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Message From the President
Thanks for a great year, ISEA members! We successfully hosted
Informal Row
in Houston for CAST as well as presented an outstanding strand of presentations. Thank you to everyone that participated with a booth, proposal or that just stopped by to visit with our board members hosting the ISEA booth.
Our conference at BRIT and Fort Worth Botanic Garden brought together a diverse mix of presenters and participants at an amazing venue.
I can't thank the ISEA board enough for their dedication to our organization - it is truly an incredible group of people. There is always room for new participants, so be sure to review our call for new board members below.
I look forward to continued collaboration with so many of you over the coming year, as well as attending the conference as a Past President!
Best regards,
Dustin
Past President
Change is a good thing! It can be hard, but it brings with it new beginnings and resilience.
"Resilience" has been my buzzword this past year; ever since Hurricane Harvey carved its way through south Texas. While I think about ecological and environmental resilience in my job, I have spent more of my time pondering (and experiencing) the wonders and power of human resilience. The ability to have optimism when facing adversity. To recognize that failure is part of the human condition, and a necessary facet of learning. And, that one is rarely alone in their journey through change, hardship or recovery. The capacity of people to empower themselves, and others, will never cease to amaze me! No wonder I love being an educator so much.
This is also why I love being a member (and, now the President) of ISEA. I see these same characteristics in our members. We push through adversity, of one sort or another, to ensure informal learning has a place of importance in our communities. Our conference highlighted so much of this good work (don't forget to link to the presentations to see what you might have missed.) I look forward to the year ahead and am honored and excited to be working with
and for
all of you as we advance the field informal learning in Texas, and beyond!
Cheers,
Kristin
President
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2018 Conference Recap
In addition to a whole host of informative, interesting and inspiring presentations and speakers, the 2018 conference raised over $4000! A significant portion of these funds were raised through the silent and live auction, all of which is dedicated to supporting conference scholarships for diverse and emerging professionals.
Thank you to everyone for your dedication, and deep pockets!
Here is a breakdown of our earnings:
$1725 - live auction
$1582 - silent auction
$565 - raffle
$146 - bar proceeds
Scholarship Snapshot
"I
thoroughly enjoyed the conference and connecting with people here in Texas. The scholarship provided me an avenue to come to the conference and be away from my home base without any burden. I feel the most profound time for me was the keynote on Thursday morning with Dr. John Falk. His work in studying the impact informal science institutions have on people and their learning science was very enlightening. It gave some "hands and feet" to what I know from working in this field. The impact our work had on making memories for our guests vast. Science facilities like zoos, aquariums, and museums are directly correlated to past and current interest in science. Having a great experience makes a direct difference in science interest. I also appreciated his summary on how we are to be more effective in the 21st century in science education by being customized, connects and coordinated. I found it very telling that parental engagement increases better student performance, and that informal facilities provide a venue for families to interact and learn with each other. My take home from that statement was how can we increase family programming and provide opportunities for our guests to learn as a family."
Alyce Todd
Director of Education
Texas State Aquarium
2018 ISEA Conference Scholarship Recipient
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Save the Date!
ISEA Conference 2019
It's never too early to plan for the next ISEA annual conference. Join us in the Coastal Bend February 20-22, 2019 at Camp Aranzazu. More information will be shared as we finalize dates for session submissions, registration and scholarship applications.
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Join the ISEA Board Today
Board Nominations Open
ISEA is looking for new board members to join our team! As an organization run entirely by volunteers your time commitment is essential to successfully hosting our annual conference and CAST session strand. Board members are expected to attend at least 3 of 4 quarterly meetings and actively participate in conference planning. We are now accepting self-nominations at https://goo.gl/forms/7qF2mr43dNvY61ji2 through April 20, 2018. Our slate of nominees will be sent to the full ISEA membership by April 27th for voting. Term runs from May 2018 through February 2021. You must have attended at least one ISEA conference in order to serve as a board member. Help plan the best informal science networking in Texas, join the ISEA Board today!
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Rigor's Picks
Recommendations to support you
Unique and enriching professional development opportunities for professionals based in zoos, museums, parks, cultural centers or other public settings. Designed for staff and volunteers at museums, zoos, aquariums, science centers, cultural and natural history museums, nature centers and nonprofits focusing on public education, as well as other professionals conducting science-based outreach at universities, community colleges and other learning centers.
Rigor's Picks is just a snapshot. If you have any recommendations you would like to share in the fall
newsletter
email
nicki.sohn@sbcglobal.net
. Remember to go to our Facebook page to check out even more that is going on around Texas as well as throughout the country.
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Informal Science Organizations
Contact Information Request
Thank you for taking a few moments to fill out our information sheet about our membership. The board is to collect contact information to add to our informational document we shared at CAST 2017. Please take a few moments and let us know a little bit more about who you work for.
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