Learn more about this 2026 Madison Trust Project
Grounding Teachers in Community and Place for Hands-on Environmental Science Education
Presenters
Katie Rankin | rankinkt@jmu.edu Director, Edith J. Carrier Arboretum
Abstract
An innovative approach to teacher professional learning: a cohort-based series of sustained professional learning workshops designed to provide curriculum tools and build collaborative relationships among teachers, local experts, and community resources. We will equip teachers to utilize their schoolyards and communities to make an immediate positive impact in environmental science instruction.
Project
The Arboretum at JMU will convene an environmental science professional learning cohort for high school environmental science teachers, which will entail five days of learning over the next school year and local and regional connections with teachers for years to come. What is Environmental Science? Environmental science uses a wide-angle lens to overview all the big systems that shape our natural world and the ways we interact with it. Students are supposed to dive into science and engineering practices, hands-on data collecting investigations, and explore what it means to participate collectively and individually in sustainability, conservation, and environmental policy making. Students in this class are supposed to develop the analytical skills and foundational understanding about how the world works so they can go on to become the problem solvers of the future for our world’s very pressing challenges. Environmental science is the foundational science class required for 9th grade (1,400 students) locally. The Virginia Department of Education adopted rigorous standards of learning (SOLs) for environmental science for the first time this December, and teacher training and professional learning models in Virginia do not yet encourage thorough preparation in this content area. Local school district leaders report that current teachers feel ill-equipped and without resources in this subject. Environmental science is extremely well-suited to outdoor learning, but teachers are generally not taking their students outside, even just outside their door. Teachers need support in interpreting their landscape, helping students develop a sense of place, and understanding the community resources available. They need access to ready standards-based lessons
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so they can spend their time planning how best to support the needs of their specific students. They need encouragement and an opportunity to remember why they chose a career in science education in the first place. Supported teachers will be significantly more prepared to motivate students towards readiness for future learning and provide them an understanding of the natural world that will remain relevant through their lives. A Wealth of Vetted Lesson Planning Resources : Teachers will receive hands-on training in the 3 “Projects”: Project WET, Project WILD, and Project Learning Tree. These are all national, high-quality, time-tested, standards-aligned lesson planning guides. The guides provide dozens of lesson plans and guidance in the areas of water resources, habitat and wildlife principles, and forest resources with an emphasis on career connections and local learning. Providing these resources will be extremely helpful, and there are few educators who have access to them all at once—but this is not the innovative part. Bringing the field trip to the schoolyard : We will offer the entire suite of Project materials at the schools of the teachers. Most teachers do not have an Arboretum on their campus, but every teacher has something of the natural world where they are. We will demonstrate the hands-on lessons outside in the school’s landscape, whatever it is, so teachers can see how to interpret their own campus to their students. Extending the Learning Beyond the Classroom: Building their own knowledge bases and seeing the impact of environmental concepts in our community is key for building motivation and competency. We will take the teachers on some meaningful field excursions, such as a guided tour of the wastewater treatment plant, and a short river trip punctuated with science lessons to make this experience unique. Cohort-model for professional learning : We will use a cohort format with follow-up and follow-through built in to help them develop supportive professional collaborations, troubleshoot their implementation of the resources, and celebrate their successes. Through 3 days in the summer and two in-service days the following school year, we will emphasize building relationships among participants, presenters, and community members so that they can become a mutually reinforcing reflective community of support. Participants will reflect on the ways materials need to be adapted to their specific classroom needs and campuses, have opportunities to learn from one another, and may opt-in to assisting with district-level curriculum development. Connecting to community experts and resources: We will draw upon our “Arboretum at JMU” network to bring in relevant subject-matter experts from the local community. Hearing from local public works staff, a city council member, stormwater coordinators, master naturalists, or the Department of Environmental Quality will deepen teachers’ understanding of environmental science concepts and local policy in action. These experts become connections to resources teachers can use to support their work.
Multiple ways to connect: Teachers will learn nature journaling, in which people
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record their observations of the natural world through pictures, measurements, and language. Nature journaling will augment the “Projects” lessons with an easy, take- anywhere, lifelong opportunity for the teachers and their students to engage with the natural world, demonstrate their learning, and develop their curiosity and passion. Turn-key Kits and On-Going Support: Finally, as a group we will determine which of the demonstrated lessons they are interested in adopting this year in their classrooms and eliminate any supply barrier by compiling a resource kit for those ones. Our 2 in- service sessions during the school year will keep the learning at the top of their minds to help ensure its use. Teachers will be connected to on-going support from the Shenandoah Valley Environmental Educators Alliance, for which the Arboretum will pick up the reins. That group incorporates formal and non-formal environmental educators from up and down the Shenandoah Valley, meeting virtually 3 times and in-person once a year for encouragement, best practices conversation, and resource-sharing. We will also connect them with the emerging Virginia Environmental Literacy Network (VEN), a statewide resource with similar goals. Desired outcomes for teachers include increased confidence in teaching environmental science, increased sense of connection to their local place, deeper understanding of local environmental systems, increased sense of community belonging and professional support, and empowerment for civic engagement through understanding of local issues. We hypothesize that their students will in turn be significantly more engaged and have stronger knowledge and better developed skills.
Benefit to JMU
This project enables JMU to be an innovative leader in environmental education and capitalize on its special resource, the Arboretum. A successful pilot would provide proof of concept for future developments in teacher training at JMU, including potential pre- service teacher cohorts in environmental education through the Arboretum, development of courses related to community-based learning, or replicating this model of in-service teacher development to other school districts as a possible revenue generation opportunity for the Arboretum.
Projected Budget
Development phase:
$5,200
Initial 2026 cohort:
$7,755
2027 cohort:
$7,755
SVEEA leadership:
$500
Total:
$21,210
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• The development phase includes Arboretum staff time for planning and preparation = $5,200 • Delivery of the initial 2026 cohort (16 teachers, ~$485/teacher) = $7,755 . This includes the following associated costs: o Honoraria for local experts = $750 (up to $250 each as needed) o “Projects” Lesson Books and teacher supply kits = $1,965 ($100 per teacher for supplies, $31 per teacher for Project books; plus, materials for facilitators) o Transportation and Costs for Field Experiences = $1,040 o Arboretum staff time = $4,000 • Delivery of 2027 Cohort (additional 16 teachers; same associated costs as above) = $7,755 • Arboretum leadership of the Shenandoah Valley Environmental Educators Alliance (SVEEA) including staff time for promoting quarterly zoom, hospitality at in-person gathering, and printing = $500
With partial funding, we would eliminate a second cohort; reduce the number of days of programming for the cohort and reduce the possibility of honoraria for speakers.
Project Team
Katie Rankin is the director of the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum at JMU. She is a certified environmental educator through the Virginia Association for Environmental Education, and she has been working in direct partnership with Harrisonburg City Public Schools for 3 years to develop watershed education experiences on-site at the Arboretum in conjunction with many community partners. Her certification capstone project, "Starting Somewhere: Laying the Foundation for a Meaningful Watershed Education Experience" included wrestling with the challenges and barriers for both students and teachers. She is an authorized facilitator for Project WET, Project Learning Tree, and Project WILD; and has been offering Project WILD workshops to JMU preservice teachers since 2023. Kelli Hertzler is the education coordinator at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum at JMU. She is a JMU alum with a degree in studio art and a minor in biology. She has extensive experience working with small and large group student settings in outdoor education, developing resources for teachers, and nature journaling to encourage close observation and understanding of the natural world. Examples of local experts include Ali Sloop, the JMU Stormwater Coordinator and a former environmental educator; Harrisonburg city council member Laura Dent; Harrisonburg Greenspace Manager Jeremy Harold; Elizabeth Davidson, the Harrisonburg City Public Schools Science Coordinator; and Tammy Stone, the Rockingham County Public Schools Science Coordinator.
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