WK 37 - Ecology Education for All: Aligning Your Teaching with the Four-Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) and Dimension III Human Environment Interactions (HEI)

Session Description: Join in this interactive workshop to enhance your teaching impact by exploring the integration of human-environment interactions (HEI) of concern into your teaching. This workshop is for participants at any career stage interested in teaching ecology at any level/setting.

ESA has endorsed the Four-Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) Framework as an important means to show the relevance and application of Ecology. The 4DEE framework is a set of recommendations for ecology curricula that cover both content and skills. Aligning your teaching with the 4DEE framework can help promote student learning outcomes related to both the breadth and depth of ecology. This workshop will have three parts. In Part I, you will learn about 4DEE. In Part II, you will work with a tool that helps evaluate the alignment of your teaching with 4DEE. In Part III, based on what you discover in Part II, you will discuss your teaching alignment. This will include sharing your best practices with others, as well as discovering new ways to align your teaching with the 4DEE Framework including campus sustainability and regional environmental issues as well as societal justice concerns. This session will have an emphasis on alignment with Dimension III Human Environment Interactions (HEI), because this dimension promotes “Ecology for All.” These HEI dimensions include dependence on the environment, human-accelerated environmental change, how humans can use ecological systems to shape and manage resources/ecosystems/the environment, ethical dimensions and communicating and applying ecology. For more information on the 4DEE framework, visit https://esa.org/4DEE/.

Objectives for workshop participants:

*Understand the 4DEE framework

*Evaluate the alignment of your teaching with 4DEE with an emphasis on the human-environment interactions dimension.

*Share your best practices with an emphasis on the human-environment interactions dimension.

*Discover ways to align your teaching with 4DEE with an emphasis on the human-environment interactions dimension, with examples drawn from campus sustainability initiatives, regional environmental justice, and other concerns.

*Foster a network of support in advancing ecology education and innovative practices.