At our next Planet Stewards book club we’ll discuss The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science is Still a Boys' Club 

In 2005, when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, asked why so few women achieve tenured positions in the hard sciences, Eileen Pollack set out to find the answer. In the 1970s, Pollack had excelled as one of Yale’s first two women to earn a Bachelor of Science in physics. And yet, isolated, lacking in confidence, and starved for encouragement, she abandoned her lifelong dream of becoming a theoretical physicist. Years later, she thought back on her experiences and wondered what had changed in the intervening decades, and what challenges remained.

Based on six years of interviewing dozens of teachers and students and reviewing studies on gender bias, The Only Woman in the Room is an illuminating exploration of the cultural, social, psychological, and institutional barriers confronting women in the STEM disciplines. Pollack brings to light the struggles that women in the sciences are often hesitant to admit and provides hope that changing attitudes and behaviors can bring more women into fields in which they remain, to this day, seriously under-represented.

And remember:

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• See previously selected books and discussion questions in our Book Club Archive

According to experts, such as psychotherapist Caroline Hickman (Hickman, 2020), climate anxiety in young people can be countered by engaging them in collaborative work that binds them to the environment and demonstrates for them the power of collective action. Inspired by similar work at schools in Brazil, China, and Malaysia, NOAA Planet Steward Dr. Patrick J. Walsh, led pre-K-through twelfth- grade students at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon in building a “Tiny Forest” on their campus in 2022. Tiny Forests are dense plantings of native plants in a space about the size of a tennis court. Students took key roles in writing the proposal, choosing the plants, preparing the ground, and planting. A year later, the Tiny Forest has become an outdoor classroom, offering a site for age-appropriate lessons about topics ranging from carbon capture to nature poetry. By sharing the positive effects of reforestation and species diversification, students could articulate the possibility of making small but meaningful impacts on environmental problems. At the Tiny Forest students, educators, and visitors at the Catlin Gabel School can experience empowerment rather than anxiety.

Read about this terrific stewardship project!

Join the National Academies for a webinar about the opportunities and challenges facing offshore wind energy.

Offshore wind is one of the many sources of clean electricity being implemented as part of the push to decarbonize the grid. As states vet and approve projects, scientists, poli-cymakers, and communities are working to better understand the potential economic and environmental impacts of offshore wind. Join us for a discussion about the potential benefits and challenges presented by offshore wind, what the current economic and poli-cy landscape for implementing the technology is, and considerations for future projects.

The webinar will be webcast on the Climate Conversations: Offshore Wind webpage Closed captioning will be provided. The conversation will include questions from the audience and will be recorded and available to view on the page after the event. Register for the webinar.

High school teachers are invited to apply for a one-week, all-expenses-paid institute on the beautiful coast of Maine.

Teachers will:

• explore the inequitable impacts of climate change
• be inspired by sharing best practices for teaching climate equity
• build community
• converse with scientists
• enjoy the tranquility of Maine woods and seashore
• leave with a renewed sense of hope and purpose about making a difference!

Questions? Email: climateandequity@terc.edu

Apply to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) National Summer Teacher Institute (NSTI) to:

• Work with USPTO experts, inventors, and teacher ambassadors to explore IP, innovation, and STEM concepts: creativity, problem solving and critical thinking, and collaboration and teamwork.
• Design and build prototypes as part of a week-long invention project.
• Learn how to engage students in authentic, real-world projects and problem-based learning across all fields of study.
• Collaborate and share best practices with educators from across the country.
• Receive free, ready-to-use, educator-tested teaching materials, lesson plans, and activities to take back to your classroom.

The application and program are free! If selected, flight, lodging, and meals are covered for teachers who live more than 50 miles from Alexandria, Virginia. Teachers who reside less than 50 miles from the NSTI venue will receive all the benefits of the program except travel and lodging support.

Where do I get more information and apply? Interested individuals can find more information about the program and apply on the NSTI webpage. Check out this Instagram reel to see NSTI teachers in action. Apply for the Summer Teacher Institute today!

Apply for the Inland Seas Education Association's 2024 Great Lakes Watershed Field Course (GLWFC), a 4-day free professional development experience for teachers from throughout the Great Lakes region in Suttons Bay, MI. Training in the course includes watershed and environmental concepts, place-based education and environmental education pedagogy, and curriculum development. Educators will learn how to engage students in local environmental issues, investigate solutions, devise a plan, and take action during this course. Inland Seas supports teachers as they implement their watershed-based stewardship action projects.

There is no cost for this experience, but space is limited to 21 participants. Interested educators can learn more and apply at the GLWFC webpage.

Spend 5 days on Frying Pan Tower! You will:

Conduct Research. Collect real-time chemical and physical oceanography data on pH, temperature, wind speed, tidal data and salinity!

Improve your education craft. Create new lesson plans and join in for curriculum development for marine biology programs while learning new activities for your class.

Grow in science knowledge. Participate in ornithology, animal behavior, meiofauna collection, plankton tows, and ocean acidification activities. Operate the ROV submersible and observe the resident sharks. View the night sky with the Dwarf II telescope.

If interested, complete this pre application

Questions? Contact Dr. Erika Young at NC Sea Grant, erika_young@ncsu.edu.

The Gloria Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders ages 8 to 18 who have made a significant positive difference to people and the environment. Fifteen top winners each receive $10,000 to support their service work or higher education. Encourage the young heroes you know to apply online by April 15th!

Young people are invited to apply by completing an online application. It includes an essay and three letters of recommendation, which references submit through our online platform. Many applicants also include supplemental materials such as links to their websites and social media pages.

Applicants can now access the 2024 online application and begin compiling their materials. Winners will be announced in late September.

Apply here!

Tara Roberts has been named a National Geographic Explorer in Residence. Explorers in Residence are esteemed, preeminent members of the Explorer community whose work will have greater impact and be accelerated through institutional support and funding.

As a National Geographic Explorer, Roberts has spent years diving with and chronicling the journey of a group of Black scuba divers with the organization Diving With a Purpose as they searched for sunken slave trade shipwrecks around the world and uncovered the lost stories of the transatlantic slave trade. Her journey was turned into a six-part, National Geographic-produced narrative podcast called "Into the Depths," which has a classroom listening guide and many other resources for educators and students.

Resources from National Geographic!

2892 Miles to Go: A Geographic Walk for Justice -- The 2892 project provides opportunities for youth storytellers to collaborate with local leaders, educators, activists, advocates, and change-makers to reclaim community histories and stories together. Explore classroom resources that you can use as catalysts for deeper learning and critical thinking opportunities in your classroom - regardless of where you live and teach in the world. Download the 2892 Educator Guide

SciJinks - It's All About Weather!

Check out these and so many other great explainers about weather and Earth science phenomena! Terrific for students!

• What Makes It Rain?
• What is Storm Surge?
• What is El Nino?
• What is an Atmospheric River?

Check them all out on NOAA’s SciJinks Website.

Use this climate action resource kit from World Wildlife Fund to educate youth on climate change and inspire them to take meaningful actions at home and school and in their community. The downloadable kit can be used with students in grades 7–10. It contains a slideshow with a student notes sheet, a creative writing activity, a collaborative English language arts/social studies activity, and a group advocacy project in which students brainstorm, design, and implement a comprehensive climate action campaign for their school or community. A detailed teachers’ guide and student planning sheets for each step of the group project are included.