Summer Institute August 14-15, 2017

Goals for the Institute:

1. To connect teachers, students, and community partners through powerful place based EcoJustice
experiences that are rooted in the classroom and the community.
2. To investigate threats to clean, healthy bodies of water and to trace them back to land practices and
cultural beliefs and behaviors.
3. To investigate what it means to be an informed citizen, and how to help students learn to be informed
citizens who feel a sense of responsibility and care for their communities, and for cultural and
environmental commons (practices, traditions, bodies of water, parks, green spaces, schools, etc.)
4. To develop practical skills for PBE experiences including water quality monitoring, conducting
environmental inventories, reading the landscape, mitigating storm water through rain gardens, using
evidence, data, and scientific argumentation, and conducting cultural analysis and discussions of deeply
rooted issues such as consumerism and the commons.

Essential Question for 2017-18

The essential question will help to ground us in an inquiry mindset as we learn together and will help us address
our goals throughout the week and also the school year. As we reflected on last years essential question, we
realized that we needed more than one year to fully investigate and work with last years question. We look
forward to examining new and different aspects of our essential question this year.

How can we understand our water and urban landscapes as interconnected and live in ways that create just and
healthy communities?
What is included in our definition of community?
What are the connections between Great Lakes issues (harmful algal blooms, loss of riparian zones,
marine debris, and threats to key species like Sturgeon) and urban land practices?
What cultural beliefs and values are at the foundation of the ways in which we interact with, and impact
the natural and constructed landscapes in our communities?
What is our ethical responsibility to our communities?

Note to Attendees:
We have planned this institute so that ideas build on each other from one day to the next and our understanding
of major themes deepens as we learn together. The agenda has been written with a level of detail that will allow
you to refer back to specific activities that you may want to use at a later time. The agenda is our best
estimation of how we believe our conversations and experiences will flow, however, it is likely that we will
change details of the agenda based on the community we build during the week and the needs of the group.
 SCHEDULE: FACILITATORS AGENDA

Time Activity Location

Monday Aug 14, 2017 Who should attend the morning session? - New SEMIS members and Ypsilanti Community
members who did not attend June dates all others welcome, but not required High School Media
Room
8:30am Breakfast
9:00am Welcome back to the SEMIS Summer Institute! Opening remarks ADDRESS:
2095 Packard Rd.
9:30am A short history of SEMIS support Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Connecting with Place Based Education

10:30am SEMIS Essential Question, differentiation and institute framing

Highlighting essential concepts from June 26-28

10:45am BREAK Previous summer institute participants arrive by 10:45am if not

participating in morning session

11:00am Full Group Welcome and reconnection with summer institute themes
Morning group will be joined by members who attended the June 26-28
portion of the Summer Institute
River of Life

12:00pm 12:30pm Reading the Landscape

Reviewing our skills and investigating the landscape at YCS Matt
Siegfried

12:30pm-1:15pm Lunch Pita Pita @ YCS Ypsilanti Community

High School
1:15pm 2:30pm Introducing the Ypsi-Arbor Student Forestry project - Investigating Ecosystems Ypsilanti Community
Land/water connections High School

2:30pm BREAK

2:45pm - 3:45pm Focusing on powerful PBE The Ypsi-Arbor Student Forestry project
Fishbowl Protocol with Jessica Krueger, Chris Swinko, Nate Ayers

3:45pm 4pm Debriefing the day

Tuesday Aug 15, 2017 Who should attend? Everyone!

Eastern Michigan
8:30am 9:00am Breakfast University - Porter
Bldg, Ypsilanti, MI
9:00am-9:30am Debriefing day 1 - 1,2,4 protocol 48197

9:30am 10:15am Reading the landscape Matt Siegfried

Forest Ave investigation

10:15am BREAK

10:30am 11:00am Networking Modified wagon wheel protocol

11:00am 11:15am SEMIS Support Overview Grant funding, coaching, tools, opportunities

11:15am 12:30pm Open Planning and coaching

Beginning to work with the PBE template
12:30pm Lunch EMU: Porter Bldg
Green Things Farms salad and Harvest Kitchen
1:15pm 1:45pm Announcements - Morning reflection and partner introductions Eastern Michigan
University - Porter
1:45pm 2:30pm Ed Camp Overview and introduction of the group discussion protocol Bldg, Ypsilanti MI
48197
2:30pm BREAK

2:45pm 3:45pm Open Planning and coaching

Chocolate prizes for uploading planning templates by end of the day!

3:45pm 4:00pm Evaluation and reflection

4:00pm Adjourn