2026 LEEF Conference Wakulla Wild

Have you ever wondered where the sand on the beaches in Florida originates? Why are there rolling hills between Tampa and Orlando? What is the reason shark teeth occur in rocks far from coastlines? Florida’s geologic history provides answers. Connect with geologists and educators at the Florida Geological Survey (FGS) to learn about Florida’s geology, explore the work that the FGS does and discover resources we provide to educators, including 3D scans of Florida fossils and virtual museum tours.

Environmental educators often rely on grants to fund their work. The logic model is a foundational tool that not only strengthens grant proposals but also is fundamental to program planning, implementation and evaluation. This workshop will use the collaborative, inclusive power of liberating structures with the rigor of the logic model approach to co-create and teach environmental educators how to write an effective grant proposal. This will be a hands-on, highly interactive format designed to move participants from abstract ideas to concrete, fundable project plans.

What do 15 years of growing look like and where we are finding our next generation?
Sharing our story about using Growing Up WILD in our Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network (FYCCN) and evaluation of this national program from educators to the children that benefit from the curriculum. We will ‘show and tell’ how you can bring this award-winning early childhood education curriculum to your classrooms, centers, and business that work with children ages 3-7.

The State Coordinator for Project WILD in Florida, Yatska Valentin, will bring resources, only for presentation participants, on how you can become a facilitator or become educators for the program. Learn more about Project WILD, Aquatic WILD and Flying WILD opportunities in your area. Patricia Brown, Assistant Director at the Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center in Midway, Fl. will share the success of the program in their monthly program both on site and in schools. We will tell the story of FYCCN and how you can become a partner with some great resources for you to use.
This presentation will include activities that you can immediately use.

Educators can't always take participants outside to look for birds... and sometimes when we do, the birds don't always cooperate! See how easy it is to teach the skill of using binoculars and the basics to identify birds. Not only is this a fun & easy way to introduce bird watching & identification, but it will also prepare them to look at details when you can go outside to look for birds. Join me on the Great LEEF (fake) Bird Count!

Note:Change in Presenter

Environmental education faces critical challenges in keeping pace with rapidly evolving technological landscapes. AI offers support in planning, content creation, evaluation, and teaching, creating opportunities for innovative and timely content to engage students. This session introduces ways environmental educators can integrate AI into their practice through hands-on activities with various AI tools, while addressing ethical considerations. Participants will gain practical skills to critically apply AI for lesson planning, content development, assessment, and instruction, fostering innovation in the field of environmental education.

We will teach about the marine specimens that we supply to universities and how they can be used as teaching tools in educating children about marine science, embryology, cellular reaggregation, and different phyla of organisms.

In this workshop, attendees will go through one of the new Project Learning Tree Collection books - -Together for Birds Target Grades K-2 

https://www.plt.org/curriculum/theme-based-activity-collections/

Each collection offers hands-on activities for teachers and non-formal educators, youth group leaders and home schoolers, to connect youth to nature and the outdoors.Each Collection is designed to be flexible, and the activities that comprise each collection can be used as individual, stand-alone lessons, or all together as a cohesive unit of instruction using a storyline technique.

This workshop requires pre-registeration and a $6 fee. Adding the workshop to your agenda in Sched is not the same as registering for the workshop!

To register, please email [email protected] before March 20.