Webinar with Dr. Muntazar Monsur, Texas Tech University

For decades, outdoor design for young children has focused heavily on increasing physical activity—but Dr. Muntazar Monsur’s research demonstrates that this narrow lens misses the fuller picture of how children grow, learn, and thrive in outdoor environments. Drawing on many years of design scholarship, two USDA-funded projects, and several recent scientific publications, Dr. Monsur argues for a whole-child model of outdoor environments—one that values not only movement, but also cognitive exploration, imaginative play, sensory engagement, social connection, and the simple joy of learning in nature.

In this webinar, Dr. Monsur will share how evidence from behavior mapping and observations, and video data can be interpreted more realistically, avoiding common misreadings that reduce design decisions to single metrics. He will demonstrate how data—when viewed holistically—can guide designers, educators, and childcare providers toward designing/creating outdoor spaces that support the entire spectrum of child development. Participants will learn how to translate research findings into practical design strategies, how to evaluate outdoor environments beyond activity counts, and how to advocate for nature-rich landscapes that truly serve children’s whole selves. This session offers a grounded, research-informed pathway to designing outdoor spaces that nurture children’s bodies, minds, creativity, and curiosity.

Webinar with Staryn Wagner, City of Austin Watershed Protection, and Lauren Maples, PEAS

In this webinar, Staryn Wagner will walk participants through the design and installation of Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) at Reilly Elementary, a demonstration site, where twelve cisterns and five rain gardens now capture and infiltrate more than 621,000 gallons of water each year. He will review how these features help control stormwater runoff, reduce localized flooding on campus, and provide practical benefits such as watering landscaping and sustaining trees. Participants will also gain insight into how to evaluate soil infiltration when selecting locations for rain gardens, as well as how to balance aesthetic goals with maintenance needs.

Following this technical overview, Lauren Maples will share how GSI projects open doors for meaningful student and teacher engagement. From planting native species to maintaining rain gardens and monitoring cisterns, these hands-on activities help connect learning to real-world environmental stewardship. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how GSI can address onsite flooding challenges and serve as a living laboratory for students, teachers, and the wider community.

Presenter: Dr. Jodi Nerren - AgriLife

While outdoor education, nature, conservation, and green industry professionals like you have amazing expertise about how to help children connect with nature, many early childhood educators are far more comfortable growing kids than plants! Early care and education (ECE) programs serve as the primary setting for learning and development for millions of children ages birth to 5 across the state of Texas, making them a prime locale for instilling a love of nature and cultivating the benefits of time outside. The goal of this webinar is to introduce a resource you can use to learn more about what is (and isn’t) happening in ECEs and identify ways to use your unique knowledge and skills to promote more Nature Play for Tiny Texans!

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Webinar with Michelle Medina

Children need champions, and we are growing a community of childhood conservationists. We will explore the necessity of nature play for our children and ourselves. We will identify strategies for building a close-knit community of families, while also engaging the greater community. There’s magic waiting to be uncovered. Let’s go!

Registration $10. Members can always register for FREE - learn more about membership: https://www.texaschildreninnature.org/give/membership

If you are a member, please refer to your Membership Information Email to see instructions for registering

Webinar offered at 2:00 Central on June 17, 2026

Ticket Sales will end on June 16, 2026

Webinar will be recorded and available for members and registrants

A Zoom link will be emailed from a TCiNN Staff Member to registrants prior to the event

Please note - no AI note takers will be allowed into the webinars

Registration: https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/texaschildreninnaturenetwork/a-community-of-childhood-conservatinists

Webinar with Madeline Lasell, Department of State Health Services

Farm to ECE deepens young children’s connection to nature through food, gardening, and local agriculture. This introductory session explores how hands-on, sensory-rich experiences can bring these connections to life in early learning settings. Whether you’re in a rural or municipal setting, you’ll discover practical ways to integrate Farm to ECE into your existing routines – even without additional funding.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to identify simple strategies to begin implementing Farm to ECE, engage children in food-based learning using the five senses, and recognize how existing resources, including CACFP funds, can support Farm to ECE activities.

Registration: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/texaschildreninnaturenetwork/planting-the-seeds-getting-started-with-farm-to-ece

Webinar with Dr. Katya Wowk, The Water Institute

This project sought to better understand the health disparities and vulnerabilities in at-risk communities in Nueces County, Texas that stem from social determinants of health (SDOHs). These SDOHs were also linked to climate and environmental factors, with the explicit goal of facilitating the integration of data on key SDOH, climate and environmental factors to improve health outcomes and address health disparities. The project’s health outcome factors, as well as SDOHs, and climate and environmental factors were selected through a community-based participatory research process with the project’s Action Committee of local experts. Engagement also was conducted on-the-ground in the at-risk Nueces County community of Molina to better understand lived experiences and intersections with project findings. Outputs from the project include the Geospatial Nueces County Community Health & Environment Tool, which enables visual analysis of health, SDOH, climate and environment conditions at the census tract level across Nueces County, and make all data available for download and integration. Available at: https://geored.org/.

Participants attending the webinar can expect to advance two learning objectives: 1) Understand the Critical Link Between Health and Social Data: Attendees will be able to describe the significance of SDOHs, specifically identifying how non-medical factors disproportionately impact health outcomes in at-risk communities in the Texas Gulf region, and why integrating SDOH data with health data systems is essential for addressing health disparities; and 2) Identify Practical Applications for Geospatial Health Tools: Attendees will be able to recognize the utility of the locally tailored applications of the geospatial Nueces Community Health & Environment Tool and the project's SDOH Data Integration Framework, including in considering nature and the environment.

Webinar with Anna SoRelle, Fort Worth Botanic Garden

Homeschool families represent a rapidly growing and highly engaged audience for informal learning organizations. This webinar explores the homeschool landscape and examines how nature-based institutions can design meaningful nature-based programs to meet homeschool families’ unique needs. Using Fort Worth Botanic Garden’s homeschool initiatives as a case study, participants will learn practical strategies for program development, engaging mixed-age groups, and responding to increasing demand while building lasting relationships with homeschool communities.

Registration: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/texaschildreninnaturenetwork/meet-them-where-they-are-strategies-for-engaging-homeschool-families-in-nature-based-learning

Webinar with Stephanie Chavez Noell, Parent's Climate Community

How can creativity and connection to nature empower children and communities to take meaningful climate action? In this webinar, Stephanie Chavez Noell, Director of Community Arts at Parents’ Climate Community, will share how intergenerational artmaking can open new pathways toward climate justice and inspire local change.

Participants will learn practical methods to engage youth and people of all ages in creative environmental action. Hear the story of how a clean energy coalition in Austin, TX collaborated to build a giant Sun puppet—a vibrant community art project illuminating a shared vision for a clean energy future. At a time when climate issues profoundly shape children’s futures, discover how creative, community-based projects can help young people influence local climate policy and co-create solutions for a healthier, more sustainable world.

Registration: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/texaschildreninnaturenetwork/activating-community-creativity-for-climate-action

Webinar with Macie Richter and Jessica Burke, Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has made major strides in expanding access through adaptive equipment such as track chairs, hiking carts, adaptive kayaks, and Mobi-Mats. This session highlights how these investments were prioritized and funded, key lessons learned, and the impact on outdoor recreation across the state. Participants will learn how to choose equipment that fits their site, discover funding and partnership opportunities, and understand how adaptive equipment can transform both visitor experiences and agency culture. By the end of the session, participants will gain practical ideas for starting or expanding adaptive equipment programs and the confidence to make access a reality for everyone.

Registration: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/texaschildreninnaturenetwork/beyond-ramps-investing-in-adaptive-equipment-across-texas-parks

Plant Party is a quarterly webinars series providing advanced plant training to agency professionals, volunteers, and landowners/ land managers, and anyone wanting to learn more about plants! The webinar program is a collaboration between Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service. These quarterly webinars promote advanced training on all things plants and get people excited about the flora of our state.

Each Plant Party includes 5, 15-minute presentations from professionals and door-prize giveaways! Overall themes for each Plant Party vary, but have included plant identification tips and resources, the usefulness of native plants (i.e. for pollinators, wildlife, and livestock), edible and medicinal native plants, systems of plants and varying management goals and techniques (i.e. wetlands, forest, brushlands, and grasslands), and the restoration of native plant communities.

Registration: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/texaschildreninnaturenetwork/plant-party-advanced-plant-training-quarterly-webinars-designed-to-be-fun

Meet Morgan’s Camp staff who dedicate their time and expertise towards making camping an accessible activity for people of all abilities. Learn about the Morgan’s Camp mission, Fort Challenge, Spur Ranch, and Stockyards, all made ‘Ultra-Accessible’ through the development of adaptive equipment and techniques. Be inspired to open the outdoors to all people, regardless of their physical, cognitive, or emotional fitness.

Registration: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/texaschildreninnaturenetwork/accessibility-comes-first-at-morgan-s-camp

Webinar with Nicole Thurrell, Institute for Wild Med

In this highly engaging webinar, participants will come to understand the various states of nervous system dysregulation that children and adults alike can experience in and out of the field - especially those states which prevent engagement, learning, and prosocial behavior. Participants will walk away with a toolkit of interventions for prevention, response, and stabilization. All tools can easily be utilized in a nature-based environment and most require little to no supplies other than ourselves and nature!

This course will bring you the very best of what is known about nervous system regulation and how we can bring our best, most resilient selves to the world and support others as they face adversity.

This course is taught by Nicole Thurrell of Institute for Wild Med. She is the recipient of the Massachusetts Award for Excellence in Science Education. She is a passionate educator who loves turning people on to strategies for caring more skillfully for their fellow human beings. She has degrees in Psychology and Recreation Therapy from UNC and has been a Wilderness EMT since 2001. Nicole has decades of experience working in many aspects of wilderness therapy, including expedition leader, health director, and director of admissions. Whether it was leading adventures on the water, on land, or in the air, Nicole has done it all. She has been an adventure racer, a raft guide, high ropes facilitator, a clinician for kids with Autism, a Waldorf high school teacher, and a mom.

Webinar with Dr. Christine Norton, Texas State University

In a time of increasing stress and burnout, the natural world offers a powerful, evidence-based path to healing. Join us for an engaging webinar with Dr. Christine Norton, social work professor, outdoor therapy practitioner, and researcher, that explores how outdoor therapy interventions can enhance wellbeing, foster resilience, and support mental health across the continuum of care.

Participants will deepen their understanding of the therapeutic components of outdoor therapy, develop greater awareness of nature’s benefits for physical and emotional health, and gain practical tools to integrate nature-based mindfulness into their personal and professional practices. Through a blend of research, theory, and experiential learning, this session will offer strategies for promoting resilience, reducing vicarious trauma, and cultivating sustainable wellness for both clients and clinicians.

Whether you're a mental health professional, educator, or wellness practitioner, this webinar will also create space to build community and open doors for ongoing education and growth in the field of outdoor therapy.

Registration: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/texaschildreninnaturenetwork/outdoor-therapy-interventions-building-resilience-through-nature-and-health-2081403207