“Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults” author comes to Vancouver for ProjectVOICE Community Share Event - May 10
Book cover for Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults
On Saturday, May 10th, the Lower Columbia Nature Network, ESD112 and ELSO welcome Monique Gray-Smith, author of the young adult adaptation of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass. This adapted edition, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults, reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us.
Ms. Gray Smith will kick off the ESD 112 ProjectVOICE Community Share Event with an overview of her book and its impact on youth to enhance learning and understanding of our natural world and the opportunities to bring positive changes.
When: May 10, 1-3pm
Where: Fort Vancouver High School, 5700 E 18th St, Vancouver, WA 98661
Event details: This event is free and open to the community to attend. We encourage area students, educators, teachers, school staff and community to join in the learning and conversations about how to make our neighborhoods healthier
ProjectVOICE is a culmination of several months of work with local teachers, students and community partners in central Vancouver. The program is meant to aspire to increase student engagement, voice, and agency by connecting students to real-world problems impacting our local community and collaborating with local organizations working on solutions. The goal is to understand how we can all make our communities healthier and more vibrant.
ESD112’s ProjectVOICE is part of Washington OSPI’s ClimeTime curriculum that weaves climate education across curricula. The focus of the work supports community-centered, student-led research in their classroom. ProjectVOICE seeks to increase youth engagement, voice, and agency through student-centered and culturally sustaining pedagogies and explorations of real-world problems impacting the community. Through collaboration with local partners and fellow educators, we will co-create and implement student-led projects which support science learning through the lens of environmental and social well-being.
Students will present their research and outcomes with projects, posters and presentations. LCNN partners from the southwest Washington region who are working to address climate issues and support schools, neighborhoods and our region will be on hand to share their work, as well.
We are excited for the opportunity to hear from and learn with Monique Gray-Smith, author of Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults, about her work on her book and the application to today's student and the impact that they can make on learning, understanding and caring for the natural world and their community. For teachers, we hope to inspire their interest in Outside Learning with real-world experiences to learn in the natural world across a diverse curricula.
We invite students, families, educators and community partners from across southwest Washington. Fort Vancouver HS is an incredibly beautiful and diverse community that will be starting to reforest and repair the natural systems on their campus, like many local schools. The wide range of partners in the Lower Columbia Nature Network provide a range of nature connections through stewardship, education, engagement and outreach. The partners in the Portland-Vancouver Canopy Collective include a range of partners that serve BIPOC communities including the Portland State University Indigenous Knowledge program.
