During June 2021, 12 educators and Pacific Education Institute (PEI) staff worked together to adapt Solutions Oriented Learning Storylines on the topic of Regenerative Agriculture. The current Regenerative Agriculture storylines were created for eastern Washington audiences. The adapted storylines will focus on western Washington for 5th, middle and high school, and creating a 2nd grade storyline that highlights pollinators.
To frame their thinking, educators had the opportunity to learn about regenerative agriculture from Chris Towe, Environmental Education Manager for Pierce County Conservation District. The background information Chris provided to the writing team gave them ideas for locally relevant phenomena and resources to create western Washington focused learning sessions for students. At the end of the workshop series, one participant shared, “I felt more comfortable finding resources for culturally relevant practices/Native ways of knowing than I had in the past. I think this is because I am slowly incorporating including this genre of resources in my teaching. I am excited to increase this practice and I loved learning from others in my group about some wonderful resources and where to find them. I also am proud of my comfort with the 3-dimensions of the NGSS. Again, I attribute my success to the familiarity I have from multiple exposures to the standards. Keep putting it in front of teachers. (I love the consistent, familiar layout used in the PEI documents).”
PEI will be publishing Solutions Oriented Learning Storylines: Regenerative Agriculture (Western Washington) on the PEI website and the ClimeTime Open Educational Resources (OER) portal in late 2021.
