But just before graduation, a professor told her that her true skills lay in her interactions with classmates, the way she was always explaining things in ways everyone could understand. He suggested studying to be a teacher. She never did, but teaching found her. (Read the full article)
Annual Conference
Call for Proposals
Open April 15 – May 31, 2013
Below are the strands for the 2013 Environmental Educators of North Carolina conference, Climbing the TrEE. The conference will be held September 12-15 and the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, NC.
Presenters should strive for interactive or hands-on presentations. In addition, all proposals should focus on take-away skills for participants to implement in their programs, classrooms, or centers. Proposals that appear to promote a specific program versus the skills and knowledge to recreate the success may be assigned to roundtable presentations.
To submit a proposal, please visit https://iyha.wufoo.com/forms/climbing-the-tree/.
Proposals will be accepted via the online system from April 15 – May 31, 2013.
All presenters will be required to register for the conference, however primary presenters for concurrent sessions will be granted a reduced conference rate. The conference committee reserves the opportunity to combine proposals to create stronger sessions.
Questions may be directed to EENC President, Bill Crowell, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Conference Co-Chair, Jonathan Marchal, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Thank you for helping to create an engaging conference for environmental educators!
Strands
- Beginning in EE (roots)
The Beginning in EE strand is for those new to the field of environmental education; high school students, college graduates, those beginning a new career path, and seasonal workers. Presentations in this strand will focus on how to find and secure a position within the field, how to prepare for interviews, what employers look for on resumes, and other ways to prepare you for a career in environmental education.
- Getting an EE job
- Transition from volunteer or intern to employee
- Interviews
- Experiences and education
- Resources to develop field skills
- Branching Out: Environmental Adventure Education (branches)
Environmental Education and Outdoor Adventure Education share the same goal of increasing the participant’s appreciation for the natural world; however the path to meet that goal can be wildly different. This strand will focus on infusing environmental educational components into Outdoor Adventure Education programs.
- Using common core and essential standards in adventure education
- Treading lightly
- Skills (trunk)
Environmental educators have strong backgrounds in natural resource education, but may not have training to manage staff, budgets, and volunteers. In addition, professionals need to learn new skills to keep programs fresh and ride the tide of programming interest areas. This strand will focus on a variety of skill sets including management and programming.
- How to write successful grants
- Staff development and recruitment
- Tools to help organize people and materials
- Basic outdoor teaching skills
- Risk management
- Program evaluation
- Tips for working with specific audiences
- Fee-based revenue generation
- Marketing programs and designing materials
- Play pedagogy
- Sustainability (leaves)
Sustainability and environmental education covers a wide variety of topics. This strand covers items that highlight how educators incorporate social and economic issues into their educational programs as well as how programs are working to more sustainable.
- Addressing learners with disabilities
- Instilling critical thinking skills
- Social diversity
- Incorporating faith-based learning in EE programs
- Classroom Educators (leaves)
Not all EE takes place in parks and natural areas. Classroom educators are on the front lines of infusing environmental education into required educational standards. This strand will highlight classroom educators, and how they are meeting the new Common Core and Essential Standards using the environment.
- School-wide projects
- Citizen Science
- Benefits of environmental and outdoor education
- Lesson/Unit Plans
- Integrating EE and STEM education
- Keeping and using live animals in the classroom
- Developing successful and sustainable outdoor classrooms
Submit call for proposals EENC.ORG
The 2011-2012 Earth Force project at Exploris Middle School, focusing on cigarette butt litter in the Neuse river basin, was awarded the 2012 Disney Planet Challenge State Award for North Carolina.
Environmental Educators of North Carolina (EENC) help to kick-start this project with the Neuse RiverKeeper Foundation in 2011 as part of the 40th Annual North American Association for Environmental Education’s conference in Raleigh, demonstrating the local conference committee’s commitment to model service-learning projects.
Conference fundraising to provided $8,000 to implement the project called the “The Neuse RiverKeeper Foundation Environmental Challenge”. The partnership provided Earth Force training and field trips for participating Environmental Challenge elementary and middle schools that wanted to embark on service-learning projects in the Neuse river basin.
Frank McKay, EENC member and science teacher at Exploris Middle School in Raleigh, challenged his 8th graders to research a nonpoint source pollutant and design a creative solution by raising public awareness or changing public policy. One group created a “Cigarette Litter Will cost You, No Ifs, Ands, or Butts” public awareness campaign that included a press conference, Facebook page, YouTube videos, and public bus placards to remind people littering cigarette butts is against the law. For their Environmental Challenge project, Exploris Middle School was awarded the “2012 Environmental Youth Award” by the City of Raleigh. And now Exploris Middle School can add the Disney Planet Challenge Award to their wall, too!
EENC would like to thank NAAEE Conference Chair, Lois Nixon, for her fundraising efforts to support this project. Sheila Jones, EENC life member and Past-President, was also instrumental in this project by serving as the Community Partner for Exploris Middle School and York Elementary School. Both schools are located in Raleigh, North Carolina.
EENC's Annual conference will take place September 12-15, 2013, in Asheville, North Carolina. 
We are excited to announce that EENC members will gather at The North Carolina Arboretum for its 2013 annual conference. The Arboretum promises to be the ideal location for the conference with its stunning natural beauty, exceptional facilities and proximity to a broad variety of accommodations from camping and budget motels to four-star hotels and even The Biltmore®. Stay tuned to eenc.org for more details in the coming months.
Congratulations to EENC's 2012 Award Winners
From left to right:
Elizabeth Burke -- Melva Fager Okun Lifetime Achievement Award
Chip Freund -- Outstanding Newcomer
Terri Kirby -- Outstanding Practitioner
Sarah Yelton -- Outstanding Service
Not pictured:
Eric McDuffie -- Environmental Educator of the Year
Sarah Haggerty -- Environmental Educator of the Year
Potash Corporation of Aurora -- Outstanding Partner
Pisgah Forest North Carolina -- Exceptional Environmental Education Program
Click here for the full press release and additional pictures.
Environmental Educators of North Carolina’s 2012 conference, , “Scouting Out EE in NC”, took participants down east to the banks of the Pamlico River in Blounts Creek, NC. Despite gale force winds and rain from Hurricane Sandy, 63 participants came out to the East Carolina Scout Reservation for two days of workshops, field trips, conference sessions and roundtable discussions.
Friday opened with a choice of a day-long Leopold Workshop or a field trip to PotashCorp’s phosphate mine and the Aurora fossil museum, followed by a kayak trip on the Pamilco. Workshop participants got to know Aldo Leopold and
his tremendous influence on the environmental movement in the US through a viewing of the movie Green Fire, classroom exercises and solo nature observations and reflections all leading participants to draft their own Land Ethic. Field trippers set off in vans to tour the phosphate mine in nearby Aurora, NC. On the tour, participants learned of PotashCorp’s commitment to the environment and witnessing that commitment in seeing a healthy wetland where just a few short years ago was a 130 foot deep pit. The company’s goal is to restore the land to its original state after each pit has been mined. PotashCorp is also a supporter of environmental education, donating the funds needed to build a fine environmental education center on the
After dinner Friday night Renee Strnad, EENC President, provided an update from North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE), of which EENC is an affiliate. Later, Pamlico Joe and his partner Clean Water Flow rocked the house and got conference goers on their feet and in touch with their inner Pelecypod (bivalve mollusk) as they took us to River School. The evening did not end there. Sandy’s rain bands let up long enough to venture out to the campfire ring, where conference participants sang songs from across the decades on the banks of the mighty Pamlico (thanks Mir and Keith for the musical accompaniment). And no campfire would be complete without s’mores!grounds of the East Carolina Scout Reservation and sponsoring the field trip during the EENC conference.
Saturday morning greeted the conference with gray overcast skies and more 
wind. But you would not have known it by the sunny expression and energy as folks dove into Saturday’s sessions that were the heart of the conference. A dozen topics across four thematic tracks (Early Childhood Education, Serving Diverse Audiences, EE Research, and Water Resources) engaged participants in learning and sharing of knowledge and skills across the EE spectrum.
All participants gathered for lunch and the annual meeting of the EENC membership. Board members gave brief reports on the achievements of the past year and plans for the year ahead. Following lunch the sessions wrapped up and attendees were encouraged to gather at informal roundtable sessions to discuss topics of interest ranging from birding to water resources and nature play to S.T.E.M.
Throughout the afternoon a silent auction ran in the dining hall to raise money for the EENC conference scholarship fund. Ninety-six marvelous items had been donated and the competition was fierce at times as the bidding wars for the most desirable items drove prices higher. Part of the auction moved to the North Carolina Estuarium in Washington, and the site the awards banquet. Following dinner bidding shifted to a live auction for some of the most prized items. Together the auctions raised over $1,600 for future conference scholarships!
The awards banquet was the climax of the weekend combining excellent food and drink with the opportunity to socialize in a very unique setting. EENC, and Membership Chair Keith Bamberger, recognized some of the brightest EE stars from across the state for their contributions to the profession and the organization.
The conference was an unqualified success, bringing together North Carolina environmental educators of varied backgrounds and in all stages of their careers including those just completing their schooling, to seasoned veterans, and even some embarking on encore careers. Everyone came together to share in their commitment to raising the environmental literacy of our great state.
The Summer 2012 Issue of the EENC Newletter is now available for download.
Click here --> 2012 Summer Newsletter
PUBLISHED SUN, JUL 15, 2012
RALEIGH -- Renee Strnad spent her college years pursuing a fascination with wildlife in classes that involved catching snakes and chasing kangaroo rats through a Kansas prairie.