@SDUSDScience

• Science: bit.ly/sdusdscience
• STEAM: bit.ly/sdusdsteam

It is that time of the year again! As an alum, we would love your help in sharing the word about our 2025 Workshops application. We welcome applications from:

• Formal and informal educators who work with 6-12th grade audiences

• Non-science teachers applying with science teacher partners

Alumni who attended during or prior to 2019 are eligible to apply. Please keep in mind spots for alumni are incredibly limited. Alternatively, any alum interested in returning can opt to register with professional development funds.

The deadline to apply is April 6th. If applying with a team, each educator is responsible for their own application.

Our friends at Neighborhood Forest provide free trees to kids every Earth Day through schools, libraries, and youth groups! Their mission is to beautify neighborhoods, reduce carbon footprints, and inspire a sense of magic, wonder, and love for the planet in children. If you'd like to involve your school in their Free Tree Program, register here by February 15 to participate in the Earth Day 2025 Program! To learn more about how the program works, check out this Coordinator Program Guide. For additional details, visit NeighborhoodForest.org

Wednesday, February 5 · 4 - 5:30pm PST

This webinar will show the multiple entry points to green career awareness/skill building through K-12 into higher education/careers in formal and informal education. It will include information about industry needs and opportunities, promising practices in formal education, and partnering for work-based learning. The webinar will include short presentations from speakers addressing their pathways, market needs, and opportunities. Register HERE

Environmentally literate humans have the ability to act individually and with others to support communities in ways that are equitable, economically prosperous, and ecologically sound for current and future generations.

Join us for a day of learning and sharing about the best practices for bringing environmental literacy into classrooms and field experiences. Explore the environmental programs offered in San Diego and connect with a community of educators who want the students of San Diego to connect with nature.

Feb. 20, 2025, from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

*Substitute reimbursement available for the first 30 registrants.

Join us to learn and practice strategies to better engage students in outdoor learning experiences. This four-part professional learning series will focus on supporting student observations, developing questioning strategies, and increasing student engagement through discourse.

Meet environmental educators from across Southern California. Connect your programming to CA content standards. Develop a deeper understanding of the CA Environmental Principles and Concepts.

Meetings are from 9 a.m. to noon

• March 7, 2025

Growing Outdoor Instruction

School gardens are often a labor of love for educators and families. Join the San Diego School Gardens Community of Practice to connect with school garden experts, volunteers, and educators from across the county regularly during the 2024-2025 school year.

We will share best practices, discuss strategies to overcome challenges, celebrate the successes of school gardens in San Diego, and work together to help develop a network of school garden opportunities for students.

Meetings will be on Zoom during 2024. You are welcome to attend every meeting of the CoP, or join us for the dates that fit in your schedule.

• March 4, 2025
• April 15, 2025
• June 3, 2025

Register

Go Greenish, a coalition of high school students focused on sustainability in schools, is looking for SDUSD teachers to help bring outdoor air sensors to their schools. This fully funded initiative, in partnership with the San Diego Foundation and the San Diego Community Power, provides local air quality data to support classroom learning and wildfire resilience. Teachers have minimal responsibilities—just connecting us with a student leader and opening the school during the 30-minute installation of a small PurpleAir sensor. Go Greenish manages all sensor maintenance. Interested teachers can fill out this short Google Form to learn more and get started!

Applications opened December 12th and close on March 5th. This incredible program provides students with the opportunity to complete a research project while working one-on-one with a scientist mentor. Visit our website for the application and additional information.

Application, resume, and interview workshops via Zoom will be held on the following dates to help student craft a stellar application. Zoom workshops will be from 5pm-6pm on the following dates:

• February 4 & 20
  
• March 3

Did you find a great curriculum resource? Participated in a great research opportunity? Do you enjoy reading one of the books we offered teachers? Had a great PLC or PD meeting that you want to recommend for other teachers?

We want to hear your recommendations and share them with other science teachers!

If you have a favorite curriculum, reading, activity, or PLC plan that you want to recommend to other teachers we want to capture a short (1-3 minutes) video of you describing it and share it with other unified science teachers!

Email tlerner@sandi.net and one of us will come to visit you and record a short clip !

I try to be cheesy with my jokes,

but everyone I know is laugh-tose intolerant.