Speaking Engagements

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If you would like to discuss having Program Director Kathy Balman speak at your upcoming webinar or conference please send her an email to discuss. Kathy can present on a variety of topics including nature journaling, working with preschoolers, working with teens, community science, using GIS, birding with youth, teaching multiple ages, accessible programming, loose parts play, risky play, survival skills, running a "desert school", volunteering, nature book clubs, and more.

The month of June focuses on getting out to EXPLORE NATURE! Log on for our STEM Community Lunchtime Conversation with Educating Children Outdoors, Arizona State University and Maricopa County Air Quality Department!

I will be speaking about  Seeing Math In Nature on July 15th.

Description:

Do you know the definition of mathematics? It’s actually a very simple definition…math is the study of numbers and shapes and how they are related to one another. Math is also orderly. That means it’s organized and follows predictable patterns. 

Whether you’re actually “doing math” or not, math is all around you all the time and is a universal language. Think about the last time you were outside..... was there any math that you may or may not have recognized? Take a minute to consider it. 

In  this session you will learn to see, interpret, and recreate the  patterns that are around us all the time in nature. Some of the topics  we will explore will include river meanders, spirals, tesselations,  symmetry, shapes, fractals, the golden ratio, and more.

 
Please bring the following with you to this session: a nature journal or piece of blank paper, a pencil, and a natural object that is an example of a  mathmatical concept (it can be one of the ones mentioned above or one  that wasn't mentioned). 

After launching Educating Children Outdoors in Arizona in 2019 we quickly realized that there was a desperate need for environmental education program offerings for teens. So to help fill in the gap and make sure youth in the 14-17 year old age range were also being exposed to environmental education we piloted a Teen Naturalist program in 2020 and had huge success. The teens worked and learned in the field for over 70 hours over the course of the school year. They volunteered with local organizations, participated in community science and stewardship projects, became budding botanists, collected and analyzed data, and more. They even launched their own community science initiative and worked with NASA Develop on a research project. In addition to science topics they also covered history, geography, math and language arts.After launching Educating Children Outdoors in Arizona in 2019 we quickly realized that there was a desperate need for environmental education program offerings for teens. So to help fill in the gap and make sure youth in the 14-17 year old age range were also being exposed to environmental education we piloted a Teen Naturalist program in 2020 and had huge success. The teens worked and learned in the field for over 70 hours over the course of the school year. They volunteered with local organizations, participated in community science and stewardship projects, became budding botanists, collected and analyzed data, and more. They even launched their own community science initiative and worked with NASA Develop on a research project. In addition to science topics they also covered history, geography, math and language arts.After launching Educating Children Outdoors in Arizona in 2019 we quickly realized that there was a desperate need for environmental education program offerings for teens. So to help fill in the gap and make sure youth in the 14-17 year old age range were also being exposed to environmental education we piloted a Teen Naturalist program in 2020 and had huge success. The teens worked and learned in the field for over 70 hours over the course of the school year. They volunteered with local organizations, participated in community science and stewardship projects, became budding botanists, collected and analyzed data, and more. They even launched their own community science initiative and worked with NASA Develop on a research project. In addition to science topics they also covered history, geography, math and language arts.After launching Educating Children Outdoors in Arizona in 2019 we quickly realized that there was a desperate need for environmental education program offerings for teens. So to help fill in the gap and make sure youth in the 14-17 year old age range were also being exposed to environmental education we piloted a Teen Naturalist program in 2020 and had huge success. The teens worked and learned in the field for over 70 hours over the course of the school year. They volunteered with local organizations, participated in community science and stewardship projects, became budding botanists, collected and analyzed data, and more. They even launched their own community science initiative and worked with NASA Develop on a research project. In addition to science topics they also covered history, geography, math and language arts.

In this presentation we will share what our program objectives were, our successes, curriculum we utilized, and answer any questions you may have about running a program specifically geared for teens.

Join our free webinar with 4 brief presentations on successful case projects that incorporate bioacoustics into hands-on, fun, and educational ways to get kids (and kids at heart!) outside and involved- AND contributing to valuable scientific research!