Lately we’ve heard from a lot of partners who are finding great ways to adapt the NISE Network’s two conversation starter activities to work for their audiences. What Is Learning? and What Values Do You Share? are two card-based conversation starters that were designed for professional audiences as a way to break the ice and help professionals articulate their thoughts around learning (what it looks like, where it takes place) and reflect on the underlying values that motivate their work, define their goals, and facilitate community collaborations.
Here are just a few experiences that partners have shared…
Sarah Witcher, Education Specialist / Biologist, Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service Department of Natural Resources
"I just wanted to say thank you so much for the What Is Learning? cards you gave us at the Maine WILD conference. They just totally saved me! A colleague reached out and said she had 45 minutes of "team building" time to fill at the departmental annual meeting. Somehow, I remembered those cards, found my deck, looked them up online, found the Values cards there, got same day printing at Staples for two sets of those, and came up with an activity for over 100 people using the three combined decks!!!
I gave sets of cards to 10 tables of people and facilitated a few prompts...
Raise your hand if you teach in any way in this job (most people did).
Raise your hand if you LEARN in this job (the whole room did).
Think about how our values dictate both how we teach and how we learn.
At tables…
Choose a card that represents how you view learning. Share with the table.
Choose a card that represents an important personal value. Share!
Choose 3 cards that represent the values of our Wildlife and Heritage program.
Anyway, it's SO adaptable and I love those cards!!"
Minnesota STEM Ecosystem also combined these two NISE Network resources for their 2025 STEM Convening. You can read more and learn how their version differed in this partner highlight from last year: https://nisenet.org/blog/post/minnesota-stem-ecosystem-combines-new-nise-network-resources-their-2025-stem-convening
Tara Henderson, Director of Education, Explora Science Center and Children's Museum of Albuquerque
"We are hoping to use the What Is Learning? conversation cards with teachers as part of a professional development training Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in October 2026. We've used the cards I picked up at ACM as part of other teacher professional developments and have found them a useful tool."
Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum of Albuquerque has also used the What Is Learning? conversation starter cards in their family programs. You can read more about that adaptation in this partner highlight from last year: https://nisenet.org/ExploraWhatIsLearning
Alison Smith, Speaker/Author/Coach, The Thrive Designer, Phoenix, AZ
"I’m very excited to incorporate the values cards into my work with the teachers. I support educators and education leaders to build their personal systems of resilience - and looking at values is an important part of reconnecting to their sense of purpose and mattering. However, I LOVE how you all take the angle of identifying SHARED values. This has inspired me to lead an activity with the teachers where they pick a card from the deck that represents a personal value which guides their teaching and then share it with a small group and work together to identify patterns and shared values within their small group. This will help them feel connected not only to their personal values and purpose for being an educator, but also to each other as a teaching community!"
Vivian White, Director of Education, Night Sky Network, The Astro Society in San Francisco, CA, who is also an astronomy teacher with Science for Monks & Nuns, where she instructs cohorts of Buddhist monks and nuns in India and Bhutan.
"I used the exercise with Tibetan nuns in Dharamshala and they loved it. Such creative responses:
Art represents how I love to draw while I learn.
Scaffolding is like our knowledge building higher and higher.
When I am drawn to something, I want to know more."
We are always amazed at how partners find unique and inspiring ways to use our resources! Thank you all, and if you would like to share your experiences with these or other resources, email Christina Leavell, Community Manager, or post to social media and tag us!