GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP
June 21-25, 2010

Past participants (in the previous 18 years) come see the changes that have occurred over the years – and to have a REUNION!!! We hope you will be able to join us again – to share YOUR changes!

On your own.  Come to the mountains the week-end before the workshop, explore different places, go white water rafting, drive mountain roads, note new construction, visit small towns in the area, hike trails, get a ‘feel’ for the mountain communities. There are so many things to do, and very little time during the workshop and these few days before can be perfect for investigation!  Or extend your stay to the week-end after the workshop, and enjoy the many possibilities available to you.

HIGHLIGHTS

GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP

Monday June 21
Meet for lunch at the College Cafeteria at 12:00 (ck map on website). Introductions of participants. Introduction to Lees-McRae College, Banner Elk NC, where we will be housed, enjoy the wireless facilities at our base of operation. Be sure to bring your lap-top. Provost Deb Thatcher will present historical and present perspectives of this private college. A hike to Hemlock Hill will show us virgin forest and what is happening to it today. Presentation: The importance of the STEM topics for us and for our students. Pick your topic to develop for your own home situation. Computer lab is available for presentations and for our use.

Tuesday June 22
Dr. Skeate, author, naturalist, will present the Flora and Fauna of the Mountain Ecosystem and the relationship for the mountain peoples. Low impact development and community projects you can do, by Patrick Beggs, WECO, follows. Mike Tally will overview changing learning outcomes in curriculum.  Meet story-teller mother and teacher-daughter team. Carolyn Langley will present projects from her locality. Brazilian photojournalist Daniel de Granville will present a program to the Banner Elk community about Brazil. His photographs will be on display for the week.

Wednesday June 23
Visit Grandfather Mountain, Linville NC to meet Crae Morton, President, who will tell us how the ‘green’ Grandfather Mountain facilities have been designed, meeting sustainability qualifications. And the establishment of the most recent state park! At the only private UN Biosphere site in the world, we will visit the Nature Museum and tour the Animal Habitats. After lunch, explore on your own.  For example, visit the Viaduct Visitor Center, Moses Cone Craft Center, hike the G. Mt. trails or Linville Falls, Roan Mountain – choices are many! Survey of local people, employment, and job descriptions. Evening search for salamanders and snails with VanDevenders, ASU.

Thursday June 24
Presentation: Growing Native Woodland Medicinals, followed with identification, by Dr. Jeanine Davis. Discussion about global implications and job creation for people in the mountains. Activity for groups. Local People and discovery of employment opportunities. Carolyn Langley will overview extension activities, leading toward student learning outside of regular school hours. Nan Kirlin will discuss recycling programs and economic impacts in the community. Computer lab to complete work.

Friday June 25

Sarah Koebley will chairs presentation of participants’ projects developed meeting the Environmental Education Guidelines for Excellence (NAAEE), and national, state and local standards, including STEM learning outcomes in your subject area. Blank books. Evaluation. Picnic Lunch at Grandfather Mountain. Leave for home at 3:30pm.

We will build on the sustainability and ‘greening’ of Summer 2009, and this year, add more global considerations. For example, how do we as individuals within one country prepare others, adults and students, to get along in a global community? How can we as adults assist young people develop skills for future jobs that do not yet have a name, a title, or delineated requirements and goals for those jobs? Brazilians will have major input providing examples in their country; we hope the Finns will also be able to come again this summer!

We have chosen to work with you adults who are educators – whether you are in business, technology, communication, education, or other fields -who can hone the skills needed to exist in the growing global community, and then follow through and communicate with the young people of today so that they in turn can ‘shine’ in the future. We are certain that skills based on STEM for example, can be applied to every curricula, enabling students forward on their journey to become global citizens of the twenty-first century.

We have requested each speaker to include a major portion of their presentation on their backgrounds, education, and how they got to where they are today. We have invited other speakers who are working actively on STEM programs to participate. So, please, come prepared to incorporate many of these ideas and strategies into your work - develop an activity, a program, a focus, on what you need and can use in your classroom, nature center, after-school program – an example you can share with others.

We seek to connect formal educators with informal and public community educators and others. You will note a number of presentations emanating from extension as well as persons local to the mountain ecosystem.

Participants, please bring something ‘small’ for everyone, representative of your local environ (a fossil, a special type of rock, or a pen with name of your city, or local fudge, etc.) As you know, we will have international teachers participating – it is nice to share with them especially. And, please bring one curriculum piece that you think excellent, to distribute to everyone.