Forestry Institute for Teachers | FIT-Focus Fall 2024

🌲 What is FIT-Focus?

The Forestry Institute for Teachers (forestryinstitute.org) now offers FIT-Focus sessions, 3-day continued professional learning events designed for both graduates of the core FIT program and prospective FIT participants.

FIT-Focus allows California educators to deep-dive into special topics in forestry and natural resource management over the course of a weekend (Friday-Sunday). Whether you’re leveraging the foundational learning of FIT’s core week-long summer session, or engaging with FIT for the first time, FIT-Focus offers all California educators a chance to connect with the FIT community and further your forestry learning.

🧭 What Sessions are Offered?

FIT-Focus offers the opportunity to dive deep into key ecological and management concepts through direct engagement with a team of natural resource specialists and instructors who facilitate unique field explorations. Participants will receive materials and targeted support to design a personal Curriculum Project related to the topics covered in each session.

Two sessions are offered this fall: Plumas FIT-Focus (9/27-29) and Mendocino FIT-Focus (10/25-27).

(1) Plumas FIT-Focus: Tools of the Trade | September 27-29, 2024

This session is hosted in Plumas County in the Sierra Nevada mixed conifer.  Get familiar with the tools, techniques and metrics that foresters employ to assess forests and make informed stewardship decisions.  Learn how to collect foundational forestry data using a range of tools, techniques and sampling methods, then work together to analyze and interpret the results.  Make DIY forestry tools on a shoe-string budget for use with students and gain insight into forestry career paths.

(2) Mendocino FIT-Focus: Disturbance in the Forest | October 25-27, 2024

This session is hosted in Mendocino County's oak woodlands and rangeland communities.  Explore the disturbance ecology and current issues facing these critically important ecosystems, and what land managers are doing to conserve them.  Learn how natural resource professionals work to support watershed health and resilience, through field observation and data collection techniques related to fire, insects, disease and other disturbances.  Make DIY forestry tools on a shoe-string budget for use with students and gain insight into forestry career paths. 

💡 Perks of Participation!

FIT's team of natural resource professionals and instructors facilitate professional learning through activities and pedagogy that cultivate connections between:

• Next Generation Science Standards
  
• Common Core State Standards 
• Career and Technical Education Standards
• Environmental Education Curricula (Project Learning Tree, Project Water Education Today, Fireworks, Investigating the Oak Community, and more!)
• California's Environmental Principles and Concepts

Participants also receive:

• $100 stipend for completion of a FIT Curriculum Project post-session (FIT-Program Graduates only)
• Discounted registration for FIT’s 2025 summer sessions
• Information about becoming a future FIT Teacher-Leader

🤝 Program Expectations

Participants will engage in experiential and place-based professional learning over the duration of a session. Expect: potential extended travel in buses or vehicles to field site(s), mild/moderate walking on and off established paths and uneven terrain, active engagement with environmental education curricula in outdoor environments and inclement weather.  

❗IMPORTANT 👁️ PLEASE READ❗

BEFORE registering, please review FIT's Program FAQs and session-specific information. 

FIT is supported by the California Society of American Foresters whose mission is to advance sustainable management of forest resources through science, education, and technology; to ensure the continued health, integrity, and use of forests to benefit society in perpetuity.