2022 Earth Educators’ Rendezvous held in Tate Hall!

Beyond conducting fundamental geoscience research, our department also has a long tradition of developing exciting approaches to geoscience education at all levels. A recent example of such activities involved Josh Feinberg and John McDaris, who served as local hosts for the 2022 Earth Educators’ Rendezvous (July 11-15) convened by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). This event attracted roughly 230 college and university faculty, graduate students, and K-12 teachers from many disciplines with shared interests in improving teaching and learning about Earth. The meeting enjoyed the use of new classrooms in Tate Hall, and also held events in the Weisman Art Museum, Coffman Memorial Union, and even the Recreation and Wellness Center. These annual conferences offer unique opportunities for geoscience educators to share lessons and ideas and learn from their colleagues’ experiences. The meeting’s structure involves concurrently run 3- and 2-day morning workshops that allow participants to delve deeply into an array of important educational issues, including topics like, “Preparing Students for Careers, Licensure, and Industry”, “Creating a Graduate Program that Fosters the Success of All Students”, and “2-Year College Whole Student Mentoring: Recruiting and Guiding Students into Geosciences.” Fellow UMN Earth & Environmental Science faculty Peter Kang and colleagues were among those workshop conveners. Outside of such workshops, participants also interacted in numerous mini-workshops, forums, and round table discussions.

This was the first in-person Earth Educators’ Rendezvous meeting since 2019 and, consequently, many discussions addressed educational issues associated with the pandemic, remote teaching, student mental health, and a greater awareness of unequal representation, access, and inclusivity within the geosciences. One of the meeting’s plenary speakers, Professor Wendy Todd (UMN, Duluth), spoke to this latter issue in their talk, “Equitable Education for ALL: Re-Imagining (Geo)Science Education Practices by Acknowledging the Importance of Cultural Identity in Science” where she described her efforts to braid Indigenous Traditional knowledge with Western science to create culturally-aligned research experiences for students in settings that promote identity, belonging, place and security. The meeting’s other plenary speaker was Professor Jennifer Atkinson (University of Washington, Bothell) whose talk, “Beyond Climate Despair: From Anxiety to Agency” discussed strategies for helping students process difficult emotions about climate change and develop the resilience to stay engaged in the geoscience work ahead. The 2022 Rendezvous was a huge success, thanks in large part to the involvement of departmental faculty, postdocs, and graduate students!