Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassador Program

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Resources
Ambassadors in Action
Events

“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.”
– E.O. Wilson

What do you do when your students raise their hands and ask, “What can I do to stop species extinction?”

E.O. Wilson proposed an answer to that question when he wrote the book, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, in which he called for us to conserve half the Earth’s lands and seas to provide sufficient habitat for all of life, including ourselves.

And then something wild happened. Everyone started paddling in the same direction.

Transformative moments of discovery that guide our lives in a new direction are rare, and often happen when we are young and open to them.

That’s why Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassadors are so important. Educators hold the power to inspire young minds and transform the future.

“Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.”
– E.O. Wilson

In the early days of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, we wanted to bottle that moment in a young person’s life – that transformative moment of discovery – and so we started to collect kids voices while they were on BioBlitz’s. This is the story we heard….

Those words didn’t come from a script, they came from the heart. The Half-Earth Project has science at its core and our moral obligation to the rest of life at its heart. We’re working to bottle the inspiration and create the tools to get everyone to Half-Earth.

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”
– E.O.Wilson

The Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassador program was created to provide a platform for teachers to engage each other and their students in the grand ambition of Half-Earth and to inspire and connect students with the natural world.

As part of the Educator Ambassador peer network, community members will have access to a rich set of educational resources, from compelling videos, to cutting-edge digital textbook content, to a state-of-the-art, data-rich interactive tool for mapping Earth’s biodiversity at high-resolution, and of course Ed Wilson’s own writings.

With the grand ambition of Half-Earth as a moonshot, we’re counting on Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassadors to lead the way, guiding their students to be our next generation stewards.

So, when your students raise their hands and ask,
“What can I do to stop species extinction?”

Now you can tell them,
“Help us get to Half-Earth. Here’s how.”

Ambassadors in Action

Sandra Fary, Middle School Science Teacher

“Several 8th graders have made it their mission to conserve half of their family’s property, whether it be less than an acre or for ‘the back forty.’ Their awareness about conservation and preservation of biodiversity has been greatly heightened due to the Half-Earth mission.”

More about Sandra

Ambassadors in Action

Transformative moments

“My week in Vermont and the effort the Vermont Friends of the Half-Earth Project put into organizing it felt like the Half-Earth Project in a microcosm. Vermonters are going through a process of getting organized to take action. They are a case study of how to rally and organize people, facilitate specific activities, and make use of our science and fact-based approach.”

Friends of Half-Earth

E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth

To create Life on Earth, the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation brought together a team consisting of educators, writers, multimedia artists, 3D animators trained in science and cinema, and textbook professionals, led by naturalist Edward O. Wilson, with the goal of creating a cultural landmark—a portal that will introduce students to the grandest story there is, the story of life on Earth, from molecules to ecosystems, from the origin of life to the modern awareness that we control the environment we live in.

Life on Earth iBook Textbook

Inspired and led by E.O. Wilson, and created with a team of world-renowned educators and artists, this comprehensive and original standards-based curriculum tells the story of life on Earth, giving students a deep understanding of introductory biology.

This captivating and free iBooks textbook, presented as a seven-unit collection, extends students’ learning in and out of the classroom with reading and writing assignments and extension activities like field observation and moviemaking. Designed to prepare tomorrow’s scientists and environmental leaders, this curriculum inspires students to take responsibility for conserving and protecting nature’s biological treasures.

Download Life on Earth

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Upcoming Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassador Events
February 18-22: Vermont Half-Earth Project Community Consortium
Burlington and Montpelier, VT. Dennis Liu, VP of Education for the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, will take part in a district-wide education day, address a Natural Resources class at the University of Vermont with accompanying Half-Earth Lab, visit the North Branch Nature Center to talk with partners in the Winooski River Watershed project, and visit with high school students in Montpelier.
April 11-14: National Science Teachers Association Conference
St. Louis, MO. Dennis Liu is tentatively scheduled to present the Half-Earth Educator Ambassador Program at a session during this conference. The conference offers the latest in science content, teaching strategy, and research to enhance and expand professional growth, and draws between 2-4,000 teachers.
June 11-14: University of Houston College of Education AP Summer Institute
Houston, TX. Supporting Robert Dennison’s course on AP Biology, Dennis Liu will be attending to present Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassadors program. This four-day training institute will provide Advanced Placement teachers with resources, strategies and guidance to help strengthen how they teach AP courses.
June 24-27: Texas Christian University Advanced Placement Summer Institute
Austin, TX. Dennis Liu and Robert Dennison will be presenting a Half-Earth Educator Ambassadors workshop designed for K-12 AP and non-AP teachers interested in learning strategies, content, and sharing best practices with peers.
July 24-26: National Science Teachers Association STEM Expo
San Francisco, CA. Tentative.
July 29-August 2: Rice University Summer Advance Placement Academies
Houston, TX. Dennis Liu and Robert Dennison will present the Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassador program to AP Biology teachers. The Rice University Academies provide experienced AP teachers the opportunity to delve deeply into specific course content with higher education faculty and to connect to their discipline’s current work.

Past Events
October 22, 2018
Half-Earth Day Educator Ambassador Workshop
American Museum of Natural History
Representing: Amanda Briody, Michelle Duong, Paula Ehrlich, Dennis Liu, E.O. Wilson
November 3, 2018
Science Teachers Association of New York State Conference
Presentations at the Biology Institute
Representing: Dennis Liu
Novembe 10, 2018
National Association of Biology Teachers Conference
Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassador Workshop
Representing: Amanda Briody, Jim Clark, Dennis Liu
November 30, 2018
California Science Teachers Association, Science Education Conference
NGSS short course
Representing: Amanda Briody, Jim Clark, Samantha Johnson

We Must Act Now.

Before we’ve lost irreplaceable species and ecosystems forever.

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Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassador Program

What do you do when your students raise their hands and ask, “What can I do to stop species extinction?”

So, when your students raise their hands and ask, “What can I do to stop species extinction?”

Now you can tell them, “Help us get to Half-Earth. Here’s how.”

Ambassadors in Action

Sandra Fary, Middle School Science Teacher

Ambassadors in Action

Transformative moments

E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth

Life on Earth iBook Textbook

Upcoming Half-Earth Project Educator Ambassador Events

Past Events

We Must Act Now.

So, when your students raise their hands and ask,
“What can I do to stop species extinction?”

Now you can tell them,
“Help us get to Half-Earth. Here’s how.”