2019 Annual Conference

"The Outdoors is for Everyone: Equity, Access and Inclusion in Environmental Education"

Where: Sharpe Reservation, Fishkill NY
When: Thursday, October 31 - Sunday, November 3
We are currently working to make 2019's Conference a blast- check out more event details below!
 Registration is not yet open, but check back soon

Keynote Speaker: Akiima Price

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Akiima Price is a creative thinker and doer who links people, places, and programs with stressed, under served communities.
​ A Washington, DC native, Akiima is a nationally respected thought leader at the intersection of social and environmental issues and the relationship between nature and community well being. Her innovative programming strategies feature nature as a powerful medium to connect youth, adults, and families in meaningful, positive experiences that affect the way they feel about themselves, their communities, and their parks. From her early career experiences as a National Park Service Interpretation Ranger at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Boulder City, Nevada to work her national work with environmental and social service organizations, Akiima has cultivated over 25 years of experience into cutting-edge best practices in trauma-informed environmentalism. Akiima is currently contracted with the National Park Foundation, charged with developing strategies to strengthen Anacostia Park’s programming and external relationships as a critical part of a broader effort to build an innovative friends group between the park and the highly stressed surrounding community. ​
What to expect:
  • Halloween costume party Thursday night
  • Live music Friday night
  • Many workshops aligned with the theme
  • Akiima Price as keynote speaker 
  • Panel discussion
  • Cocktail hour & awards banquet Saturday night
  • Live & silent auctions, along with raffles
Any questions or comments?
Email conferencecommittee2019@nysoea.org

​Schedule:
Thematic Strands:
  • All Ages Welcome: Early Childhood to Seniors
  • Equity and Justice: Breaking Down Barriers to the Outdoors
  • Taking Action: Stewardship, Civic Engagement and Citizen Science
  • Improving Access: Reaching Diverse Audiences Through Technology
  • Express Yourself: Arts and Creativity in Outdoor Education
  • Outdoor Skills for All: Teaching Techniques and Natural History
"When I attended the first organizing NYSOEA conference at SUNY Cortland in 1968, I had been a naturalist for about five years after graduating with a B.S. Biology degree from Cornell’s College of Ag and Life Sciences. I was the Director (and sole employee) of the 12-acre Weinberg Nature Center, municipally- owned by the Village of Scarsdale in Westchester Co. The Village justified paying a housing-provided naturalist to work with the schools by making me their Wildlife Control Officer. I’ve fond memories of learning suburban human nature while rescuing skunks from window wells, and opossums and milk snakes from basements.

I heard about the nascent NYSOEA through the Westchester Co. Naturalists, an informal group including staff from the Greenburg Nature Center and Ward Pound Ridge Reservation among others. I remember meeting many enthusiastic teachers, nature center folks and those from academe at the conference, all listening to first President-Elect George Fuge who broad-shoulderedly almost filled the auditorium stage. George, Raquette Lake Director, explained that the NYS Biology Teachers Assoc. had recently gone belly up creating an opportunity for a new organization. An outdoor ed association would serve statewide all teacher trainees and their teachers, educators, nature center people and outdoor agencies – all committed to the long-established type of outdoor learning championed by the likes of SUNY Cortland’s Raquette Lake and New Paltz’ Ashokan Center. The first 1970 Earth Day was two years in the future, but there was already much concern and heated national debate on Outdoor and Environmental Education’s definitions. I remember sitting in on this debate’s scoping sessions at an Association of Interpretive Naturalists (AIN) meeting, as well as NYSOEA’s.

Most important, was the compelling argument that NYS public and private education, both formal and informal would be enriched by a strong Outdoor Ed organization dealing with not only natural science, but more especially all the multidisciplinary curricular learning aspects most appropriately done outdoors. Thus, our early and enduring slogan: “Do It Outdoors”.
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Fifty-year-old memories are often most vivid outside conferences session. In December 1969, I rode with two 4-wheel drive-equipped Westchester teachers, among the outdoor ed philosophy’s strongest advocates, to a winter NYSOEA board meeting at Raquette Lake where I found myself the first Outdoor Communicator editor, an honor conferred likely so everyone could keep a closer eye on this science guy, a strong EE advocate. Wisely, both OE and EE became equally important. On the way home our high wheeler made the Blizzard of 1969 almost fun. By the time we reached southern Westchester ours was the only vehicle on the road. I opted to leave my gear at their house and walk the 5 miles to Scarsdale where I hoped to hitch a ride with a police officer to the other side of town. We would have made it if there wasn’t someone middle-of-the-road asleep in his car. After my exhausting 2 a.m. waist-deep-snow hike down the Center’s 100-yard driveway, my wife dropped a snow shovel out the window so I could clear the outwardly-opening storm door. By then I was more than ever convinced that outdoor education would thrive."

Charter member Frank Knight moved from private nature centers to DEC’s Stony Kill Farm EE Center; eventually to DEC headquarters as Project WILD state coordinator where he also generated photos and text for publications and kiosks. Frank was very active with the American Nature Study Society (ANSS) founded in 1908 and the John Burroughs Association (JBA), 1922. Frank was PATHWAYS editor for a couple years until his 2012 move to WA with wife Janet to be near their kids and grandkids.