Welcome to PLIX Urban Ecology! This program launched in the summer of 2019, and we are excited to continue working with public librarians to bring this series of activities to their communities! While we will discuss the structure of these sessions in facilitation training, here is some information to get you started:
Each workshop is composed of three different elements: 1) an introductory activity to spark curiosity in the topic of focus 2) a field exercise and 3) a come-together activity, where patrons will work together to generate documentation for share-out across different libraries & communities.
Through developing this series of activities, we aim to:
Provide learners of all ages with new skills to observe familiar spaces, in particular the ecologies of cities and suburbs
Facilitate the development a critical eye (fit for detecting environmental challenge, nuance, and phenomena), as well as an ability to imagine more safe and equitable futures for city development and design
Cultivate in patrons of all ages a reverence for and love of Place —adding value to the mundane or familiar landscapes
Leverage local environments and communities as living, dynamic classrooms and laboratories as spaces for fostering landscape literacy
These three workshops can work individually, or as a series in which the activities build on one another; you could run all three of them, or even just one! Some ideas for bringing these activities to your library:
run these workshops as a series during an event like Earth Week, or any climate-related community events!
run some of the workshops so patrons can learn more about a community garden or library garden
a great set of workshops to run over the summer!
Borrow smaller activities from each session for a public maker event!