Sustainability Seminar
Cedar River Sustainability Seminar
Seminar Presenter, Peter Donaldson
206-236-8114, peter@peterdonaldson.net
What is the Seminar?
The Cedar River Sustainability Seminar is offered to schools participating in the Cedar River Watershed Report. (see below) The Seminar integrates three action-oriented frameworks that help teachers and students organize critical content across multiple disciplines.
1. Systems Thinking: The requisite skill for increasing stewardship behavior.
2. Understand Sustainability: Framework for the age of local and global responsibility.
3. Stewardship Action: The application of what we are learning to where we are living.
Who is the seminar for?
Recommended for grades 9-11 in Ecology, Economics, History, Language Arts, Marketing, Communications, Media, Journalism, Careers and Leadership.
What does the seminar cover?
The Cedar River Sustainability Seminar teaches watershed thinking at a watershed moment. Students explore a series of big maps to find out where they live in the watershed and examine the interplay between ecological, economic and social systems through an analysis of historical patterns and future trends.
Invitation for citizen scientists and next generation entrepreneurs
The human population in our watershed is growing rapidly. The water resource is limited. The effects of climate change will require increased human creativity, collaboration and commitment to achieve sustainability. Further, the Puget Sound Partnership Action Agenda (www.psp.wa.gov) underscores the urgent need to address downstream issues from multiple Puget Sound watersheds. Actions are needed at every level of society. From the Cedar River to Puget Sound, from understanding ecosystem services to launching the green collar economy, these are academic standards applied and amplified.
Flexible Seminar Formats
The Seminar is flexibly designed as either an introductory exchange or multi-day series in partnership with local educators. For example:
- Single period, single class seminar: One or more educators from different disciplines schedule up to five sections a day.
- Block period combined class seminar: A team of educators brings 2-3 classes together in a double classroom, library, or auditorium setting for an extended learning experience.
- Multi-day seminar: A team of educators schedules the seminar over two-three days, up to five sections a day, aligning with their regular class schedule. This format invites deeper student reflection and research.
- Follow up invitation; seeking student leaders
- Following each Seminar, presenter Peter Donaldson, will be inviting exceptionally motivated students to meet at lunch or after school to learn how to become a school rep to the Watershed Report. Teams of 2-4 students will be selected from participating schools representing grades 9-12. These students will become part of a larger team of youth leaders representing all 12 school districts that share boundaries with the watershed we mutually depend on. Student reps will be trained in policy analysis, ecosystem services, sustainability benchmarking and video broadcasting. They will be responsible for producing an annual video report on sustainable policies and programs in the watershed.
Video Broadcast
The report will be broadcast on local media and posted widely on school and partner websites. A DVD will be duplicated for distribution to all 82 high schools in the watershed. Student teams will also be responsible for delivering in-person presentations to their local school board, city council, chamber of commerce and other civic groups. In addition we expect to increase the quantity and quality of service learning and culminating projects related to sustainable solutions.
The purpose of the Watershed Report is to change the stewardship behavior of local leaders and tens of thousands of everyday citizens by engaging high school students in leading stewardship actions, creating models for meeting sustainability education standards, and broadcasting annual advances in sustainability policies within the boundaries of the watershed we all depend on.
