Outdoor Education Commons^™

Birds Of A Feather: An Integrated Outdoor-Based Bird Study P-3 Curriculum Guide, Erin A. Buzza

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

In a post-pandemic world that places technology at the at the forefront, educators are searching for ways to help students connect with the natural world. This project aids teachers in tackling this challenge by using the study of birds as a motivation to engage students with the outdoors and local wildlife. To demonstrate how ornithology topics can be used as an integrated thematic unit, research regarding components of ecological literacy is presented. They include nature-based learning, outdoor learning, environmental education, and wildlife education. In addition to these pedagogies, the benefits of incorporating interdisciplinary learning within the classroom are also provided …

Rooted In Nature: Pre-Service Teachers' Development Of Nature-Based Pedagogical Insights Through A Forest School Field Experience, Janet Vanlone, Lauren Shearer, Makenna Luzenski, Ellen Amarante, Susan Chlebowski, Chris Boyatzis

Faculty Journal Articles

Outdoor education programs, such as Forest School, have physical, social-emotional, and academic benefits for children, and teachers trained in nature-based pedagogy are more likely to provide outdoor education opportunities for their students. Incorporating outdoor field experiences in teacher preparation may teach new teachers how to implement nature-based programming. However, little is known about how outdoor field experiences affect pre-service teacher development. Grounded in self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977), this mixed-methods study examined in a pretest-posttest design how participating in a 12-week outdoor field experience contributed to pre-service teachers’ (N = 9) knowledge of nature-based pedagogy and their self-efficacy. Participants also completed …

Leaving Kindergarten Well: First-Grade Readiness In Outdoor Waldorf Kindergartens, Garry H. Oak

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

This article proposes an intervention to address the complex needs of children in outdoor Waldorf kindergartens. The intervention suggests integrating cultural responsiveness practices, remedial education, and outdoor teacher training competency into existing teacher training programs. By adopting this comprehensive approach, new teachers can acquire the necessary tools to meet the diverse needs of their students and adapt to the challenges of modern education. Ongoing professional development programs are also recommended to enable teachers to continuously enhance their skills throughout their careers. This multi-pronged solution aims to establish a more equitable and effective educational system that considers various dimensions of children's …

Growing Character: A Model For Incorporating Sel & Social Justice In Agriculture Education, Sergio Corona-Munoz

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This work is meant to serve as a model for how educators can use pedagogies such as social emotional learning and social justice education to expand traditional agriculture education. The work done here provides curriculum outlines meant to guide educators through the process while also providing some context and examples of real world applications.

A Classroom Without Four Walls? Paving The Way For More Outdoor Education, Sandra Anaya-Zamora

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on the need to increase outdoor education opportunities for students. More specifically, how can teachers increase outdoor learning opportunities during instructional time? This is important because a lack of outdoor educational opportunities hinders students from learning benefits only found through their environment. It is argued that a decrease in environmental integration in schools will cause children to lose touch with nature, affecting their development and the future sustainability of our planet. The three primary stakeholder perspectives chosen were one teacher, one science teacher, and one garden-nutrition educator because considerations of the issue should …

Outdoor Learning Environments, Elizabeth Farin

City and Regional Planning

Outdoor Learning Environments have the ability to enhance the campus socially, educationally, psychologically, and environmentally. They can provide a defined, outdoor environment that students feel comfortable using and learning in. Outdoor Learning Environments create the space and opportunity to bring individuals and professors together to work on an interdisciplinary project. These spaces provide an area for students to relax and rewind during a stressful day. Outdoor Learning Environments have an enormous potential to achieve University-wide social and learning objectives.

This project examines the potential for Outdoor Learning on University campuses. Through analyzing existing outdoor spaces both at Cal Poly and …

Microadventures: Student-Empowered, Trauma Informed Outdoor Learning Projects, Jennifer Lyn Flaumenhaft

Honors Theses

This project began with colored Post-It notes and a classroom of Colby College students with a mission to promote student voice in an under-resourced rural elementary school. Lyn Mikel Brown’s Youth-Fueled Activism class paired with Transforming Rural Experience in Education (TREE), an organization that transforms rural communities into hubs for opportunity and civic empowerment.1 TREE uses trauma-informed principles to improve the school experience for students at Seabrook and Portside Elementary Schools. Our class worked with TREE to engage in curricular reform that reimagines learning in a way that promotes student voice. Our class took Maine Common Core State Standards and …

Nature As The Teacher: Exploring The Development And Growth Of Nature Schools In The U.S., Emily Gehrdes

Community Engagement Student Work

Nature Schools are places in which achievement, curiosity, development, and inspiration transpire in natural environments. In the early 60’s, Nature Schools began to appear around the country. Since then, many such schools have appeared; today there are over two hundred nature schools throughout the US. Yet although a substantial amount of research has been done on nature schools, there exists no baseline or census exploring these programs’ strengths and weaknesses. This capstone research project investigated these schools’ policies, procedures, and curriculum through a multi-phase mixed-methods research design. Specifically, a national survey was distributed to the directors of approximately 140 U.S. …

In The News, Gretchen Reynolds

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section contains multiple brief news items related to conservation, environment, and outdoor education.

From The Editor, Charles Yaple

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Last year, 2014, marked the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act whereby laws (vows) were created to make certain designated federal lands forever wild-places "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain:' While the wilderness preservation system that has evolved (109,511,038 acres, roughly 4.5% of the USA) can celebrate a golden anniversary, it is not clear whether it will ever expand again or even survive another 50 years. There are many forces that do not value the concept of designated wilderness areas and especially oppose …

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.

Local Hero: The Journey To Malloryville Bog, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This article reports an interview with Robert M. Beck author of The Journey at Malloryville Bog. Like the book, it shares an illuminating and intimate chronicle of environmental challenge and success. It is Robert Beck’s personal narrative about the collective effort to protect his cherished home and ecologically unique adjacent bog from destruction. Beck’s account of glacier-formed eskers, kames, and kettles, of diverse woodlands, swamps, fens, and bog, of mining applications and recurring environmental reviews, of uncertainty and long struggle, and of diligence, awesome teamwork, and phenomenal land deals is highly instructive for those who might also become involved in …

A Call For Environmental Patriotism, Anne Marie Todd

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Environmental patriotism, the belief that the national environment defines a country’s greatness, is a significant strand in twentieth century American environmentalism. This article is adapted from Anne Marie Todd’s book, Communicating Environmental Patriotism: A Rhetorical History of the American Environmental Movement (Routledge, 2013) where the author is the first to explore the history of environmental patriotism in America through intriguing stories of environmental patriots and the rhetoric of their speeches and propaganda. The article and book offer a provoking critique of environmentalists’ communication strategies and suggests patriotism as a persuasive hook for new ways to make environmental issues a national …

The Perceived Significant Life Experience, Jennifer Wigglesworth And Paul Heintzman

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This quantitative study of a university outdoor education (OE) course as a significant life experience (SLE) builds upon previous qualitative research (Wigglesworth & Heintzman, 2013, in press). The study was retrospective in nature, and its theoretical framework emerged from SLE research in which participants are asked to recall experiences that have contributed to future decisions about environmental protection (Chawla, 1998). A life experience is significant if it changes a person in some way (i.e., perspective, behaviour, or belief); it constitutes a new or extraordinary experience; it provides something useful for the future; specific meaning is derived from or attributed to …

Growing Girls’ Leadership Through Outdoor Programming, Kallen E. Tsikalas And Karyn L. Martin

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Girl Scouting (GS) is fundamentally about developing girls as leaders—growing their courage, confidence, character, and ability to make the world a better place. It does this by providing them with opportunities to build leadership skills (outcomes) related to discovering, connecting, and taking action (GSUSA, 2008), and by engaging them in the processes of learning by doing, cooperative learning, and girl-led activities (James & Bastiani Archibald, 2009).

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 the mission to support and further outdoor education and its goals.

The Environmental Rhetoric Of Song, Charles Yaple

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Pete Seeger was, indeed, a master of environmental lyric and song. His folk style musical rhetoric continues to attract the listening of thousands of children and adults each year. Songs can capture the moment and also launch a movement. What follows are 10 of our favorite tunes carrying environmental/green messages. Some are old, some are new; perhaps you have others to share with Taproot readers. Our favorite, considering the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors’ mission, is a new one by none other than Bruce Matthews, first director of the Coalition. It began as a poem many years ago and …

From The Editor, Charles Yaple

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

The need for environmental patriotism, the theme of this issue of Taproot, is suggested by a 2006 college student in his final quarter of college. Asked by professor Carmen Werder (See Resources on page 48) to describe himself via metaphor, the student finally settled on being like a stream. A stream, he said, “is always moving forward, forever changing…eventually becomes pure… We are all pieces of a larger system, and I appreciate my place in it. It’s the first time I’ve ever thought of myself as part of something bigger.” How is it, Werder asks, that research shows so many …

Local Environmental History And The Journey To Ecological Citizenship, Michael B. Smith

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This article describes a process of hands-on learning that Professor Michael Smith uses to help college students develop a sense of place and understand the meaning of civic engagement. It also suggests ways of evaluating a teacher’s pedagogical effectiveness. The article first appeared in the book, Citizenship Across the Curriculum, which describes how similar approaches to civic education can also be used in political science, mathematics, the natural sciences, rhetoric and communication studies. Smith’s inclusion of student comments about their course experience is especially insightful for scholars wishing to know more about the learning process.

A Salute To Pete Seeger: Environmental Patriot Extraordinaire, Charles Yaple

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

A Salute to Pete Seeger is a tribute to an American folk music legend. Celebrated for his political activism and contributions to revive American folk music, Seeger was also an important environmental patriot. Tirelessly using his guitar and banjo he got a whole generation singing together and actively involved in cleaning up and protecting the natural world. The inscription on Pete’s banjo succinctly illustrates his personal philosophy and how he lived: “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” His principled and modest lifestyle provides a worthy role model for teachers and parents who want their children to become …

Participant Profiles, Antecedent Predictors, And Developmental Outcomes, Jayson Seaman, Erin Hiley Sharp, Sean Mclaughlin, Corinna Tucker, Karen Vangundy, Cesar Rebellon

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Adolescents spend 40% to 50% of their waking hours in discretionary activities, representing an important context for youth development (Verma & Larson, 2003). Structured and unstructured outdoor activities have been acknowledged as especially promising venues for positive youth development (PYD, Mainella, Agate & Clark, 2010; Sibthorp, 2010). In the youth development and activity literature, however, outdoor activities often are undifferentiated from other options, with researchers emphasizing more generic characteristics such as adult supervision, program structure, and skill-building opportunities (see Mahoney, Larson, & Eccles, 2005). Conversely, many outdoor education scholars highlight the distinctiveness of outdoor programs, yet research designs are frequently …

Constructing A Family Adventure Experience, Jillisa R. Overholt

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

While family leisure is a growing area of inquiry, focus on family outdoor recreation or family adventure experiences remains limited. Outdoor recreation and camping experiences, however, are particularly well suited to enhancing family bonding and cohesiveness (Hawkes, 1991). This has been suggested to be the case because of the unfamiliar environment, the social structure, and the types of interactions required to successfully negotiate the environment and task (Huff, Widmer, McCoy, & Hill, 2003). Much of the existing research in this area has focused on organized family camping experiences (Agate & Covey, 2007; Taylor, 2006) or short-term adventure experiences, usually one …

Book Reviews, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section reviewed several books. These books included:

Outdoor Adventure and Social Theory-- edited by Elizabeth C. J. Pike and Simon Beames and reviewed by Jeff Rose

The Journey at Malloryville Bog-- written by Robert M. Beck and 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.

Taproot In & Outside The Classroom, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section provides activities and strategies to include Taproot into classroom lesson plans.

From The Editor, Charles Yaple

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Following the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions, this issue of Taproot arrives with the Coalition’s renewed dedication to help further the goals of outdoor education. A new partnership with Sagamore Journals and Applied Health Sciences will serve as a vehicle to enable realization of that commitment by making our publications more widely available. We believe the time is right for a resurgence of outdoor education to take on its rightful and sorely needed role in the advancement of sustainability, including assisting in redefining the concept of sustainability itself. The lack of attachment and allegiance to place, ecological consciousness, and …

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.