Events
Fall Kickoff: Ed Camp
Date and Time
Thursday, September 18, 2025 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM
RSVP
You can RSVP for this event
Location
Savannah Room, Administrative Building
John Ball Zoo
1300 Fulton St W
Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Description
Educators and community partners will participate in an "ed-camp" to explore action project themes, share ideas and resources, and develop connections amongst peers. Groundswell is partnering with Wendi Vogel, Educational Consultant (Science) for Kent Intermediate School District, to host an Edcamp!
Edcamps, or "un-conferences," are unique professional learning experiences in that they are highly collaborative and the learning is done through participant conversation. Attendees will learn from and with each other by sharing ideas, best practices, challenges and passions, resources, tips, and connections. Every person in the room is a leader and a learner!
We hosted an Ecamp during the 24-25 academic year, and it was a HIT! Educators and partners got to collaborate and brainstorm together, form connections, and ignite ideas for Groundswell projects.
How do Edcamps work, and how does this format tie into Choose An Issue?
- Participant voice and choice will be activated as attendees collaboratively determine several topics that they want to learn more about (could be water quality action projects, deepening community partnerships, how to start a pollinator garden, outdoor classroom management skills, and so on). The topics of the event are sourced organically and directly from participants at the top of the event!
- Participants will choose which of these crowd-sourced topics they want to learn more about and gather into respective small groups.
- Groundswell and KISD will provide prompting and facilitation support to activate conversation and empower everyone to share experiences and ideas surrounding their topic.
- Peer-to-peer learning will encourage participants to dive deeper into their own interests and use this time to develop action project ideas, community partnerships, and engage in a self-directed yet collaborative learning experience.
2 total SCECH credits available for this PLO
Participants can expect a full agenda for the evening. Food and nonalcoholic drinks will be provided.
Registration closes on Thursday, September 4th at 10am OR when we reach event capacity.
Groundswell provides immersive professional learning opportunity (PLO) experiences focused on teaching place-based education (PBE) practices. Learn more about the practice of place-based education on the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative PBE Webpage.
These PLO events are open to any educators interested in learning more about Groundswell, those who are actively working on their student projects already, or those looking to learn more about researching environmental and community issues!
This event has been tagged as educator, educators, environmentaleducation, placebasededucation, professionallearning, professionallearningopportunity, teacher, teachers, and trraining.
Contact
Questions? Please contact our staff at: [email protected]