EENC 2022 Conference: Request for Proposals

Environmental Educators of North Carolina (EENC) invites you to submit a session proposal for our 2022 annual conference. The EENC conference will be held Friday, September 9 - Saturday, September 10, 2022 at the McKimmon Center (NC State Campus) in Raleigh, NC. There will be pre-conference workshops and field trips on Thursday, September 8.

This year, the research symposium is woven into the conference, rather than being a separate event. Our hope is that this change will increase attendance at research sessions and emphasize the importance of bridging research and practice within the field of EE. We encourage high school students, undergraduate, and graduate students to submit their research proposals. You can indicate that you would like to submit a research proposal on the application form. 

EENC plans to host an in-person conference and will be taking COVID-19 safety precautions in accordance with NC State policy. This may include things like wearing masks and maintaining social distancing in presentation rooms.

Session proposals will be due by midnight on May 24th.

Theme

The theme for the EENC 2022 conference is rEEdefine: redefining how we reflect, connect and identify in the field of EE. Four related focus areas include: Expanding EE; Healing in Nature; EE as a Bridge; and Back to the Youth which are described in detail below. While we are especially interested in presentations addressing the following focus areas, all session ideas are welcome and do not have to fit perfectly into one of these topics. 

Presentation Focus Areas

Expanding EE: EENC strives to make our organization and environmental education more accessible and welcoming to all communities. There are many individuals, organizations and programs doing EE, even if that term isn’t explicitly used to describe their work. Presentations in this strand might address: 

• Food justice, land justice, and/ or environmental justice as environmental education
  
• Environmental education in urban planning: access to green space, public transportation, and healthy food
• EE as a way to address the climate crisis
• Recreation as a pathway/ entry point to EE; EE and sports/ recreation
• Culturally relevant environmental education: art exhibitions, ethnobotany, traditional ways of knowing & being
• Bringing the outdoors indoors in formal classroom settings

Healing in Nature: Being in, learning about, and reclaiming the outdoors can all be forms of personal or collective healing. Presentations in this strand might address:

• Forming, performing and adoring personal identities outdoors (i.e., race, gender, sexuality)
• Trauma-informed healing programs in EE for veterans or other populations
• Foraging & natural medicine
• Nature as a therapeutic practice 

EE as a Bridge: EE is an interdisciplinary field with roots in many traditions and can help cultivate connections across these seemingly different fields. Session ideas for this topic may include:

• Making EE more accessible for marginalized populations (i.e., neurodivergent participants, larger bodies, elderly populations or low-income youth)
• Connecting formal & informal environmental education 
• Connecting EE research & practice
• EE as a way to address the rural/ urban collide

Back to the Youth: From providing input on programmatic goals to taking control of their own learning, youth are vital stakeholders in environmental education. Sessions in this strand might address: 

• Youth-led EE: programs designed by youth, for youth
• Forming programmatic partnerships with youth to give young people agency in decision-making processes and program content 
• EE that focuses on positive youth development
• EE career pathways for young people

Session Format Options

You may select either a 45- or 75-minute session. Sessions including an outdoor component should consider offering a longer session.

We do not have dedicated outdoor spaces that include a projector and screen, but we have access to lots of outdoor space if you would like to have your session outdoors. Please be aware that chairs, tables, power, and internet access will not be available outdoors.

Indoor rooms will be equipped with a PC laptop, projector, and screen.

Presenter Requirements

If your proposal is selected, all presenters will be required to register for the conference for at least the day of the presentation.

Presenters must register by the Early Bird deadline of July 16 or your session will be removed from the conference.

EENC has scholarship funding available to help educators attend the conference. Our goal is to award all applicants some level of funding. Learn more about scholarships here. 

Tips for Preparing your Proposal

• Provide enough detail about your session to give reviewers a clear picture of your session.

• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms, which may not be familiar to reviewers or conference participants.

• The Presentation Summary and the Presentation Descriptions both have character limits of 400 and 800, respectively. EENC reserves the right to edit your entries for length or clarity for publication.

• You will not be able to save your responses or reenter the form to complete it.

• If you wish to submit more than one proposal you will need to submit one form per proposal.

Submit your proposal using the form below. Proposals are due May 24.  Using a mobile device?  Open the form on a separate page here. Once you submit your proposal, a copy of your proposal will be emailed to the address provided.

If you have any questions please contact Hannah Barg, EENC Conference Chair, at conference@eenc.org. Questions about research-related proposals can be directed to Alayna Schmidt, at education@eenc.org.