Jim Bentley is a lifelong student, educator, and filmmaker who empowers kids to make the world a better place by integrating environmental literacy, civic education, and filmmaking with project-based learning. Currently, Bentley teaches 6th grade in Elk Grove, California. His students compose Curiosity Films, a studio making short educational films about things that matter. They have tackled a variety of topics ranging from landscape blight to light pollution, and from household hazardous waste disposal to improving middle school literacy rates. A National Faculty member for the Buck Institute for Education and a Teacher Ambassador for the California Education and the Environment Initiative, Bentley has contributed to books on teacher effectiveness and prosocial education, and he blogs for and consults with numerous edtech organizations and nonprofits. In 2017, he became a Geo-Inquiry Ambassador and was selected to serve as a National Geographic Fellow. Bentley has spent the past two decades exploring big ideas with young people—sometimes leading, sometimes following, yet always recognizing there’s more to learn. Back

Stephanie Harvey has spent more than 40 years teaching and learning about reading and writing. She received her B.A. from the University of Denver and her M.A. from the University of Colorado. After 15 years of regular elementary and special education teaching in Lakewood, Colorado, Harvey became a staff developer for the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition, a partnership of leaders from education and business who support innovation in public schools. Her company, Stephanie Harvey Consulting, consults with schools and school districts around the world, implementing literacy initiatives focused on comprehension, collaboration, and inquiry across the curriculum. She is a regular presenter, keynote speaker, and demonstration teacher. Harvey is the author or co-author of a number of books and resources, including “From Striving to Thriving,” “Nonfiction Matters,” “Strategies That Work” (3rd Edition), “Comprehension and Collaboration,” “Connecting Comprehension and Technology,” “The Comprehension Toolkit” series, the “American History” series, and the “National Geographic Ladders” series. She has published articles in Language Arts, Reading Teacher, Ed Leadership, and other educational periodicals. Insatiably curious about student thinking, she is a teacher first and foremost, and she continues to work in schools on a regular basis, savoring any time spent with kids. Back

Joe Grabowski is an educator and scuba diver working to bring science, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms across North America through virtual speakers and field trips. He is using technology to open the most remote corners of the planet to classrooms. Currently, Grabowski teaches science and math in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is also the founder of a nonprofit called Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants, which, since 2015, has hosted more than 200 Google Hangouts with leading scientists and explorers from around the world, connecting them with tens of thousands of students. Grabowski was recently selected as a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. An avid scuba diver for the past decade, Grabowski has had an incredible series of experiences sinking beneath the waves around the world. Back