MEEA 2025 Conference: Connect for Inspiration
Workshop Lineup
Session 1: 9:35am - 10:35am
WABANAKI STUDIES
-
Ruby Van Dyk is a senior at Casco Bay High School who is passionate about food systems and support for local farming. She loves spending time and nature and is honored with the opportunity to lead a workshop at the upcoming MEEA conference. She will be attending Stanford University in the fall to study Earth Systems and cannot wait to engage more with environmental justice throughout her life.
Introduction to Wabanaki Studies
Brianne Lolar, Maine Department of Education
Kaya Lolar, MEEA Wabanaki Studies and Policy Coordinator
Get interactive with available Wabanaki studies resources and build connections with other educators looking to implement Wabanaki studies in their classrooms and communities. This material represents a continuing collaborative effort between the Wabanaki Nations, Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, districts, and other organizations.
CLIMATE EDUCATION
The Small Farm Struggle: Educating the Youth about Sustainable Agriculture
Ruby van Dyk, Senior at Casco Bay High School
After months of research for her senior year expedition on small Maine farming and the struggles they face, Ruby van Dyk has become profoundly aware of the need for more people — especially young people — to become invested in this issue. Ruby will take the attendees through a day of a small farmer in Maine — Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook. Attendees will plan out their idea for their farm in groups and use cards with images to order the food system. We will discuss infrastructure projects like the Gorham connector using this case study as well as the simulated experience. There will also be a sampling of a few foods from local farms.
OUTDOOR LEARNING
Connecting with nature and others through journaling - for everyone!
Kim Charmatz, Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance
Join us as we explore how everyone of all ages, audiences, and settings can participate and connect with nature through journaling! We will try out several nature journaling activities guided by your observations that you can integrate into your own teaching and personal practices. We will be outdoors for this session if weather permits and discuss how you can journal about nature indoors if weather does not permit or you are limited on time or space. Come learn, share, and connect about ways nature inspires you through journaling with others!
SKILLS FOR ACTION
Employee’s Declassified Career Survival Guide
Bethany Humphrey, Consultant
Ray Mills & Sulwan Ahmed, MEEA/TNC Changemakers Residents
Are you starting your career? Want to learn how to navigate the working world and share your experiences with others? Join us to learn how to advocate for yourself, recognize healthy and unhealthy workplaces, and build skills to navigate difficult work situations. This workshop is catered towards youth under 30.
OUTDOOR LEARNING
-
Tonya Prentice is a passionate educator with 18 years of experience teaching middle school science to grades 5-8 at Tremont Consolidated School on Mount Desert Island, Maine. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science from Coastal Carolina University and a Master of Science in Science and Mathematics Education from Walden University. A dedicated advocate for high-quality science education, Tonya is both National Board Certified and National STEM Certified.
Beyond the classroom, Tonya is a leader in the science education community, serving as the President of the Maine Science Teachers Association. Her commitment to excellence has earned her multiple prestigious honors, including the 2020 Oxford County Teacher of the Year, the 2016 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), and the National STEM Scholarship Award.
Exploring Water Quality: Connecting Outdoor Learning, Climate Education, and Community Action
Maine Science Teachers Association
Discover how outdoor learning can engage students in hands-on water quality investigations while fostering climate literacy and community action. This session will explore strategies for integrating real-world data collection, interdisciplinary connections, and solution-based projects that empower students to become environmental stewards. Participants will leave with resources and ideas to implement similar experiences in their own classrooms.
Session 2: 10:45am - 11:45am
WABANAKI STUDIES
-
Ruby Van Dyk is a senior at Casco Bay High School who is passionate about food systems and support for local farming. She loves spending time and nature and is honored with the opportunity to lead a workshop at the upcoming MEEA conference. She will be attending Stanford University in the fall to study Earth Systems and cannot wait to engage more with environmental justice throughout her life.
Strengthening Our Relationships with the Land: Where Wabanaki Studies Meets Climate Education
Brianne Lolar, Maine Department of Education
Kaya Lolar, MEEA Wabanaki Studies and Policy Coordinator
This workshop brings climate education all the way back to its roots–the first stewards of this land. Wabanaki Studies and climate education innately go hand-in-hand. Join Kaya Lolar (Panawahpskek) and Brianne Lolar (Panawahpskek), to hear more about how understanding traditional ecological knowledge and Wabanaki practices allows us go deeper with our approaches to climate education and justice today.
CLIMATE EDUCATION
Online Climate Education Tools: Maine Won't Wait: A Climate Policy Guide for Students and Subject to Climate
Katie Coppens, Falmouth Middle School
Abigail Hayne, Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future
Maine Won’t Wait is Maine’s four-year climate action plan. Learn about an adapted version of it for younger people (grades 6-12) called Maine Won't Wait: A Climate Policy Guide for Students. We will navigate its interactive features and discuss ways educators can embed this into their educational setting or a unit. Various lesson plans and assessments, across content areas, that connect with this guide will be shared.
OUTDOOR LEARNING
Connecting Nature, Technology, and Social-Emotional Learning
Lauren Watkinson, Mt. Ararat Middle School
This workshop showcases three adaptable environmental education activities that integrate hands-on exploration, technology, and creative expression for grades 6-12. These versatile activities can be scaled to various developmental needs and school settings, combining scientific inquiry with project-based learning to support social-emotional growth while fostering genuine connections with the natural world. Participants will experience both indoor presentation and outdoor implementation components and receive comprehensive digital resources for immediate classroom use.
SKILLS FOR ACTION
Wheelchairs in the Wild
Lock Oleander, Sick Crip Collective
How can we make tree-hugging accessible to all? Come learn about bedridden bird watching, climate change canaries, access audits, and the interconnected (and inseparable) struggles for ecojustice and disability rights.
-
Lock Oleander (they/them) is a community organizer living on Unceded Wabanaki Territory/in so-called Maine. They are a community organizer of over 10 years, who centers their advocacy around their lived experiences of existing in a body (& mind) that is multiply marginalized. They enjoy long rolls in their wheelchair, petting the nearest cat, and creating art in many forms.
SKILLS FOR ACTION
-
Tonya Prentice is a passionate educator with 18 years of experience teaching middle school science to grades 5-8 at Tremont Consolidated School on Mount Desert Island, Maine. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science from Coastal Carolina University and a Master of Science in Science and Mathematics Education from Walden University. A dedicated advocate for high-quality science education, Tonya is both National Board Certified and National STEM Certified.
Beyond the classroom, Tonya is a leader in the science education community, serving as the President of the Maine Science Teachers Association. Her commitment to excellence has earned her multiple prestigious honors, including the 2020 Oxford County Teacher of the Year, the 2016 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), and the National STEM Scholarship Award.
Rooting in Consent: Trust-based Storytelling for Advocacy and Systems Change
Tessa Shanteler, Stories for Change
Eli Kao, Stories for Change, Compass Light Productions, Waterfall Arts
+ members of the Stories for Change Working Group
This workshop includes case study stories and a participatory interviewing exercise that will help participants recognize power dynamics in storytelling, gain strategies for more equitable approaches, and generate ideas for how our trust-based storytelling process can support other projects. Participants will leave our workshop with examples of stories shared with this process, confidence in and strategies to ethically share stories, and experience interviewing. Stories for Change amplifies underrepresented voices and their relationship to the outdoors through a trust-based, collaborative process, and is a project of the Nature Based Education Consortium
Session 3: 1:25pm - 2:35pm
NETWORKING SESSION
-
BIO
-
Item description
-
Item description
NETWORKING SESSION NAME HERE
Brianne Lolar, Maine Department of Education
Kaya Lolar, MEEA Wabanaki Studies and Policy Coordinator
Session 1: 9:35 - 10:35am
Get interactive with available Wabanaki studies resources and build connections with other educators looking to implement Wabanaki studies in their classrooms and communities. This material represents a continuing collaborative effort between the Wabanaki Nations, Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, districts, and other organizations.
OUTDOOR LEARNING
Protecting Ash: a Preservation Focused Inventory Project
Meggie Harvey, Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Abigail Long, Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Nell Houde, Wild Seed Project
In this workshop, participants will experience activities designed to support youth in building ecosystem understandings, placing themselves within a long history of stewardship efforts, and developing fieldwork skills. Then, they will learn about and contribute to a community science effort to protect future generations of ash trees.
-
BIO
-
Item description
-
Item description
SKILLS FOR ACTION
Shifting Avoidance Culture: What is possible when we lean in?
estephanie g. maroall, Mycorrising
Deb Paredes, Sett Vincent, XYZ, community organizers
We know now more than ever, we need each other. But how do we shift out of generations old patterns that keep us in cycles of disconnection? Within system norms of scarcity, individualism, and avoidance, how do we naturalize ourselves and deepen our relationships? How do we keep love at the center of our practices and living expressions? What is the role of intergenerational practices? Join us to consider these questions at various intersections of identity and power. We will collectively engage these concepts with a panel of youth who’ll discuss what they see as the future of environmental work and the changes needed in our cultural fabric.
-
BIO
SKILLS FOR ACTION
Performing Arts to Impassion Climate Learning
Marcia Taylor, Third Act Maine
Begin to build expressive arts into your environmental curricula. No prior performance experience needed; templates and handouts will be provided. Skit, song, comedy, magic acts, circus arts, dance/hip hop, public speaking, visual arts--whatever resonates with your student creators. What you'll need: trust in your students, an open mind and a bit of audacity. Whether you work with kindergarteners, teens, adults or elders, you’ll find something useful here.
Session 4: 2:35pm - 3:35pm
-
Bio
-
Item description
CLIMATE EDUCATION
Building Climate Literacy and Empowerment through Climate Communication, Action Strategies, and Community: An Introduction to A Climate to Thrive's Climate Ambassadors Program
Wilson Haims, Alison Bligh, A Climate to Thrive
Participants will engage in key elements of our Climate Ambassador Program to develop climate leadership skills. Through an overview of climate science and impacts, solutions, and strategies to tactfully communicate about climate change, participants will acquire crucial insight and techniques to galvanize support and make change in their communities. This workshop will also require participants to look inward, reflecting on their experiences and exploring the skills and interests they already hold within themselves to contribute as part of the solution.
SKILLS FOR ACTION
Writing to Celebrate Being Alive on This Earth
Maya Williams, Portland’s 7th Poet Laureate
Engage in interactive discussion and poetry prompts with former poet laureate of Portland, Maine Maya Williams. How do you celebrate being alive on this earth? This workshop is for folks who love talking about the environment, folks who talking about the environment is new to them, and for anyone who recognizes the need to talk about climate change and how that affects our daily living. As a suicide survivor, what helps Maya choose to stay in this burning world is to find the things they love that are worth staying for. This space is for folks to celebrate parts of our environment that helps us wake up in the morning.
SKILLS FOR ACTION
Bridging Barriers, Building Trails: Outdoor Access Solutions
Enock Glidden & Alexandria Sukeforth, Outdoor Access Solutions
Join Enock Glidden for a hands-on trail assessment, where you'll experience accessibility challenges firsthand using simulation tools. Learn practical, outdoor strategies for creating inclusive trails, guided by Enock's expert insights and real-world case studies. Leave with actionable solutions and the inspiration to build truly accessible outdoor spaces in your community.
SKILLS FOR ACTION
The White Oak Project: Planting trees for an abundant future
Kathy Pollard, Know yOUR Land Consulting
Ann Pollard-Ranco, Penobscot citizen and cultural consultant
Nell Houde, Wild Seed Project
Our warming climate is driving changes in the composition of Maine's boreal forests, and it has brought blights/pests that are killing species such as brown ash and beech. The loss of beechnuts will create a huge void of food for wildlife, while the emerald ash borer will decrease the availability of a crucial cultural and economic material for Wabanaki basket makers. The White Oak Project is a collaborative effort to mitigate these imbalances by helping to establish some white oak, black walnut, butternut, and shagbark hickory to parts of the state where they can now thrive--by starting trees from seed and nurturing them until they are ready to go out on their own. These long lived species produce huge amounts of food for up to 200 years; thus the project offers an opportunity for students to do something that will help foster resilience and abundance for generations into the future.
-
Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who was selected as Portland, ME's seventh poet laureate for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Eir debut poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was selected as a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date (Harbor Editions, 2023), was selected as a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. Their third poetry collection, What's So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway?, was selected as one of four winners of Garden Party Collective's chapbook prize in 2024. Maya was selected as one of Maine Humanities Council's recipients of the Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2024. Follow her at @emmdubb16 and mayawilliamspoet.com
NETWORKING SESSION
NETWORKING SESSION NAME HERE
Brianne Lolar, Maine Department of Education
Kaya Lolar, MEEA Wabanaki Studies and Policy Coordinator
Session 1: 9:35 - 10:35am
Get interactive with available Wabanaki studies resources and build connections with other educators looking to implement Wabanaki studies in their classrooms and communities. This material represents a continuing collaborative effort between the Wabanaki Nations, Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, districts, and other organizations.
-
Bio
-
Item description
-
Item description
-
Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who was selected as Portland, ME's seventh poet laureate for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Eir debut poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was selected as a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date (Harbor Editions, 2023), was selected as a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. Their third poetry collection, What's So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway?, was selected as one of four winners of Garden Party Collective's chapbook prize in 2024. Maya was selected as one of Maine Humanities Council's recipients of the Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2024. Follow her at @emmdubb16 and mayawilliamspoet.com