Professional Development

Bringing the power, inspiration and beauty of nature, science, and environmental stewardship to the next generation takes a community… a BIG community.

For more than 18 years, ITE has worked with teachers from elementary through college, and we have led thousands of youth outdoors from the tropics of Costa Rica to the Sonoran Desert wilds around Tucson, and from remote backpacking expeditions to hikes in urban alleys!

ITE wants to share our experience and inspire teachers and school administrators across the country to develop the techniques, teamwork, tools, and confidence to expand curriculum beyond the classroom.

Ironwood Tree Experience provides 1/2 day professional development workshops to in-depth, 5-day educational adventures. 

Take It Outside lite: 1/2 day workshop focusing on experiential and place-based education theory and identifying campus assets for engaging students outside the classroom and broadening their learning opportunities and exposure to nature. (Max participants: 6)

Take It Outside: Full day workshop that transforms any campus into a curriculum for learning across disciplines. We focus on experiential and place-based education theory, outdoor teaching techniques, mapping campus assets for engaging students and broadening their learning opportunities, and multi disciplinary curriculum lesson plans. (Max participants: 15)

Teachers Gone Wild: This 2-day workshop is an overnight program that takes place entirely off campus, in the field, utilizing field stations either in the Santa Rita, Chiricahua, or the Baboquivari mountain ranges. We focus on outdoor teaching techniques and risk management, field study tools and journaling, and developing multi disciplinary curriculum lesson plans built from the natural world. (Max participants: 15)

Senderos: meaning “pathways” in Spanish, is a 5-day workshop that builds a school to public lands pathway to get students and teachers outside and engaged in the natural world. Beginning in the classroom and  concluding in exotic and diverse Sky Island mountains, teachers share and learn environmental and experiential education theory, experience and practice place-based environmental education methods, develop creative multidisciplinary curriculums, and practice outdoor teaching techniques.  (Max participants: 18)