Interested in a presentation?
Email growwiselearning@gmail.com to plan the presentation that is perfect for your audience.
May 17, 2021 - River City Wild Ones - Cultivating our Schoolyards as Habitat to Grow Scholars Who Will Become Stewards
Children today are spending less time outdoors than ever before; while at the same time our diminishing wild spaces are calling to be protected and preserved. How can our young citizens be inspired to care for something they do not have a relationship with? The solution to creating the next generation of stewards may be hidden in plain sight in every schoolyard in our community. By developing schoolyard habitats and inviting them into the curriculum educators can reconnect their classrooms to the natural world while allowing the local environment to serve as the foundation for meaningful learning. Additionally, schoolyards offer incredible opportunities for the community to work together to aid in the restoration of vital wildlife habitat while at the same time encouraging the next generation of environmentalists.
April 27, 2021 - Rockford Garden Club - Creating Habitat in Your Yard
My perspective shifted as a gardener when I was able to recognize that my real job was not solely tending plants but also serving as an observer of nature, a creator of habitat, a caretaker of the land, and a conduit for connection for the next generation.
Learn how we can use the habitat in our own yards to benefit birds, bugs, bats, butterflies - and, most importantly ~ grow and inspire young stewards, simply by planting native perennials!
July 9, 2019 - Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park - Art & Garden Book Group
For our summer book group we will explore the little-known world of the bumblebee through David Goulson’s book A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees. Goulson’s book blends the story of a child’s growing passion for nature with insights into the importance of this humble insect. Our afternoon will begin with a presentation by Sally Triant, the founder of Grow Wise Learning, on the importance of bees and how homeowners can help care for them.
March 16, 2019 - TEDxGVSU - Theme: Grow
Everything that lives grows. As humans we have the capacity to not only grow and thrive, but if we pay attention to the lessons of nature we can also grow wise. To do so we must reconnect with the places we call home; learning to look directly outside our doors and into our watersheds for the answers. By observing the seasonal shifts, the cycles of life and death, the pathways of water, and ways the local species adapt and survive, we may be able to discover answers to the questions we ponder.
April - September, 2017 - Wisdom Walks - Luton Park Prairie
Held on the third Thursday of the month, this six month series aims to encourage families to develop a relationship with the prairie habitat found in Luton Park, a Kent County Park. The events are all free.
Participants will learn about the history of the park, gain knowledge about tall grass prairie ecosystems, and learned about the work that is being done to create and maintain this special prairie right here in Luton park.
Join me all spring and summer and we can watch the prairie grow and change before ou eyes!
March 7, 2017 - Universal Health Systems - Spring Awakening: Get up, get out, and get moving!
Universal Health Systems hosted a four-part speaker series at Aquinas College and this session was designed to encourage individuals to thoughtfully and seasonally align with movement, sleep, and nature as tools for health and healing.
November 22, 2016 - WGVU Morning Show with Shelley Irwin - Parks Matter
Parks Matter with guests from Kent County Parks. Sally Triant, founder of Grow Wise Learning and Kate Meyer of the Parks Foundation, join us to discuss how environmental education benefits the community.
November 7, 2015 - Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative: 5th Annual Place-based Education Conference - Grow Wise Learning: It Begins With a Sense of Wonder
The presenter’s goal is to develop nature-based education for people of all ages that is founded in a seasonal curriculum. To that end, this presentation will motivate educators, mentors, and students to strengthen their own sense of wonder by encouraging them to examine and observe their surroundings in every season. Participants will grow their own sense of place through examples of cross-curricular inspiration and leave filled with enthusiasm to share their curiosity with the next generation.
August 24, 2015 - Rockford Public Schools - Early Childhood Teacher Inservice
This professional development was designed to inspire and encourage this incredible team of educators to continue to take lessons outside and whenever possible invite nature into the classroom.
“Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.” ~ Richard Louv