ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION SERVICES
Building one’s ecological literacy is needed at all ages! Select from a variety of environmental education services, that best suit your audience and age-group, including; Teacher professional development, a Green STEAM Schoolyard Habitat Artist in Residence program, and certificates and trainings focused on ecological gardening practices. Please see the descriptions and partner contacts below to book your next ecological education experience!
SCHOOLYARD HABITAT | Artist in Residence
In collaboration with the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and South Central PaARTners, Schoolyard Habitat engages scholars through an immersive hands-on Green STEAM experience. Scholars interact and observe their schoolyard and ultimately design and build a schoolyard habitat garden to support pollinators, that will be sustained as an outdoor living laboratory for years to come.
Please email JuliePyle.Childs@millersville.edu or elyse@waxwingecoworks.com to inquire about getting your school or community group involved.
Donate to support youth in their meaningful quest to rebuild biodiversity in their schoolyards!
TEACHERS | Professional Development
Educators are invited to participate in a thought provoking training that explores ways to engage youth in meaningful, rigorous, interdisciplinary learning in outdoor living laboratories. This training will guide you in how to build empathy for the small critters that rule our world, enhance student collaboration skills, and create project-based solutions to challenging questions about pollinator decline, stormwater run-off, and more.
School District of Lancaster staff, please sign-up via the district-wide PD schedule.
All other schools/school districts, please email elyse@waxwingecoworks.com to book your next PD.
CERTIFICATES and TRAININGS
The Ecological Training Program is facilitated in collaboration with the Horn Farm.
The Habitat Advocate Certificate is facilitated in collaboration with the Lancaster Conservancy.
Check out this infographic to help you discern which Ecological Education pathway is best for you! Still can’t make a decision? Try both! The hands-on experiences in different contexts will strengthen your skills in ecological gardening.
See the Event Calendar to learn more and to sign-up for a course!
For inquiring about speaking engagements, please email: elyse@waxwingecoworks.com.
Words from Waxwing Students:
“As part of the “Green Mulch: Using Native Plants as Groundcovers” course, Elyse provided a diverse group of people with different levels of knowledge on native plants and design, answering questions on how to establish a naturalized landscape at home. She explained the importance of protecting soil, water, and the addition of native plants that will attract the needed pollinators like bees and butterflies into our neighborhoods. We worked through our own design drawings, using a process of creating plant communities with seasonal accent plants and vertical elements of structural plants and trees. We recommend this workshop to anyone that wants to expand the understanding of their garden and how to make it part of a broader natural community.”
“I attended Elyse Jurgen’s stormwater management class at Homefields. The class was well attended, as this topic is important. Elyse was a master teacher of ecology and botany. Elyse presented a simple structure for determining where to establish rain gardens, how large they need to be to function, and the right plants for rain garden planning. While I have taken many classes in ecological gardening, Elyse’s instruction clarified processes for me about managing stormwater and provided time to practice calculations. I feel I could design a rain garden in the best place on my property after being in this class with Elyse.”
“Elyse’s knowledge, expertise, and presentation brought forth to her classes, were above and beyond!”
“The Ecological Gardener Training Program was transformative for me. Taking action to address our climate crisis is my passion. Before learning from Elyse, I didn’t grasp that ecological gardening is essential to preventing the collapse of our ecosystems.”
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Youth & Adult Classes
