Teton Science Schools (TSS) is a leader in place-based education, providing transformative learning experiences that connect people, nature, and communities. For over a decade, Ecology Project International (EPI) and TSS have collaborated through the Graduate Program, with several EPI educators participating from 2010 to 2023. When TSS paused the program to explore new models, EPI saw an opportunity to extend professional development to more educators in La Paz, Mexico.
This shared vision led to the launch of a new initiative in July 2024, now at its halfway point. Designed to strengthen instructional strategies and place-based education, the program is already showing promising results. Read on to learn more about this exciting collaboration!
Revisioning the Graduate Program with Empowering Emerging Leaders
Original post on theTSS website here.
In July 2024, a group of 13 educators from La Paz, Mexico began a year-long professional development program with Teton Science Schools. They have explored their connection to places in La Paz, researched and taught about place-based strategies, taught model lessons, shared their passion for education, and snorkeled together in the Gulf of California.
These experiences and the professional learning program are all towards the bigger goals of increasing their sense of agency to implement place-based education, cultivating a network of educators, strengthening educational systems in La Paz, and preparing these educators to facilitate career exposure for the blue and green economies with their students.
This program emerged as a re-visionment of the Teton Science Schools’ Graduate Program. In January 2023, the Teton Science Schools’ Board of Directors made the difficult decision to pause the Graduate Program. With that pause came a continued commitment to provide transformational experiences and leadership development for educators as we considered new models and rethought the program, with the same core vision that launched the TSS Graduate Program of inspiring and developing the next generation of place-based educators and leaders.
Enter long-time partner Ecology Project International (EPI) and their Baja California field site in La Paz, Mexico. Seven graduate students came from Ecology Project International to Teton Science Schools (TSS) for the Graduate Program from 2010-2023. With the pause of the Graduate Program, EPI was interested in offering TSS professional development for more of their educators and other place-based educators in La Paz. With that interest and inspiration, Professional Learning at TSS and the staff at EPI began to collaborate on a plan. Then in July 2024, we launched the program!
The professional learning courses for these experiential, place-based educators are: Advanced Instructional Strategies, Place-Based Education, and Curriculum Design and Systems Thinking. If you are familiar with the Graduate Program, those course names should sound familiar – those were 3 of the courses all graduate students took at TSS. For this program, course instructors revised these courses for a more practical, applied and field-based setting for working, field-based educators. The courses include virtual workshops and coaching sessions as well as multi-day in-person intensive programs.
For the 13 educators from La Paz, the program is meant to be highly applied and linked to their work and their organizations’ needs. Their final projects will be implemented by their organizations to improve programming into the future.
We are about half-way through this first pilot year of the program now. Feedback has been positive, and we continue to learn a lot about facilitating place-based education in another country and with all the educator participants learning in their second language. (The program is taught in English, and all participants speak Spanish as their first language.)
Some of the initial feedback we have received includes:
9.8 out of 10 in response to “How likely is it that you would recommend this workshop to a colleague?”
4.5 out of 5 in response to “How would you rate the benefit and impact of the program?”
“The opportunity to connect with other educators and learn from each other and together” is what engaged me most in this workshop.”
The final course of the program will be held in May and June 2025, and our plan is to bring these educators from La Paz to the Murie Ranch to experience place-based education in Grand Teton National Park and Wyoming and design their final projects.
If you would like more information about this program and partnership, feel free to reach out to marlu@ecologyproject.org. If you're interested in supporting the program, you can contact melissas@ecologyproject.org.