Photo by Max Touhey
Living Systems, Real Futures:
Rethinking Education Through Eco-Cultural Design
Sara Weaner Cooper
Students often struggle to see how classroom learning connects to real-world careers and challenges.
This session introduces "The Living Curriculum" - an integrative framework that breaks down subject silos and roots learning in place: native plants, local ecosystems, and community land practices. Weaving together ecology, biology, math, social studies, and the arts, the curriculum shows students how human and natural systems intertwine - and where they fit in. Drawing on 15 years of work with educators, designers, ethnobiologists, and community leaders, Sara shares a real case: high schoolers who created landscape design plans and pitched them to industry professionals. She'll close with a hands-on demo, inviting the audience to review a sample student project as the "professional panel."
The takeaway: when we teach holistically, students find real agency - and a real stake - in shaping the world around them.
Tuesday, Oct. 20th, 2026 | 4:00 - 4:45 PM ET
Category: Educator
Fee: Free
Registration will be open and recording will be viewable for 3 months after the live session date.
Sara Weaner Cooper is owner and principal of NDAL, and has expanded its curricular and geographic reach since 2018. She holds a M.A. in anthropology and education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.A. in anthropology and education from Bryn Mawr College. One of her passions and long-term goals is to work with schools on eco-cultural land stewardship curricula. Sara has presented on NDAL’s ecological landscape design curriculum for the 2026 American Horticultural Society National Children & Youth Garden Symposium. In 2017 Sara worked for the educational nonprofit Transcend as a research associate, where she researched learner outcomes & development and helped produce resources for school communities. Her and her husband Evan Cooper's home landscape was featured in a BBC article in 2025 and The New York Times article in 2024, which illustrates an experimental yet highly successful organic transition from lawn to native meadow. Sara has presented about this transition for the Ecological Landscape Alliance's Annual Conference and Grow Native MA, among others. In 2024 NDAL received the American Horticultural Society (AHS) Award for Horticultural Innovation, which recognizes an individual/organization “whose innovations have made the field of horticulture more sustainable and accessible to all.”
Registration Details
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When registering on the NDAL Participants Portal you will be asked to either sign into your existing account or create one. This account will give you exclusive access to the session recordings and course materials. These materials will be available until three (3) months after the live event dates.
Group Orders: To register multiple people/staff members at once, go to your chosen course, click Register, then enter the number of registrations needed under Quantity on the left side. You will receive an email with an invite link to send to all the registrants in your group. Please note if you are registering yourself as well, you will not be automatically registered under a Group Order; you will also need to click the invite link to redeem your registration.
Gift Orders: To purchase a course as a gift for someone else, go to your chosen course, click Register, then check off “This is a gift.”
FAQs
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The session will be recorded and available (not downloadable) to all registrants after the live session ends for three (3) months. If you are registered, you do not need to attend the live session in order to access the recording.
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You can register for 3 months past the live session date, and access the materials - including the recording - until that point.
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Zoom Webinar. Please make sure to download the Zoom application (https://zoom.us/download) and download the latest Zoom update if needed prior to the live course. We recommend that you join at least 5-10 minutes prior to the start time. The instructor will use PowerPoint presentations. *If you have any technical difficulties during the session and need to contact us, please email info@ndal.org instead of calling.*
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No, CEUs are not offered.