Who:

Elgin High School’s Environmental Science Program is organizing a series of free one-hour webinars on the topic of biodiversity. The intended audience is students and teachers across the United States. This series of webinars are being provided by scientists, activists and grassroots organizations. Participating students listen to a presentation and then interact with the presenter by asking questions.

What:

The National Biodiversity Teach In is a class project that originated during the 2012-13 school year after a lesson about the plight of the Passenger Pigeon. This project is student driven and staff supported. Our Goal is to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity and to inspire our peers to take
action in protecting it. To participate all that is needed is a computer with Internet access. Ideally a teacher registers for a webinar; we send them a link and password. At the appointed time the teacher logs in to the webinar and then projects the webinar for the class via a projector. We also allow individuals to register for the
webinars but our preferred audience is classrooms.

Each webinar is also digitally recorded and uploaded to our YouTube channel and can be enjoyed by a wider audience.

History:

We became passionate about biodiversity through the story of Martha, the last known living Passenger Pigeon who died on September 1st, 1914. Our first #NBTI was organized to honor the significance of Martha’s passing over 100 years ago; and took place in September of 2014.

Last year we had 8,000 participants from 5 countries. The participants came from public schools, private schools, home-school organizations, universities, natural resource organizations and private citizens.

When:

These webinars will take place on each Friday in February of 2019 (1, 8, 15, and 22). The sessions are 1 hour each and begin at 8:00 AM Central and conclude at 4:00 PM central time.

Copyright: Resource under property of Elgin Highschool's Environmental Science Program