November 19 @ 8 p.m. via ZOOM
November 19, 2020 / 8:00 – 9:00, with 9:00 – 9:30 for extended conversation
What will the post-pandemic world hold in store for education? How can we take the best of what schools and colleges have offered in the past and apply it toward addressing the deepest needs of the future? Jim Reding, Environmental Studies teacher at Granville High School —where they’ve created an active school garden where students eat what they grow, restored a 100-acre prairie with wetlands, and planted 2000 trees with 3rd and 4th graders— will be in conversation with Dustin Braden, one of his former students, now a senior at Ohio Wesleyan University and a coordinator/intern for OWU’s Sustainability program. Come hear their thoughts on how to engage all our students and schools in hands-on learning to foster a more restorative world!
Jim Reding, AP Environmental Science and Ecology Teacher, 2016 K-12 Educator of the Year teaches AP environmental science, ecology and a summer class on sustainable agriculture. It most important to Jim that the students are involved and engaged in his class. His classes are relevant and thought-provoking. Students are encouraged to wonder why and seek answers to their questions. Jim is a natural facilitator of inquiry-based learning and energizes his students to ask questions that he does not know the answer to. Along with his students, he developed the school’s organic garden including raised beds, fruit trees, a hoop house, greenhouse, aquaponics, a rain garden and solar panels. Many of the projects were responses to problems. Students identified problems and were mentored as they came up with solutions to real-life problems. The garden extends far beyond its fences – produce is sold to community members and students eat the fresh food when dining in the cafeteria.
Dustin Braden is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Ohio Wesleyan University. Driven by pairing science with communications, Dustin got his start at Granville High School working with the Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program to restore ~35 acres of farmland into prairie and wetland habitat. Since then, he’s worked at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and their nonprofit Friends Group to lead tours of public lands, conduct nest counts, and increase their digital communications presence. Dustin currently works with Citizen Science GIS as an undergraduate research assistant and at Ohio Wesleyan as an intern and coordinator for the Environment and Sustainability Program.
Sign up here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYucuqvpjMsGtbX8Aly7RODpYIZQ29kgAO4
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