Aaron Doering

Aaron Doering (born 1971 in Good Thunder, Minnesota) is an American educator, explorer, author, public speaker, and adventure learning pioneer. He is a full professor at the University of Minnesota, and the director and co-founder of the Learning Technologies Media Lab. In addition, Doering holds the Bonnie Westby-Huebner Endowed Chair in Education and Technology at the University of Minnesota, is a laureate of the humanitarian Tech Awards, and is a fellow for the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment. He is also a fellow for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Raised on a farm in southern Minnesota, Doering’s early ties to the land fueled a lifelong passion for the environment and for education. He studied geography and worked as a middle school teacher prior to obtaining his PhD in Learning Technologies, and from there moved on to teach, design online learning experiences, and conduct research at the postsecondary level. Doering has shared that he believes our personal actions have a huge impact on our environment and that we need to be cognizant of how we're all interconnected. His design and research projects, teaching, and expedition work all speak to these concepts.

Doering has delivered free online education programs with a focus on STEM, geography and GIS, climate change, and global cultures to millions of students worldwide through adventure learning programs such as the Changing Earth (begun in 2016 and ongoing), Arctic Transect 2004, the GoNorth! Adventure Learning Series (2006-2010), Earthducation (2010-2014), and North of Sixty° (2013).

The Changing Earth is a four-year adventure learning program that seeks to inspire local solutions to global challenges, and kids worldwide to #choose2care about their environment, culture, and community. Led by Doering, a small team of explorers is tackling unbeaten paths across vast wilderness areas in the Arctic and Tropics while documenting stories of how individuals and communities are finding strength and purpose in an increasingly fragile, interconnected, and stressed world. The Changing Earth offers a free standards-based curriculum, along with project- and inquiry-based tools for teachers and learners worldwide. Activities are focused on science, technology, geography, and culture. The mission of the Changing Earth is to help create an environmentally literate and socially engaged generation of learners able to blend traditional and 21st century scientific and cultural knowledge to generate innovative solutions to sustain the Earth and its diverse inhabitants into the unforeseeable future.

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