Schools Education Specialists to learn about resources, activities, and guidelines for projects your students can engage in that helps solve problems. From Community science to letter writing this training will give practical resources and a time for teachers to share their own resources and ideas with each other.
Participants will be able to:
Recognize different levels of stewardship and action
Take learning beyond doom and gloom and offer students real solutions
Participants will leave with practical resources and ways for students to engage
ClimeTime: Teaching Outdoors 101 (Using the outdoors and teach climate change). 4 STEM & 1 Equity clock hours
Self-paced course on Canvas open November 30th, 2021 until April 30th, 2022. Receive $100 stipend upon completion!
Calling all 3rd-8th grade educators in Whatcom: Gain skills to incorporate the outdoors and climate-related lessons with students. Join the Teaching for the Climate Collaborative’s fourth year for a self-paced online course! Participants will gain skills to incorporate the outdoors and climate related lessons with students. Time commitment: Approx. 3 hrs of learning in Canvas plus 2 hrs implementing and assessing a lesson with students. More info on this flier.
Tracking Energy: Seed to Table to Compost
When: April 18th, 19th and 20th from 4:30-6:30 pm Who: Whatcom County educators for grades 3 through 8 Where: RE Sources main office, 2309 Meridian St, Bellingham WA 98225 STEM Clock hours: 6 Instructors: Education Specialist Sasha Savoian
Note: This training will be IN PERSON. We are requiring proof of vaccination for COVID-19 and reserve the right to reschedule in an alternative format if COVID-19 circumstances require. If your circumstances disallow you to be vaccinated, please contact us individually.
Tracking Energy is a 3-part professional development series designed to help educators understand food systems; growing, producing, processing and disposing of food. And help students draw connections to climate change and food justice issues. This series will focus on the question: What are we throwing away when we throw away food? Educators (playing the part of a student), will walk through multiple sequential transferable lessons that incorporate creating and revising models, data collection and analysis, and designing solutions. Educators will spend time in multiple learning environments. This series is designed to support 3-D NGSS performance expectations for the 5th-grade band endpoint, though the altered material will be demonstrated to reach middle school.
The lessons in this course are sequential and build off knowledge learned in previous lessons. Attendance for all three days is requested.
What teachers are saying:
“Students truly care about the environment and protecting it! This class provides great lessons to work towards solutions.” – teacher, Tracking Energy Fall 2021 participant
“The resources and lessons were relevant and ready to use! yay! I was pleased and my expectations were exceeded-well done!” – teacher, Tracking Energy Fall 2021 participant
ClimeTime: Teaching for the Climate 201 (9 STEM & 1 Equity clock hours)
Receive a $200 stipend upon completion of all three parts of the course!
While the 101 course built foundational skills in teaching outside, 201 will dive deeper to gain the resources to incorporate local climate-related science and Indigenous perspective into outdoor teaching with students. This course is open to K-8th grade Whatcom County educators who have some experience with teaching outdoors and NGSS.
The course includes the following parts:
Choose one day of in-person field instruction (locations TBD):
– March 19th, 9am-3pm (lessons focused on flooding and drought). Please register by March 17th.
– March 26th, 9am-3pm (lessons focused on marine food webs). Please register by March 24th.
Implement a lesson with your students after the in-person session
Meet virtually on May 4th (4pm-6pm via Zoom link to be shared) after implementing the lesson with students to connect with and learn from your colleagues
