Discover how one educator’s NCEE certification project morphed into an ongoing field trip experience for 5th grade students at Waxhaw Elementary and a new environmental education course at Wingate University. Participants will gain insights into how strategic partnerships between public school educators, natural resource professionals, and universities can connect students at all levels and create long lasting and impactful programs.
This session will dive into the challenges and opportunities of translating classroom lesson plans to informal contexts. Using the Ready, Set, Resilience curriculum as a case study, we will discuss the successes and obstacles we’ve encountered so far as we reconfigure standards-aligned content to meet the needs of a broader audience in informal EE settings. In particular, we will focus on the role of collaboration with educators and researchers.
The OCEAN FOR ALL Alliance (OFAA) unites 15 ocean education organizations from Ecuador, the Galápagos, Argentina, and South Africa with UNC Wilmington researchers to build a collaborative learning network. Through shared training and participatory evaluation, members implemented a common framework blending ocean literacy, service learning, water safety, and social-emotional development for youth ages 9–17. In 2025, 1,000+ student surveys showed gains across key outcomes. This session shares lessons on building global partnerships and using data to strengthen programs.
