Outdoor Education Commons^™

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."

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,” …

Enganging Families In Outdoor Education, Jim Mchardy

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Over twenty years ago we started the Neighbourhood Family program where we go into high risk neighborhoods and offer groups of families the opportunity to go away to the Kinark Outdoor Centre based on their capacity to come together and get organized. This has been our indepth exposure and training with regards to parent and family engagement.

Most recently, we have initiated a 'No Child Left Inside' project where we facilitate short duration nature programs at high needs schools and family nature days in the green spaces adjacent to low income housing projects. Why are we doing this you may …

Book Reviews, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section reviewed several books, including:

Navigating Environmental Attitudes, written by Thomas A. Heberlein

Environmental Education (Critical Concepts in the Environment), edited by Justin Dillon and Alan Reid

Letters to a Young Scientist, written by Edward O. Wilson

Resources, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section contains a listing of teaching resources of all types for those who work in the field of outdoor education at the time of publication. Some highlighted items include: "Trip Ideas and How-to Advice" and "C&NN's Nature Clubs for Families Tool Kit."

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.

Grand Ideas! 21 Great Ways Grandparents And Grandfriends Can Connect Kids To Nature, Richard Louv

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

What's a grandparent to do?

Marti Erickson makes a practice of keeping two collapsible chairs in her car trunk. If she's having a particularly stressful day, she drives to the closest patch of nature, sits on one of those chairs, and is soothed. She always carries two chairs in the trunk of her car. "My oldest grandchild likes nature breaks, too, and joins me when we're out together."

Last year, for an article in the AARP Bulletin, I quoted Marti about the potential benefits of nature experience, including stress reduction, better health, and family bonding.

College Corner, Jennica Skoug, Anna Miller And Kendra Liddicoat

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Wisconsin was the first state to require its teachers to receive "adequate instruction in the conservation of natural resources"' establishing—as early as 1935—a clear ambition to continue this mindset through conservation education. Conservation education has grown into Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainability (EfS), and today, Wisconsin serves as a metaphorical magnet for students and organizations looking to further these fields. In particular, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) College of Natural Resources is home to a variety of outdoor education majors and minors that can be difficult to find at other universities, but whose popularity continues to thrive. …

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 titles include: "Celebration of the Military Child Outdoors" and "Ancient Tree Clones To Be Planted In Effort To Restore Forests, Fight Climate Change."

Interview With Melinda Hughes-Wert, Executive Director, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Taproot: This issue of Taproot is focused on the role of volunteers (especially parents and grandparents) in helping connect children to nature. Your mission statement indicates Nature Abounds was created, in part, to "encourage volunteerism." Please describe how Nature Abounds encourages volunteerism.

We believe everyone has something to contribute towards the betterment of the planet regardless of age, race, gender, etc...Everyone needs to take care of their share. By working together, we can solve world problems through citizen action. Likewise, we believe that if we take care of the planet, the planet will take care of us. For example, if …

Students Afield And Stream, Charles Yaple

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

How can a retired U.S. Postal Service worker connect high school students to the outdoors and get them involved with home community environmental awareness and improvement projects? Recent research findings suggest fewer of today's teenagers value the natural environment as strongly as young people did twenty years ago. It appears athletics, music, dance, theatrics, video games and I pods dominate after school time for most students. "No problem," said grandfather Doug Thornton. Find a few students with at least a spark of interest in the outdoors, start an after school Sportsman's Club and see if the sparks can be fanned …

Professional Opportunity, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section highlighted the "Refining Leadership in Out of School Time 2013 Boost Conference" at the Palm Springs Convention Center in Palm Springs and discusses the many ways this conference could benefit those working in outdoor, environmental, or conservation education.

From The Editor, Charles Yaple

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

It may seem strange to celebrate the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors 25* anniversary by publishing an issue of Taproot dedicated to the subject of urban expansion and brownfields. However, in 1987, the Coalition founders (see 25* anniversary, pages 2-3) recognized that the future need and demand for implementing the benefits of outdoor education would increasingly come from urbanized locales. They, thus, focused the Coalition's mission toward promoting high quality research and encouraging collaboration amongst the best outdoor education scholars to address the needs of a nation becoming less and less rural. Indeed, a nation where many communities would …

Interview With Joan Maloof, Charles Yaple

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

DR. JOAN MALOOF is the author of Teaching the Trees and a new book titled, Among the Ancients: Adventures in the Eastern Old-Growth Forests. She is also the founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network – a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and preserving one forest in each county of the United States which will never be logged and will be open to the public.

How The City Hurts Your Brain, Jonah Lehrer

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it's long been recognized that city life is exhausting – that‘s why Picasso left Paris – this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.

A Visit To Sigurd, Grandfather And Thoreau, Robert T. Leverett

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Our destination was the Trailhead at Dunbar Brook. We were half serious about trying out an experiment in Japanese ―woodair- bathing,‖ which we read about for the first time in one of our friend Joan Maloof‘s excellent books. We both agreed that Dunbar was the place to try out shinrinyoku. The basic idea is to absorb the compounds of the forest by breathing them in as free molecules, released by the trees and a myriad of other forest organisms, but mainly by the trees. The molecules enter the lungs and make their way into the blood stream, presumably imparting health …

Book Reviews, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

In this section, the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors gives A Fifty Year Salute to Ron Reed and the Mohican Outdoor School and commends the book "Mohican School: An Experiment in Outdoor Learning, 1961-2005" by Ron Reed, as well as reviews "Among the Ancients: Adventures in the Eastern Old-Growth Forests" by Joan Maloof and reviewed by Charles Yaple.

Book Nook, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section contains a list of suggested reading for those in the field of Outdoor Education, Conservation, or Environmentalism. Some titles include "Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland" by Robert Michael Pyle and "The Failure of Environmental Education (And How We Can Fix It)" by Charles Saylan and Daniel T. Blumstein.

News Briefs, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

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

Contents And From The Editor, 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.

College Corner, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

The editors of Taproot are pleased to present a new feature section called, College Corner. Hereafter, each Taproot will present outdoor education activities currently taking place at a college or university around the world. Through sharing we learn; so send us an e-mail indicating interest in seeing your school featured in Taproot.

Resources, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section contains a listing of resources cited throughout this Issue of Taproot.

Coalition Membership Campaign, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

In this section, the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors calls for new membership and membership renewal. Membership with the Coalition has helped this organization conduct national conferences, establish a biennial Outdoor Education Research Symposium, and publish several volumes of Research in Outdoor Education as well as the Taproot outdoor education journal.

Maintaining or gaining membership with the Coalition will help them continue to make such contributions to the fields of Outdoor, Environmental, and Conservation Education.