May 10 - 11, 2024
Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Hinckley, ME
2024 Annual Conference
Collaborating To Take Action
Join us for two days full of indoor and outdoor hands-on workshops and space for celebration and connection.
All are welcome, including youth and adults who are passionate about environmental education.
Registration is now open!
Registration fees are sliding scale.
We do not want cost to be a barrier to participation, so we’re offering a range of registration fees determined by financial mobility. Please choose the option that best fits your situation.
Friday, May 10th Fee Options
Free or Pay What You Can
$15 - Individuals not affiliated with an organization and have less financial mobility
$35 - Individuals not affiliated with organizations and who have financial resources
$50 - Individuals with more financial resources or individuals participating via organizations or schools
$50 travel stipends are available for school-based educators attending Friday’s workshop.
Saturday, May 11th Fee Options
Free or Pay What You Can
$75 - Individuals not affiliated with organizations who have less financial mobility
$125 - Individuals not affiliated with organizations who have financial resources
$150 - Individuals with more financial resources or individuals participating via organizations or schools
If you are able to pay more than $150, these funds will help cover event costs, sponsor youth and educators unable to pay, and ensure accessibility for all.
Event Sponsorship
We are also accepting sponsorships for the conference. If you are interested in supporting this event, consider sponsoring us at any level! See the list of current sponsors below!
Conference Schedule
Friday, May 10th
2:00 - 4:00pm
Workshop: Decolonizing the Botanical Lexicon: Restorative Ecology from an Indigenous Perspective. (Description below) Presented by Know Your Land Consulting
4:00 - 5:00pm
Break with appetizers
5:00-6:30pm
Award Celebration and Networking Reception
Saturday, May 11th
8:45 - 9:30am Annual Meeting and Conference Welcome; Tabling begins and continues throughout the day
9:35 - 10:35am Workshop Session 1
10:45 - 11:45am Workshop Session 2
11:45 - 12:30pm Lunch
12:30-1:15pm Workshop Session 3, Networking, and Tabling Exhibits
1:25 - 2:25pm Workshop Session 4
2:35 - 3:35pm Workshop Session 5
3:35 - 4:00pm Closing
Workshop Session Strands
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For Youth, By Youth
Workshops led by youth ages 15-30 that are intended for a youth audience
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Climate Education
Workshops on teaching about climate change, including best practices around the overall approach or specific curricula
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Outdoor Learning
Workshops that share lessons or examples of specific outdoor learning methods and skills
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Skills For Action
Workshops about advocacy/policy, organizational infrastructure, network building, and other skills to grow the movement
Saturday, May 11th 9:35-10:45am
Sign up in advance for the Wabanaki Studies Professional Development Workshop
Brianne Lolar, a Panawahpskek citizen and Wabanaki Studies specialist for the DOE, will lead educators through current resources available like the MOOSE Modules, as well as resources in the works. We’ll get hands on with materials and support one another with this work. This workshop is intended for school- based educators.
Sign up in advance is required (click the button below), and participants must also register for the MEEA Annual conference at the main registration link if they are planning to stay for lunch and/or afternoon workshops. $50 travel stipends are available and can be requested on the workshop registration form.
Conference Workshops
Conference attendees on May 11th will sign up for the workshops they wish to attend the day of the conference. Attendees who wish to attend the Wabanaki Studies professional development workshop from 9:35am-10:45am must pre-register for this workshop as it is capped at 35 attendees. Pre-register for this workshop here.
Decolonizing the Botanical Lexicon: Restorative Ecology from an Indigenous Perspective
Friday, May 10th, 2:00 - 4:00pm
Presented by mother daughter team Kathy Pollard and Ann Pollard-Ranco (Penobscot citizen) of Know Your Land Consulting
Workshop participants are encouraged to read this Potash Hill article in advance.
Workshop Description: An increasing number of schools and science/ecology teachers are prioritizing outdoor nature immersion curricula. But many educators are struggling with some of the paradigms they’ve been taught, and find themselves more hesitant to repeat these “rules” to their students. Much of this sense of dissonance is fed by the use of the botanical lexicon. These descriptive terms are applied to plants, including “alien, native, naturalized, invasive, colonizer, pioneer”—terms steeped in innuendo that employ a western culture-centric binary system of judgment about the natural world and who belongs. This often leads to policing nature. Categorical assertions that non-native species are bad and must be removed is but one example that makes little sense when you consider that many plants in any given landscape today are naturalized non-native species! This also mirrors the fabric of American society. It would be impossible to go back exclusively to the flora that were here before European contact. Further, it is no surprise to indigenous people that much of the vocabulary in the botanical lexicon was popularized during the Indian Removal Acts of the 19th century, and that botanists who were members of more elite society, would speak about plant populations as allegory for what the British and American governments had been trying to do for hundreds of years: remove and erase indigenous people.
Complicating matters, today the very same words are also used to categorize people into groups of belonging or not, based on the same Eurocentric colonizer judgments. As political discourse becomes ever more polarized, so too do the potential consequences. By teaching children the botanical lexicon and values often associated with worthiness to be here, there is a real possibility children will internalize the messaging if they are some category of “other”. And for those who are not a category of other, it has the capacity to desensitize them when the script is flipped to talk about groups of people.
We believe that nature should be perceived by children as a place of welcome, where we are all are accepted— because nature does not discriminate! That is a human construct! Let’s explore this conundrum in outdoor earth based education where teachers teach what they are taught while sometimes feeling the tug of dissonance. Could we begin to deconstruct and decolonize these paradigms by changing the words we use? Is there room for a middle ground?
Mother daughter team Kathy Pollard and Ann Pollard-Ranco (Penobscot citizen) of Know yOUR Land Consulting work with private landowners, conservation agencies and in schools to help balance western science with indigenous ethos. They have worked with students K-12, and their teachers. Kathy and Ann will host a workshop on the botanical lexicon. We hope that through this workshop, together, we can begin building a different vocabulary for use in restorative ecology projects that is less binary and more sensitive to the potential implications that reach beyond the science classroom.
FAQ
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Classrooms with desks are available, as well as outdoor spaces such as lawn, yurt, pavilion, greenhouse, and trails. If you request outdoors but the weather does not permit, we will still have space available for you inside
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While the conference is open to anyone interested in environmental education, generally, the audience includes educators who teach students of all ages (e.g., formal classroom educators and informal, out-of-school educators). The audience may also include administrators, others who support educators, and students. Some participants have been in this field for years, while others are newly interested. There may also be young people in the audience who are welcome to participate in any workshop, and there will also be workshops specifically designed for youth. There will be a college student/young professionals strand, but youth will be invited to attend any session they are interested in
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Workshop presenters need to register for the conferenCe. Conference registration fees are on a sliding scale for all participants. Please see the section below to learn more about how to determine your payment options.
Equity stipend $250: Presenters from underrepresented groups are encouraged to submit a workshop proposal and are eligible to receive an additional stipend. Please contact Anna Sommo anna@meeassociation.org to learn more.
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The MEEA conference planning team will review and decide on workshops based on alignment with the highlighted strands, overall conference goals and structure. Everyone who submitted a workshop proposal will be notified by March 22nd.
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We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. Because Maine Academy of Natural Sciences is a public school, the building is required to be ADA compliant. The site includes power Doors, an elevator, gender neutral bathrooms, handicapped parking, designated quiet space, and an accessible outdoor seating and dining area. Please indicate any additional accessibility needs n the registration form, and we will do our best to accommodate.
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We do not want cost to be a barrier to participation, so we offer multiple options for registration fees, ranging from full cost ($160) to no cost ($0) depending on your individual or organizational financial resources.
Our $0 start sliding scale registration fee options are an intentional effort of class solidarity to distribute resources equitably and ensure the annual conference is accessible to all.
Full Cost: $150: For individuals with financial resources & are affiliated with an organization or schoolReduced Cost: $125: For individuals not affiliated with organizations and have financial resources; or the org/school cannot pay for the registration feeReduced Cost: $75: For individuals not affiliated with organizations and have less financial mobility; or the org/school cannot pay for the registration feePay What You Can OR No Cost: For individuals where the cost of registration would otherwise prevent them from attending
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The MEEA Annual Conference does not offer lodging. Here are two options for lodging nearby. No rooms are booked, please call to make your own reservations.
Pleasant Street Inn
(about 20 minutes away in Waterville)
https://84pleasantstreet.com/
The Town Motel
(about 10 minutes away in Skowhegan)
http://thetownemotel.com/ -
To sponsor the MEEA Annual Conference, please see https://givebutter.com/0Vwcq7
We offer four levels of sponsorship opportunities.
Conference Sponsors
