Hi all,

I'm excited to share that the Lawrence is hosting a virtual "mini" Open Space conference for informal and out-of-classroom STEM educators on April 24. The theme of this conference is "Community Powered STEM Learning" and we'll have two amazing keynote speakers help frame that theme for us:

• Claudia Bustos, executive director of public engagement at the Lawrence Hall of Science, will open the conference with a talk titled, "What Bad Bunny's Halftime Show Can Teach Informal STEM Educators: Localization, Community, and the Future of Public Science."
• Charissa V. Jones, Ph.D., Oregon State University, will follow with a talk titled, "We Gon' Be Alright? Black Joy, Risk, and the Outdoors." 

The most important part of Open Space conferences, though, are that they center the needs of each participant, so you can pitch what topics you want to discuss, move between discussions as you need, and share notes at the end so everyone benefits!

Learn more and register at: https://lawrencehallofscience.org/workshops/open-space-conference/

Please feel to reach out directly if you have any questions!

P.S. This Open Space conference is part of the Lawrence's new pilot professional learning platform informal and out-of-classroom STEM educators. It brings back some BEETLES professional learning in new ways and builds on other resources from the Lawrence Hall of Science and partners. Access to this Open Space is included for all members of the platform: set-up a meeting to learn more individual, organization, and network memberships! We always love feedback, but in this pilot year, we are especially looking forward to getting feedback about what's appealing about this new approach, but also what's not appealing.