Outdoor Education Commons^™

Outdoor Educator’S Challenge, Emanuele Corso

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

At a time when the world is crying out for relief from its social and environmental crisis, our response must come in the form of radical departures from “business as usual” in the schools. Misplaced intelligence and well-intentioned ignorance have made American schools like factories.1 With production came dehumanization and its consequences: insensitivity to self, others, and nature. The production view of education persists because of its appeal to those who fear human nature and who have deep needs for social control as well as for proof of status. At this moment, the “in” euphemism for production is “accountability.” Industrial …

Exploring Profound Place Relationships, Ryan Howard And Tim O’Connell

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

How does place research currently capture the importance of Yosemite within John Muir’s life and written work or the value that the Boundary Waters Canoe Area had within Sigrud Olsen’s writings? Profound relationships with place guide the lives of many outdoor recreationists, both historically and presently. Within the academic literature, the intensity of a personal connection to place has been addressed through sense of place (Farnum, Hall, & Kruger, 2005), and more specifically, empirical investigations into the construct of place attachment (Williams, Patterson, Roggenbuck, & Watson, 1992; Williams & Vaske, 2003). This study proposes an extension to look beyond the …

Measuring Youth Development Outcomes, Shaina Stewart And Kendra Liddicoat

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Within the past 40 years, the field of youth development has undergone several major paradigm shifts in an effort to better understand—and provide—what young people need to become happy, healthy, and successful adults (Pittman, Irby, Tolman, Yohalem, & Ferber, 2003). Early strategies that simply focused on minimizing the problematic behaviors that got youth into trouble evolved into later strategies that focused instead on developing the beneficial behaviors that helped youth succeed. Today, the theory of positive youth development broadly represents a social science framework that identifies the external supports, structures, and opportunities that young people need to become successful, contributing …

Contents, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

The Coalition for Education in the Outdoors is a non-profit network of outdoor and environmental education centers, nature centers, conservation and recreation organizations, outdoor education and experiential education associations, institutions of higher learning, public and private schools, fish and wildlife agencies, and businesses that share a mission to support and further outdoor education and its goals.

Moderators Of Change In Biophilia, Nathan W. Meltzer; Denise Mitten; W. Brad Faircloth; Andrew J. Bobilya

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Researchers have acknowledged the natural world as a powerful component of Wilderness Experience Programs (WEP), often serving as both a teacher and classroom (Friese, Hendee, & Kinziger, 1998; Herdman, 1994; Mitten, 2009). Yet, the human-nature relationship has not always been emphasized within adventure education (AE), and many programs (e.g., Outward Bound; OB) have focused primarily on interpersonal relationships (Hayllar, 1990; Miles, 1995; Priest, 1986). Some have argued for greater acknowledgment of the human- nature relationship in a definition of AE (Beringer, 2004; Henderson, 1999). Biophilia provides a theoretical framework for describing how people relate to the natural world, serving as …

Stories To Live By, Martin Ogle

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Oh, for a story to explain the times we live in and guide us down saner paths! In the midst of ever-heightened awareness and concern about the unsustainable course of human society, we seem to be heading, with increasingly deadly speed, down an environmentally and societally destructive track. Laudable actions to change direction, or at least slow down, often seem to have the opposite effect. In this paradoxical predicament, we would do well to reexamine the subtly entrenched narratives that drive our individual and collective actions.

Make, Bake, And Take It To The Market, Katina Sayers-Walker

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

For the last two years, the village of Tully, located in southern Onondaga County, New York, has hosted the King’s Corner Market. Similar to other farmers markets across the country, the King’s Corner Market features products from local farmers, producers, and artisans, as well as live music. The mission of the market is “to provide the village of Tully with a positive, family-friendly, health-oriented event that allows residents to shop for the basics and beyond” (A. Kida, personal communication, August, 2013). Farmers, producers, artisans, and local music groups must be within a 30-mile radius from Tully, guaranteeing that the “buy …

Teach Your Children Well, Penny A. James; Karla A. Henderson; Aram Attarian

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

The nature of outdoor play has changed. Today children increasingly spend their free time in adult-led activities and indoor play (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001). Concerns regarding this societal shift gained mainstream attention with the publication of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (Louv, 2005). A back-to-nature movement ensued at national, state, and local levels with parks and recreation organizations creating programs designed to get children back into wild environments (e.g., Children in Nature Programs offered by the National Park Service). We proposed that the conversation surrounding the back-to-nature movement missed the mark on two critical …

College Corner, Tim O’Connell

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Since 1981, the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University has been an established leader in undergraduate and graduate education. Brock is located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, and sits atop the Niagara Escarpment, which was designated as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 1990. The Bruce Trail, which starts in nearby Queenston Heights Park, is a hiking path that runs through campus and nearby Shorthills Provincial Park to its terminus on the Tobermory Peninsula (over 890 km or 550 miles away). These resources, as well as other local, regional, and provincial “crown lands,” provide an appropriate backdrop …

Book Reviews, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section reviewed several books including:

HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, written by Mark Hertsgaard; reviewed by Kathryn Russell

The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability—Designing for Abundance, written by William McDonough and Michael Braungart; reviewed by Charles Yaple

In The News, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section contains multiple brief news items related to conservation, environment, and outdoor education. Some items include "Green Space Improves Mental Health For At Least Three Years" and "Indonesia Struggles to Clean Up Corrupt Forestry Sector."

Conference Calendar, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section provides a list of conferences in the field of outdoor education, including the "American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Conference" and the "Anthropogenic Impacts on Coastal Communities and Ecosystems."

Now That I Know The Effects..., Mary Breunig

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

What ought and can be done about environmental degradation is contested and relates to opinions regarding fundamental cause(s). One of the solutions commonly suggested is education. One particular educational initiative in Ontario is the integrated Environmental Studies Programs (ESPs), wherein environmental topics are integrated into a holistic and interdisciplinary curriculum model taught at the secondary school level to students who register for a “package” of courses and spend the full semester with one to two teachers and a single student cohort (Russell & Burton, 2000; Sharpe & Breunig, 2009). The full-day cohort structure of ESPs provides for environmentally related experiential …

Critical Sustainability In Outdoor Education, Jeff Rose And Adrienne Cachelin

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

The socioecological challenges we face have never been so complex, so intractable, and so urgent. And while both justice-oriented education and education for sustainability are growing in colleges and universities across the United States, normative perspectives of outdoor experiential education have fallen behind. In this paper, we offer critical sustainability as a conceptual basis for engaging students in the beauty, perversity, and complexity of our world. Critical sustainability, integrating sociopolitical systems of privilege and oppression with the socioecological imperatives of global health and justice, provides an exciting and promising pedagogical direction. With this conceptual framework, we explore perspectives of “nature,” …

Resources, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section lists teaching resources of all types for those who work in outdoor education at the time of publication. Some items include the books: "The Essential Urban Farmer" and "The Soul of Capitalism."

Nebline, February 2014

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: 4-H Garbology Uses Science to Teach Environmental Responsibility

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Home & Family Living

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Nebline, January 2014

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: 4-H Youth Serve Their Community By Volunteering

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Home & Family Living

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

Family and Community Education (FCE) Clubs

and other extension news and events

Model Lessons About Geography And Outdoor School, Tammy Bryant, Lauren Smolensky, Sarah Cochran, Brenda Mahler, April Logsdon, Shanna Davis, Jalia Campbell, Kimberly Nichols, Sean Stewart, Lauren Collins, Beth Chitwood, Joan Swafford, Lauriel Amoroso, Shaphan Thomas, Beth Oehler, Jen Dimaggio

Instructional Materials

Model lessons about geography and Outdoor School to use with The Student Atlas of Oregon.

Laboratory: Where Science Becomes Art, Amy Norton, Madeline Carpenter, Colton Weeks, Jae Lim

P-12 Lesson Plans

This is group of lessons for K-12 art classroom is connected to the artists in the ZMA exhibition Laboratory, on view November 14, 2014 - February 21, 2015. The exhibition worked to demystify artistic practice by revealing parallels between art and scientific research and methodology. These associated lessons include scientific concepts and principles paired with art.

Nebline, November-December 2013

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Family and Couple Strengths: Getting Connected, Staying Connected

Farm Views

Urban Agriculture

Food & Fitness

Home & Family Living

Horticulture

Environmental Focus

4-H & Youth

Community Focus

Extension Calendar

Nutrition Education Program

Family and Community Education (FCE) Clubs

and other extension news and events