Dates: November 3 and November 10, 2026
Time: 3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. PT, both days
Please plan to attend both sessions
Format: Hybrid
Location: Medford and/or Online
Audience: Formal and nonformal 3rd-12th grade outdoor educators, instructors, and curriculum designers, especially educators working with 5th–6th grade outdoor school programs
Description: This 2-day workshop is being offered in two formats at the same time; online (via Zoom) and in-person (indoors). The same content will be offered in both formats simultaneously.
Join us online or in-person to discover how to sharpen your outdoor lesson focus and improve the delivery strategies you’ll apply in the field. Through visible, student-centered objectives, we’ll shift instructor-led lessons back toward the learners, as they engage in science in-action. Through this redesign process, we’ll share techniques to help you engage students, inspire curiosity, and create meaningful challenges that give a sense of accomplishment to students and instructors alike.
What You’ll Gain:
• Techniques that will help curriculum writers and field instructors invite students to be active participants in rigorous outdoor learning.
• Increased confidence using the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices to invite deep thinking and engagement in the outdoors.
• Strategies for how to revise an existing lesson to maximize student engagement and achievement.
• Objective-based framework which will support your ongoing self-evaluation, and your continued growth as an educator.
What We’ll Do:
• Apply a protocol to rethink your outdoor lesson, and then collaborate on your creative adjustments with other participants.
• Practice using a simple sentence-frame for writing clear, student-centered objectives that are visible, measurable and focus on student accomplishment
• Through activities and independent planning time, we’ll organize our objectives and use Blooms Taxonomy as a lens to refine them.
Pre-work:
Participants should bring a written outdoor lesson. This may be an activity you’ve created, one you’ve been assigned to teach, or one that you have taught in the past. Print and bring the written lesson plan, so that we can build on its strengths and revise it for maximum student engagement
Considerations: This 2-day workshop is being offered in two formats simultaneously: online (via Zoom) and in-person (indoors in Medford). Participants should plan to attend both days and can choose whether to attend each day online or in person. The agenda will be broken down into a hybrid presentation format that all participants can join, and activities will be guided for online participants separately from in-person participants.
ODS Stipend: Participants who attend both sessions (either in-person or virtually) will be eligible for a $100 stipend. This stipend is available from OSU Extension Service Outdoor School to support the attendance of eligible outdoor school educators who are not being compensated by their employer for the time they attend the workshop. Please contact lauren.rodgers@oregonstate.edu with questions about stipend eligibility.
Brought to you by: OSU Extension Service Outdoor School Program, U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, Medford Office, and Oregon Natural Resources Education Program (ONREP)
Registration required and will close approximately 1 week prior to the workshop or when full. Offered at no cost to Oregon Educators. Must be 18 years of age or older. PDUs available. Substitute reimbursement available on teacher workdays.