Leaf and Learn Professional Development
About Leaf and Learn
Our Leaf and Learn professional development workshops are for educators of any kind who want to align nature-based learning with their educational objectives. They are designed to be engaging experiences that allow participants to build background knowledge, apply the practices of nature-based learning, and develop an understanding of the theory behind nature-based learning as an educational strategy.
These workshops are offered to the Greater Rochester community as scheduled experiences open to all and can be organized for individual learning communities.
Who is Leaf and Learn for?
Informal and Out of School Time Educators
Informal and OST educators looking to strengthen their ability to engage young people in outdoor experiences or indoor experiences that connect them to nature
Classroom Educators
Classroom educators who want to offer their students naturally engaging opportunities to learn science, technology, engineering, arts, and math
Homeschool educators and Parents
Home school educators and parents who are looking for creative ways to meet their educational goals
Schedule a Workshop
We can schedule one or more workshops with you and your team of educators. You can come to us or we can come to you, anywhere in Greter Rochester. Reach out to us at contact@rocecology.org to learn more.
Upcoming Opportunities
Stay tuned for scheduled workshops
Workshops We Offer
The Art of NBL
- Playing with Sticks: Nature-based Learning is Serious Fun(theory)
- Exploring our 5 senses : The Basic Skills and Practices of Nature-based Learning
- Nature Mandalas: Applying the Art of Nature-based Learning
Science and NBL
- NBL is Necessary: Environmental Justice and the Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights
- Health and Nature: Evidence NBL is a healthy alternative to sitting in a classroom
- It’s all connected: Ecosystem studies teach us more than what lives here
Nature and Technology Together
- Through a nature-based lens: Using photos and media to understand exploration, inquiry, and discovery as educational approaches
- Finding nature on the map: technological tools for environmental monitoring
- Everyone can be a scientist: Using inaturalist to study biodiversity
Alignment With Standards
Whether it is sitting under a tree writing a poem or building a reed raft to float across a pond it is easy to find ways these experiences are not only aligned with standards but are often superior ways to meet them. We strive to make sure activities align with not only content but culturally responsive and SEL standards.
Standards Alignment
- New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework
- New York State Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks
- Common Core ELA standards
- Common Core Math standards
- Next Generation Science Standards
- New York State Social Studies Framework
News From Our Work With Schools
Sunshine for the students of Northeast High School
As soon as I turned into the camp’s driveway on Tuesday a news story about the school we are working with this week came on the radio. The excitement of being outside with the students this week mixed with the sadness of hearing a student that I had recently gotten to...
Where is Everyone? – Going Outside with AMDA School #12
Where is everyone? This question makes the class of kindergarteners crouched in the vegetable garden behind their school giggle, laugh, and do other joyful things that quickly reveal their hiding spots. We were outside to play and do many other important things on this crisp fall morning.
February Break Nature Discovery Camp 2022
Young people laughing as they play in the park is what winter break should sound like. During the 2022 February break last week Anna Murray Douglass Academy School #12, The Center for Youth Earthworks, and Rochester Ecology Partners came together to make that possible for over fifty students grades K-8 with a four day nature discovery camp.
Exploring Adaptations for Winter Survival
How do living things survive the winter? This question is at the center of a series of field studies fourth graders at the Children's School #15 are engaged in with the support of Rochester Ecology Partners. The school sits at the base of Cobbs Hill Park and...
Our Worlds Connect – Early College and Walden
Rochester Ecology Partners is excited to announce a new initiative that will bring students from different backgrounds together for community building beginning at the RMSC Cumming Nature Center in Naples, NY. Our Worlds Connect participants in the opening circle. The...