Thriving together will engage 25 educators in a four-day professional development workshop (32 total hours)

Educators will be from houston independent school district (hisd) and other surrounding districts within the greater houston region. During the PD workshop, educators will experientially learn the fundamentals of the mwee by attempting to answer the question to what extent does urban sprawl impact wildlife? Next, we will host a five-day summer camp at each of the target campuses (peterson elementary, grissom elementary, and audrey h. Lawson middle school) following the mwee framework. Elementary campuses will each host 1 week of camp, whereas the middle school campus will host 2 weeks of camp. Each camp will recruit 40 students totaling 160 students (40 students* 4 weeks of camp). Similar to the PD workshop, throughout summer camp students will answer the question to what extent does urban sprawl impact wildlife. Critter brigades are the final component of thriving together that will complete the mwee framework. Each of the target campuses will create a student critter brigade club and host monthly meetings between september and april. Critter brigade participants will be primarily students that attended the summer camp. One of the teachers that attends the PD will facilitate meetings and ensure that students develop and implement an action project that will create positive outcomes for urban wildlife. The critter brigades will also participate in a restoration event in the spring to plant native vegetation along sims bayou near their school campuses.