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Educators who used place-based education consistently report that their students have become increasingly engaged and enthusiastic about learning.

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Educators who used place-based education consistently report that their students have become increasingly engaged and enthusiastic about learning. Additional student benefits from place-based education in the published literature include:

Increased academic performance and motivation for achievement

Improved critical thinking

Enhanced workplace skills such as leadership, persistence, taking responsibility, and teamwork

Social-emotional development

Civic engagement, involvement, and responsibility, and increased action competence

Awareness of career opportunities

Place-based education also yields benefits for teachers, schools, and communities.

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The Power of Place-Based Education | Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative

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Educators who used place-based education consistently report that their students have become increasingly engaged and enthusiastic about learning. Additional student benefits from place-based education in the published literature include: Increased academic performance and motivation for achievement Improved critical thinking Enhanced workplace skills such as leadership, persistence, taking responsibility, and teamwork Social-emotional development Civic engagement, involvement, and responsibility, and increased action competence Awareness of career opportunities Place-based education also yields benefits for teachers, schools, and communities.

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NAAEE Environmental Guidelines for Excellence

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NAAEE Environmental Guidelines for Excellence

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https://cdn.naaee.org/sites/default/files/eepro/resource/files/community_engagement_-_guidelines_for_excellence_0.pdf

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https://www.freeforestschool.org/blog/heading-outside-without-a-plan

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Tips, Tricks, and Lesson Ideas for Winter

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Tips, Tricks, and Lesson Ideas for Winter

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The benefits of time outside are well-documented at this point, and added incentives during COVID times have prompted even more schools to take learning outdoors when they can. But what about when the temperature drops and the snow flies? You don't have to teach in a forest school or have a yurt to get out there. With flexible expectations, strategic planning-and definitely some warm additions to your teacher wardrobe-winter outdoor learning IS possible. We've pulled together a helpful list of tips and lesson ideas to get you started.
Just a heads up, WeAreTeachers may collect a share of sales from the links on this page. We only recommend items our team loves!
Tips for Winter Outdoor Learning

1. Suit up

You've heard the Scandinavian refrain, "There's no bad weather, only bad clothing." Plan ahead to help get kids what they need to be safe and comfortable outdoors.

Set the expectation with kids and families that you will be heading outside as long as your school weather guidelines allow. Send a how-to video home with tips for dressing for winter (This video and gear list from Linda McGurk, author of There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather, has tons of info for kids and teachers too!) Or, combine procedural writing with learning about science concepts like body heat and insulation, and have your class make their own how-to video to share.

Of course, getting the right gear is hard for many families. Publicize gear swaps, Buy Nothing groups, or other local resources to help families obtain hand-me-downs or donated items. You could also approach outdoor apparel retailers about donations. (Hey, it never hurts to ask!)

You could keep a few inexpensive products on hand to offset kids' lack of gear too. Hand warmers can be a game changer, as can a waterproof hiking seat pad for a kid without snow pants.

2. Embrace friluftsliv

Yep, Scandinavia's wisdom again. If you love hygge in your classroom, its outdoor counterpart friluftsliv might be just the mindset shift you need to make winter outdoor learning your thing. Friluftsliv roughly translates to "outdoor life," and it's the outlook Norwegians adopt to remind themselves that even if getting out there feels daunting, once you do (dressed appropriately of course) it feels surprisingly good. Simply modeling a positive attitude can go a long way towards shifting the collective mood away from complaining about cold toes.

3. Keep it flexible (and maybe, quick)

Philip Mathieu, an outdoor educator in snowy Maine, urges teachers to expect to adapt outdoor learning plans on the fly based on weather and the clothing kids show up wearing. If there's a sunny spot in the schoolyard, make that your home base on a frigid day. If kids don't have boots, shift your plans to stay on the pavement. Adjust expectations for writing or snapping photos so kids can keep their mittens on.

You don't have to stay outside for hours to benefit, either. Even ten minutes of fresh air can be a huge energy and engagement boost. On extra cold, wet, or windy days, give directions indoors, head outside to an easy-access location, then go back inside to close out the lesson.

4. Keep everyone moving

This is Philip's top tip, echoed by other experts everywhere. Standing still is cold, and being cold is not fun. Plan for lots of movement. You could:

Create a warm-up ritual, like doing jumping jacks to a fun chant.

Make traveling from place to place part of the lesson, like having kids run from tree to tree to find items or read directions.

Get everyone warm before asking kids to be still for a lesson. Take the longer route as a vigorous "hike" to your lesson spot, or work together to stomp down or shovel a path with gusto.

5. Establish a routine

Familiar is always easier. Your students (and you) will get better at transitioning outdoors and build endurance for being out in the cold the more you do it. Plus, if you get your class into a fun and efficient outdoor learning routine in winter, think of how easy it will be to keep it up in the spring!

Tried and True Simple Winter Lesson Ideas

With all the work of getting ready, simpler is often better when it comes to outdoor learning in winter. You could adapt many of these ideas for distance learners, too.

1. Track seasonal changes

Hone kids' observational skills by asking them to look for signs of winter. We like sharing this Scholastic Watch and Learn video to get kids thinking about possibilities. Kids can notice human-related changes, too, especially in urban settings. Do people dress or walk differently? Do vehicles look or operate differently?

2. Choose winter sit spots

Choose a class or individual "sit spots" for kids to sit and take in their surroundings. This practice is great for mindfulness and observation skills, especially if kids return to the same spot again and again over time. (And if outside just isn't doable, a window sit spot can also work well.)

3. Take a sensory walk

Encourage students to experience the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of winter as they walk. Back inside, use your experiences to write winter poetry or stories. We adore the new title, Ten Ways to Hear Snow, by Cathy Camper, for some inspiration.

4. Go on a winter scavenger hunt

It's easy to turn your sensory walk into a scavenger hunt. This one from Hike It Baby has clickable and printed versions.

5. Look for winter animal evidence

Hibernating isn't the only thing animals do in winter. Document signs of winter animal activity like tracks, droppings, holes in the snow, nibbled nuts, and even feathers leftover from a predator's meal. Or, use binoculars to search out nests in bare trees and try to identify who made them.

6. Be winter weather scientists

Set a container of water outside and assign students to be on "ice patrol." They can check the container and document what they see each day. Have them compare findings with air temperature and other weather conditions.

When the first big storm is forecasted, be ready with a weatherproof snow gauge. This video from outdoor educator Philip Mathieu shares straightforward directions for kids to make one at school or home.

More Fun Winter Outdoor Learning Ideas

Even if you love it, winter can feel long. Use these fun ideas to keep everyone excited about bundling up.

7. Bring out new materials for snow play

So much learning happens through play, even for older kiddos. To add some variety to winter play:

Collect a pile of branches and tree limbs for kids to build winter dens and shelters -a great STEM challenge!

Bring out thrift store cake pans, muffin tins, and cooking utensils for snow "baking." Add berries, rocks, twigs, and evergreen sprigs for decorations.

Add food coloring and water to plastic spray bottles for "snow paint." (Pro tip: Avoid lots of red, unless you want your schoolyard to look like a crime scene.)

Freeze food coloring and water to make ice cubes for amazing colored ice sculptures!

Source: Happy Hooligans

8. Winterize playground games

Have students write new rules or tips for playing soccer, football, tag, or other playground games in the winter. Or, make up new games. We're totally trying Snow Mini Golf and "Tic-Tac-Snow" from this list from REI.

9. Try "snow-ga"

Winter is the perfect setting for outdoor yoga. Kids Yoga Stories has you covered with tons of ideas.

10. Teach science with sledding

Sledding isn't just fun; it's full of science concepts. Use sledding to teach about potential and kinetic energy, friction, and more. If you don't have a big hill or your school doesn't allow kids to sled, no problem. Have kids build their own mini-sleds for stuffed animals out of recycled materials to explore the same concepts on a smaller scale.

11. Learn about winter animal behaviors (with Jello?!)

Check out Learning for a Sustainable Future's list of winter animal science lessons for every grade level. "Keep Your Creature Warm" is especially cool; students test out animal shelter options in the schoolyard by trying to keep containers of gelatin mixed with hot water from solidifying.

12. Host a winter storytellers' circle

Winter is historically known as a time for storytelling in many cultures, including many Native American ones. Bundling up for an outdoor winter storytelling session at school is pretty special. (Some nature-based schools have established campfire protocols, but if you can't have the real thing, an artful arrangement of battery-operated candles and string lights can really add to the mood!)

13. Act out wintery book scenes

You definitely have your favorite winter books to share with kids. Bring the stories to life by acting them out outdoors. Older students can act out winter scenes from chapter books to practice visualizing. (Anyone up for a trip to Narnia?)

14. Discover the stories tracks tell

Finding and identifying animal tracks in the snow is a classic winter learning activity. If you're new to tracking, check out this primer from Childhood by Nature. Go deeper by using tracks to craft stories of what the animals (or even people) may have been doing, like with this guided investigation from Nature Mentor. Also, try connecting track stories to learning about making inferences in reading!

15. Make art with ice

Winter ice is the best way to bring learning about states of matter to life. Check out these gorgeous frozen ice sun catchers -so easy to make with paper plates!

16. Make wintry nature mandalas

Hike around your school grounds to collect nature items like ice pieces, evergreen branches, pinecones, and winter berries. Study examples of mandala designs and create your own using the snow as a canvas. Find directions at Childhood by Nature. Older students can try these painted snow mandalas or even get inspired by the breathtaking work of snow mandala artist Simon Beck.

17. Watch the birds

Birding is an amazing way to engage students with nature at any time, but especially in winter. Set up a store-bought or homemade feeder and track who visits. Check out this lesson plan for tons of background information and ideas adaptable to different ages.

18. Be winter tree scientists

Winter is a unique time to study trees. Students could:

Source: Playdough to Plato

19. Plan (and even plant) for spring

When all else fails, take a cue from gardeners everywhere and dream of spring growth. Kids can browse seed catalogs, measure growing spaces, and draw up plans for your school vegetable garden. As winter winds down, track soil temperatures to figure out when you can plant early spring crops.

You can also plant many types of native seeds in pots to overwinter outdoors before germinating in spring. Wild Seed Project has easy directions to follow, and Prairie Moon Nursery is a go-to for sourcing native seeds for your location.
What are your favorite ways to keep kids learning outdoors in the winter? Share your tips in the comments! Looking for more articles like this? Sign up for our newsletters!

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Tips, Tricks and Lesson Ideas for Learning Outdoors in Winter

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The benefits of time outside are well-documented at this point, and added incentives during COVID times have prompted even more schools to take learning outdoors when they can. But what about when the temperature drops and the snow flies? You don't have to teach in a forest school or have a yurt to get out there.

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curated list by NAAEE educators

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Outdoor Education Winter Resources Roundup

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Schools are operating outdoor classrooms more than ever before this winter, and the prospect of teaching in cold, possibly wet weather can feel daunting to even the most seasoned professionals. We've gathered some resources from a variety of sources and experts in the field to inspire, motivate, and encourage you to stay outside over the next few months and beyond.

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Video: MI DNR How to dress to be outdoors

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Video: MI DNR How to dress to be outdoors

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It's no secret that deep breathing exercises are a great way to reduce stress. Taking a few moments to concentrate and breathe deeply calms not just the mind but the body. There are several ways to practice deep breathing but it's always a good idea to try something new. This Monday, try square breathing when you need to take a moment to settle down.

Square breathing is a great way to refocus your mind if you've been having a hectic day. Multitasking and busy schedules can be demanding on your brain and leave you in a fog. It's important to take a brief break and clear your head before diving back into business as usual. You don't need a visual aid but it can give you something on which to concentrate while you learn a new way to deep breathe.

Here is the practice:

1. Inhale for a count of 4

2. Hold for a count of 4

3. Exhale for a count of 4

4. Hold for a count of 4

While breathing and counting, imagine a square. If you're using a visual aid, follow the four sides of a square. Each step is a corner of the square; as you count to four, move along one side of the square at a time. You can use anything square-shaped around you - a post-it note, a mouse pad, etc. Another way to visualize while square breathing is to imagine you're running bases in a baseball diamond in slow motion.
Inhale and run to first base... two... three... four...
Hold and run to second base... two... three... four...
To start out, we recommend using GIFs that can provide you with a point of concentration. After a few sessions of square breathing, you'll be able to visualize the square in your mind while breathing deeply.

This Monday is a great day to be square and destress!

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Practice Square Breathing this DeStress Monday with Our Helpful GIF

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It's no secret that deep breathing exercises are a great way to reduce stress. Taking a few moments to concentrate and breathe deeply calms not just the mind but the body. There are several ways to practice deep breathing but it's always a good idea to try something new.

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Winter Curriculum Connections & activities

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(Live) CRSE Remote Learning & COVID-19 Resources

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Facilitating Mindfulness in An Inclusive Way for All Students

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Facilitating Mindfulness in An Inclusive Way for All Students

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Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

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Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done.

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Ken Finch

What are your favorite memories of childhood play?

If you're like millions of other Americans, most of those memories happened outdoors and included a lot of nature-based play. For instance: digging holes "to China;" catching fireflies and frogs; exploring little creeks and ponds; building stick forts or tree houses; daydreaming in your secret spot; or just "mucking around" in the woods.

Do your own children play that way? Chances are, they don't. Childhood has changed.

Why Does It Matter?

For countless generations, nature play has been a defining part of childhood. Yet only recently have we begun to grasp its powerful and positive impacts on children's healthy growth and development.

Regular habits of active play during childhood are one of the best predictors of active adulthoods-a perfect prescription for combating the obesity epidemic.

School children who use playgrounds with trees, fields, shrubs, and vegetated edges show more creative play, better concentration, and more inter-gender play than peers with equipment-focused playgrounds.

Outdoor play in green settings reduces the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.

According to the "hygiene hypothesis," early exposure to plants, animals, and soil helps children's immune systems to develop properly, making them less vulnerable to allergenic conditions like asthma and peanut allergies.

Frequent, unstructured childhood play in natural settings has been found to be the most common influence on the development of life-long conservation values.

We have unintentionally removed a life force that has been at the center of children's physical, social, emotional, creative, and intellectual development throughout the history of humankind.

Three Keys for Great Nature Play

The first step in restoring nature play is to understand it. Green Hearts promotes three vital attributes for the best nature play.
1. The right kind of place
Good nature play requires land that is not too protected and is wild-at least in children's eyes. This might be the "back forty" of their farm, a quiet corner in a local park, a small neighborhood creek or marsh, a vacant city lot, or just their own backyard.

However large or small, the site must have elemental nature to play with and discover: things like rocks, dirt, trees, bugs, flowers, mud, and water. Equally important, kids must be free to dig, collect, climb, build, and hide there. This has been called "rough ground"-patches of land adults don't much care about, but that kids can love and adopt as their own.

It's not the size, it's the freedom!
2. The right kind of play
Outdoor, "child-centered" play is the goal: play that children themselves initiate, guide, change, or abandon. The very best nature play comes from the child, not from the adult!

Ideally, there are no formal objectives and few rules for nature play. It is vital, though, that the play actively engages kids with nature and its elements; it's not just any play that happens outdoors. Putting your ping-pong table in the backyard is not nature play!

Real nature play is catching tiny critters, collecting leaves and rocks, lying in tall grass, digging for buried treasure, splashing in the creek, hiding amidst the shrubs, and climbing a tree as high as you dare.

It's about playing with nature, not just in nature!
3. The right kind of re-play
In her research into the origins of personal conservation values, Louise Chawla found, "The special places that stood out in memory, where people formed a first bond with the natural world, were always part of the regular rhythm of life ... ." (Italics added). That's how many of us enjoyed nature play: we played outdoors nearly every day, again and again, in good weather or bad.

This level of frequency may be the hardest aspect of nature play to restore―since, for children, frequency requires proximity. If kids have to be hauled around in the family minivan in order to enjoy nature play, then it's not likely to happen often enough to fully impact their growth, development, and love of nature.

Instead, we need to bring nature play back into our families' yards, local green spaces, and school playgrounds-places they can reach on foot or by bicycle, day after day, to play and re-play. "Nearby nature" is the key to restoring frequent nature play!

How Can Parents Restore Nature Play?

If you want to give your children the gifts of good health and a life-long love of the outdoors, then bring frequent, unstructured, nature-based play into their lives. It will be the crucial first step in "growing up green!" (See the full A Parent's Guide to Nature Play for more ideas and resources for getting started.)
Show Your Kids the Door!
As a parent, you are the key to your children's nature play; you are the "gatekeeper." It is important that you regularly encourage their outdoor play and "nudge" them outside, away from the common electronic devices that mesmerize so many children.

If they are not used to playing outside, you may quickly hear complaints like, "I'm bored," and, "There's nothing to do out here." Don't give in! Children have an incredible talent for making up play, but it may take them awhile to get going. You can set an example: be the first one to splash in the mud puddle, roll down the hill, or climb into the tree. They'll soon get the idea-and then you can withdraw and let your kids play!

There is no better place to begin restoring frequent nature play than in your own yard, even if it's a small one. It is handy, familiar, needs no auto transport, and is relatively easy for you to supervise.

Home yards can provide especially good nature play for young children, about ages two to eight. Their interests will tend to focus on tiny, concrete discoveries rather than the "big picture." Your yard can provide countless fascinations on that scale, especially if you are willing to make a few changes. Here's a sampling of not-too-hard and not-too-expensive ideas for this sort of "kidscaping."

Rough Ground: Set aside part of your backyard for your kids to dig, build, hide, plant, or do whatever they want.

Discovery Board: Lay a piece of scrap plywood, roughly two feet square, in a quiet corner of your yard. Leave it for a few days, and then periodically look to see what's moved into the micro-habitat beneath it. Likely residents will be pill bugs, ants, slugs, millipedes, and other mini-beasts that kids love. (Note: It's best to skip this idea if venomous snakes are common in your area.)

Plant Houses: Grow sunflowers in a hollow square, about five or six feet on each side and with a small "door" opening. Alternate seeds for tall and short sunflowers (there are many varieties), so they will grow into solid "walls" and a very unique playhouse! You can also use long garden stakes or bamboo poles to make a teepee frame about six feet high. Plant climbing beans, squash vines, or morning glory vines to grow up and around the poles. By late summer you'll have a green teepee for your kids' play!

Free choice, kids-only outdoor explorations are the "best and highest" form of nature play, but family activities can also add to the fun!

Walk in the Creek: If your yard or neighborhood has a shallow stream, try walking in it. You'll likely find frogs, water striders, and other insects. Look under creek rocks, too, for weird-looking dragonfly larvae. (Be sure to put the rocks back in the same spots.) Wear old tennis shoes or boots for this excursion.

Play in the Rain: No nearby creek? Then play in the rain on a warm day. Stomp in the mud, slide down a slippery grass slope, catch worms, or just lie down and let the rain fall on your face.

Show and Tell: Encourage your kids to show you what they find outside, and give them a little dedicated space where they can display their treasures (well, at least the non-living ones...).
Keep Nature Play Tools and Toys Handy
Nature itself provides curious children with an endless variety of toys, but there are also human-made devices that can enhance their nature-based play. Here are a few good ones.

Earth Movers: These are a must, since kids just love to dig in mud, sand, and pea gravel! Supply shovels, spades, rakes, hoes, buckets, plastic barrels, etc.-and get children's sizes. Keep a child's wheelbarrow handy, too!

Magnifiers: Look for large ones-at least 3 inches in diameter. Another good option is a magnifier stool: a large magnifier with three wooden legs. Check the internet for these.

Bug Cages: Kids love to capture insects such as fireflies, praying mantises, and butterflies, so keep a small bug cage on hand. Make one using screening and a box, or use a jar with air holes in the lid. Encourage the early and safe release of all captives!

You should always consider safety, of course, but don't obsess over tiny dangers. The most common cause of children's accidental death is auto accidents, but you still drive your kids places, don't you? Do not let equally manageable dangers keep your kids away from nature play. Ultimately, your children must learn to judge risks, gauge their limits, and practice responsibility.

Here are a few tips to keep your children's nature play safe.

Insects: Have your kids use insect repellent and wear long sleeves, long pants, and shoes; tuck the pant legs into socks to keep out ticks.

Sunscreen: A little sunshine is good for humans; too much is bad. Routinely put sunscreen on your children, and have them wear comfy hats with brims.

Stranger Danger: All kids should be taught to be cautious with any unknown person, and how to react if attacked. However, crimes against children are no more common than a generation ago, and excessive fear is uncalled for unless there have been crimes against kids in your neighborhood. Playing outside with friends, either at or very near to home, will remove most of the danger.

Spread the Word!

Societal understanding of the importance of nature-based play is growing, but many parents are still unaware. You can help them understand by bringing the message to PTA meetings, book clubs, local school boards, park districts, and other community groups that share a concern for children.

Restoring nature play for your own children, in your own yard, is the perfect first step. Then, after you see how well that works, consider extending your commitment to a "larger stage." Could your elementary school create a nature play area on its playground and have it open to the whole community on evenings and weekends? Have nearby parks opened areas for active nature play, with relaxed rules? Does your neighborhood have a piece of rough ground that could be enhanced for nature play?

Any place where children regularly play is a potential site for the restoration of nature play―but that potential will only be realized through the efforts of caring parents like you!

Ken Finch is the founder of the Green Hearts Institute for Nature in Childhood. From 2005 until its recent closure, Green Hearts served as a passionate advocate for nature-based play for children. Ken has delivered hundreds of keynote and workshop presentations; written diverse and popular publications that continue to be in demand; and offered extensive advice, teaching, and consulting for a wide range of allied groups. Ken is now entering what he calls "semi-retirement," but will continue with a reduced schedule of speaking, writing, and consulting. He can best be reached at [email protected] .

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Ken Finch What are your favorite memories of childhood play? If you're like millions of other Americans, most of those memories happened outdoors and included a lot of nature-based play. For instance: digging holes "to China;" catching fireflies and frogs; exploring little creeks and ponds; building stick forts or tree houses; daydreaming in your secret spot; or just "mucking around" in the woods.

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Check out Megan Zeni’s blog and follow her on Twitter @Roomtoplay for inspiring outdoor play and learning ideas!

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I teach in an outdoor classroom. The most common question I get is "what do you do in the winter?" There are so many reasons to get outdoors and learning in all seasons, and winter is no exception. I'm a big advocate for unstructured play in the garden, especially in the non growing season, to deeply attach children to place. By spending time playing in the garden, children will naturally feel an instinct to protect the crops produced during the growing season, and will feel more enthusiasm for the subtle changes that emerge in early spring! If you are looking to get your children or students out in the garden during the winter months, here are my top tips for winter gardening with kids.

Winter Play In Your Garden

Here on the westcoast we have typically mild winters, but this past one was colder than usual, which was great for experimenting with ice and snow! Playing with frozen bubbles is a fantastic opportunity to explore states of matter. When your temperatures dip below minus 5, simply bring your summer bubbles outside and watch them change from a liquid to solid state. Read more about how to play with ice and frozen bubbles here.

And don't forget that playing in your Winter garden attaches children to place in a way that helps them notice subtle changes in the landscape in early Spring. Add dump tricks for snow removal and clear those garden pathways!

Tracking animals and looking for animal prints is another great way to support children's skills in looking closely. If you are lucky to get some fresh snow, get the children to pause and predict what tracks they might see before they start tromping through it! Bring technology out to the garden and take photographs of the prints to research later. Read Aloud Whose Garden Is It by Mary Ann Hoberman to ponder the many creatures who visit the garden when we are away.

Many classes use loose parts for storytelling and creative play through the winter months. In our outdoor classroom, our loose parts are logs, branches, tarps, and wood cuts. Fort and den building becomes a big focus for us in the winter months and are embedded in our winter storytelling.

If you enjoy using loose parts indoors, you can certainly bring them outdoors in winter too! Use magnifying lenses to look closely at frost and snowflakes and then invite children to make their own unique snowflakes with whatever materials you have in your beautiful junk drawers! These snowflakes were built on a baseplate of black felt with blue jewels, popsicle sticks and q-tips:

Don't forget to keep those dinosaurs and dragons outside during the winter moths too. The cold won't hurt them and their fiery breath will help melt the snow!

Winter Arts & Crafts In Your Garden

There are many creative ways to use found treasures in your garden for nature inspired arts and crafts. Making an attempt to be more eco-friendly in your classroom art projects benefits everyone, including the environment. Try at least one paper and glitter free art project a month with your kids- you'll be amazed how beautiful nature art can actually be! Read more about ice art here.

In this project, we collected seeds, pinecones and twigs of plantings to freeze with water in a bundt pan. The result was a beautiful piece of art that melted away as the weather warmed, providing further opportunities for observing seasonal change. If you are looking for inspiring books to read about the changing seasons, check out my related blog post: 13 Best Picture Books For Understanding Seasonal Change K-5.

Planning Ahead

Winter is the time to plan ahead for the growing season. Clean up your shed, and make sure the tools are clean and sharp. Wash children's garden gloves and order seeds for starting in the spring. I also like to check the pH of our soil, and track the temperature of the soil, so children can observe how the changing seasons impact our soil conditions. There is a a lot of science and math waiting to be explored in your soil! You can pick up an easy to read soil thermometer here.

The biggest job we need to tackle during the winter months is planning the garden map for the upcoming growing season to ensure the right plants are in the right place for a best chance of growing! By keeping a record of what grew where each year, we can more easily rotate crops that benefit from rotation. If you don't have a garden map of your growing area, this is a great mapping activity for kids. Get out those measurement tools, use ratio to scale, figure out which way is north, and develop those map making skills!

Winter Gardening With Kids: Planting & Harvesting

There are several plants that continue to grow well during the winter months in coastal British Columbia. Check with your local nursery or use this resource from WestCoast Seeds find what grows when in your particular region of North America. The guides have most of Canada covered, as well as Washington, Oregon, New England, New York State and Pennsylvania. Westcoast seeds has a specific Planting For Fall and Winter Harvests guide you can reference. Our mild winter means we can take advantage of overwintering crops that benefit from the cold of winter for excellent spring growth and flavour! Cabbages, Broccoli, Cauliflower, garlic and onions typically overwinter well in our school garden. You can plant fava beans right through the winter months in coastal British Columbia for a summer harvest. And we can harvest plenty of crops through the winter too: Brussell sprouts, kale, carrots, parsnips and spinach keep us snacking through the cold months!

Once you've made some decisions about what crops you want to plant, it is time to map out where they should live through the growing season. The Landed Learning Project at The University of British Columbia has created this excellent resource for planning out your crops and mapping the garden with kids:

Winter Gardening with Kids

Finally, however you spend your time in the Winter garden, my advice is to place string lines around the edges of your actual beds to keep kids from running in or over any plantings (like garlic) that are buried beneath the leaf and snow piles! You can also use cold frames or cloches to keep your crops going through the winter months, which makes them easier to see in heavy snow. We often grow spinach and other leafy greens under our cloche.

Don't forget to check out my related post: Fall Gardening with Kids for more seasonal ideas and inspiration.

Looking for more inspiration for gardening with kids? Come join me on Pinterest for great ideas from around the web!

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I teach in an outdoor classroom. The most common question I get is "what do you do in the winter?" There are so many reasons to get outdoors and learning in all seasons, and winter is no exception. I'm a big advocate for unstructured play in the garden, especially in the non growing season, to deeply attach children to place.

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5 things I can see; 4 things I can hear; 3 things I can feel; 2 things I can smell; 1 thing I can taste

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1. What’s in my backyard?  Identifying Winter Birds in Michigan (includes ppt with LOTS of pictures, created by Cara Krieg, GK12 Fellow)

2. Winter bird feeding lesson from Kids Gardening.

3. Don’t have feeders, check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s YouTube Channel of LiveCams!

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Although winter may seem like a life-less frozen wasteland here in Michigan, many birds spend the winter here. Some arctic birds even come down to Michigan to escape the cold! Many of these winter birds can be easily attracted to backyard feeders, particularly since food is in short supply. In this lesson students will learn how to identify the 16 most common feeder birds in Michigan and will be introduced to 8 other less common species. Students will learn how scientists classify and identify species. This lesson also provides materials necessary for students to collect data from their own bird feeder and tools to contribute their data to citizen science efforts like the Great Backyard Bird Count or Cornell's eBird tracking program that help scientists monitor bird populations across the United States.
At the conclusion of the lesson, students will be able to:

Correctly identify the 16 most common birds that visit Michigan feeders in winter

Recognize 8 other less common species

Explain how citizen science information on birds can help scientists

Resources: Lesson plan by GK-12 Fellow Cara Krieg, 2014

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What's in My Backyard? Identifying Winter Birds in Michigan

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Although winter may seem like a life-less frozen wasteland here in Michigan, many birds spend the winter here. Some arctic birds even come down to Michigan to escape the cold! Many of these winter birds can be easily attracted to backyard feeders, particularly since food is in short supply.

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Emergent Strategies, Adrienne Maree Brown 

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Emergent Strategies, Adrienne Maree Brown 

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Description

Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist "spirituality" based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.
adrienne maree brown, co-editor of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, is a social justice facilitator, healer, and doula living in Detroit.

About the Author

adrienne maree brown, the Co-Editor of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, is a social justice facilitator, healer, doula and pleasure activist living in Detroit. She is a student of emergence, somatics, transformation and science fiction. She is part of the training body of generative somatics, and coodinating the Just Films Narrative Shift Program for Allied Media Projects. She is the 2015-2016 Ursula le Guin Fellowship, the Knight Arts Challenge for 2013 and 2015, a Kresge Literary Arts Fellow for 2013, in the inaugural Speculative Fiction Workshop at Voices of Our Nation 2014, and a graduate of the Clarion Sci-Fi and Fantasy Workshop in 2015.

Product Details

ISBN: 9781849352604
ISBN-10: 1849352607
Publisher: AK Press
Publication Date: April 18th, 2017
Pages: 280
Language: English

Categories

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Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (Paperback)

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Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns.

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Bringing Community into the Virtual Classroom

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Bringing Community into the Virtual Classroom

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While our teaching environments have changed drastically over the past eight months, our values have remained and carried us through these challenging times. Nonetheless, finding creative ways to infuse those values into remote instruction can be a challenge. Islah Tauheed, a 5th grade Bronx, New York teacher and Heinemann Fellow alum, shares her experience in building online community, and using it as a tool to foster conversations about racial equity and justice.

...
This school year is unlike any we've had before as the pandemic has pushed us into virtual spaces. However, we still need to make sure that the primary focus in our classrooms is creating environments where children feel safe. That safe space is a place where learners can take risks and engage in conversations that may come up around the topics of race and equity.

Oftentimes I get questions from other early childhood educators about whether the children are too young to handle these discussions and my answer is absolutely not! Especially when we create a climate and culture that promotes inclusivity. This is the exact situation I found myself in at the end of the last school year with my 2nd grade class, which prompted me to create Ms. Tauheed and Friends.

Once a week, I set aside time for a special class meeting called Ms. Tauheed & Friends where I had guest speakers come to visit the virtual classroom. Our theme of these meetings was "how can little people make a big change?" And there we talked about everything from urban farming and anxiety to cooking and race. Using guest speakers has many benefits but this is what I found most helpful:

1) Engagement -If you're a lower grade teacher, you know that students notice anything new, and a seeing a new face is no exception. They are hooked in right away!

2) Amplifying unheard voices -Inviting guests into your classroom is a way to promote the BIPOC in your community who may not get heard from often, which is especially poignant if you are a white teacher. Think of it like a celebrity endorsement. You are the teacher and the children look up to you! So if you're bringing in a guest, they must be important. However, be sure that "because I said so" validation is not where it ends. Let students know that you're introducing these guests because they are experts on their topic. During these meetings, you are sharing your power. You're no longer the holder of all the knowledge in the room. Sharing your platform with others which is an important action for students to see.

3) Challenging biases -Be very purposeful in who your guests are. All of my guests were of various ethnicities and religions. It was crucial to challenge typical stereotypes and offer representation so students know that Black people and POC hold a wide variety of roles. Students are now given a chance to imagine themselves in these roles as they got older. It's also validation for student's reality and lived experiences. I invited a woman who ran a Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood to show us how to cook salsa with traditional Mexican cookware. One of my other guests was a Muslim woman in hijab who ran a goat farm. Another of my guests was a nurse on who was a Black male. It was very important for me to show the students Black men living and thriving and healing during a time where they may have consuming so many images of black trauma and black death. Lastly when I did feature a white guest, it was to introduce the concept of ally ship to students and what it looks like to be actively anti-racist.

So how do we do this?

Well, you want to first think about the students in front of you and what they need. The topics can vary! I had an author on and we talked about how writing can be empowering. I had a therapist on and we talked about ways to self soothe. Think about your students and what they need in this moment. Next, keep it short and sweet! If you teach young people, you know that you have X amount of time before everyone is showing you their loose teeth. Try the following format: review old topic, introduce new one, guest speaks, Q&A until the questions die down. If you do any type of writing keep it brief! One strategy is to use songs as timers. I would time it with a song and once that song ended, the writing was over. Unfinished work could be completed after class with the assurance the finished product would be posted on the class online platform. Lastly, be brave. Kids can sense your discomfort. Get comfortable about the topic. If you can say the words 'black' and 'white' and 'ally' and 'racist' without cringing, the kids will feel comfortable talking about it too.

This school year holds many challenges but as educators we can find a way to confront them in community.

Have a safe and heathy school year!
-Islah Tauheed
Islah Tauheed is a courageous advocate for teachers. She works toward change by creating spaces where young people can let their guard down, express their true selves, and experience freedom as learners. She is currently a 5th grade teacher in the Bronx, NY, where she integrates a variety of curriculums and projects that reflect the diverse background of students in the school community. Islah is a graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University and a former Heinemann Fellow.

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Bringing Community into the Virtual Classroom

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While our teaching environments have changed drastically over the past eight months, our values have remained and carried us through these challenging times. Nonetheless, finding creative ways to infuse those values into remote instruction can be a challenge.

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Dr. Kinley Tenzin completed his Undergraduate BSc in forestry from the University of the Philippines and his Master's degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of Edinburgh, UK. In 2003, he was appointed as Forest Research Program Officer and a National Counterpart to the International Project funded by Boku University, Austria and Columbia University, USA. In May 2008, he has successfully completed his PhD from the Boku University, Vienna, Austria. In 2010, he was appointed as Program Director by the Royal Government of Bhutan.

As Program Director he is the head of the Renewable Natural Resource Research and Development Center, based at Thimphu. The research institution has a national mandate to coordinate forestry research in the country. There is also a regional mandate to cater the research and extension needs in agriculture, forestry and livestock in five districts in western and southern Bhutan.

In 2015, he was appointed as Executive Director for Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN) to look after conservation. He is also currently the member to the National Environmental Commission (NEC), a Board Member to Climate Action Network of South Asia (CANSA), and a Steering Committee member on the Trans Bhutan Trail initiative. Below is our interview with Dr. Tenzin.

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About Place-Based Education | Jackson, WY | Teton Science Schools

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Wondering about place-based education? Teton Science Schools can help. Learn more about place-based education and our approach here.

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https://childhoodbynature.com/the-importance-of-being-alone-in-nature/?fbclid=IwAR2FQ5Bdapibi-DIvtLZzHeHgCPprpv_S9lve6PWjP_WN4cMiKsSloGXrrM

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Joseph Cornell - Sharing Nature with Children 

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Joseph Cornell - Sharing Nature with Children 

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Sharing Nature Nature Awareness Activities for
all Ages

Availability: In Stock! Joseph Bharat Cornell
Foreword by Richard Louv
$17.43
​
Paperback, 216 pages (8.5" x 5.5")
Full-Color Photography
ISBN 978-1-56589-287-3

Silver Nautilus Award Winner, Animals & Nature (2015)

Indie Book Awards: Grand Prize Winner for Non-Fiction Books, 2nd place (2015)

Silver, Evergreen Medal Nature Conservation (2015)

INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award Finalist: Nature (2015)

Qualifier, Green Earth Book Award (2016)

Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Grand Prize Winner for ​ Non-Fiction Books, 2nd place (2016)

Awards

sparked a worldwide revolution that connected millions of parents, educators, and children with nature. This classic has now been combined with Ingenious games help children and adults experience what it is like to be part of nature. Previous edition published in 24 languages
600,000 copies sold! Sharing the Joy of Nature to make a treasury of Joseph Cornell's best-loved nature games.

Give a friend or a child an experience of Nature he will remember the rest of his life.

"Joseph Cornell brings to life his 'Flow Learning' teaching strategy in the 35th anniversary edition. His keen insight into the dynamics of learning creates a more fruitful and lasting understanding of any nature topic."
-Sue Eisaguirre, Executive Director, NatureTrack Foundation

"With beautiful photographs, artful prose, and clear instructions, all in a compact format, Sharing Nature is all we need to get outside and connect people with nature. Updated for today with online resources."
-Janet Carrier Ady,
Bureau of Land Management

Division Chief of Education, Interpretation, and Partnerships "This classic volume belongs on any short list of the most important environmental books."
-Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy, founder 350.org

Joseph Cornell has won international acclaim through his landmark book, Sharing Nature with Children®
Completely rewritten and updated with new activities!

Sharing Nature with Children®

The world's most popular nature awareness activity guidebook

Easy and fun to use for all ages

Perfect for parents, educators, and outdoor leaders

. Since its publication in 1979, Cornell has toured worldwide, offering his popular nature awareness workshops to tens of thousands of teachers, parents, youth leaders, and naturalists. A prominent environmental educator describes him as "one of the most inspiring educators in the field today." He is the founder and president of Sharing Nature Worldwide, one of the planet's most widely respected nature awareness programs.
"Cornell's long-standing work and vision have nourished the roots of the emerging worldwide movement to reconnect children and nature."

-Cheryl Charles, Past President and Co-Founder, Children & Nature Network

"The first edition of this book sparked a worldwide revolution in nature education and became a classic."
-National Association for Interpretation

"Joseph Cornell is one of the most highly regarded nature educators in the world today."
-​Backpacker Magazine

"The use of Flow Learning makes education about the environment a joy to teach. People's faces light up with sheer joy and inner understanding."
-David Tribe, retired Environmental Education Chief, Department of Education,
​ New South Wales, Australia

"Cornell has devised ingenious nature-based games that . . . celebrate mystery, quiet attention, observation, and the possibility of revelation."
-Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle, Chairman Emeritus, Children & Nature Network

"One of the greatest gifts we can give children of any age is a deep kinship with the living world. And one of the best places to start is with this wonderful book. In Sharing Nature, Joseph Cornell offers a treasure trove of games and activities that tap into children's natural curiosity, imagination, and wonder. This is a delightful and indeed, essential guidebook for parents, teachers, and youth leaders."
-Jean MacGregor, Environmental Educator, The Evergreen State College

"Joseph Cornell has combined and refined the best of his 'sharing nature' books in this new 35th anniversary edition. Still my go-to resource for both experienced and new nature leaders, Cornell's Flow Learning system and nature exploration activities are based on solid educational theory, presented in an elegantly useable way. "
-Janet Carrier Ady, Division Chief of Education, Interpretation, and Partnerships
Bureau of Land Management

"This is the book you'll need for your nature education library. Whether one is teaching a scout group, class of 5th graders, summer day camp, or teacher workshop, it's the best planning guide for success. Sharing Nature activities are timeless and profound; I tell all my students, "Get this book and keep it in your back pocket!"
-Tom Mullin, Associate Professor, Parks and Forest Resources, Unity College, Maine

"Joseph Cornell has made nature education fun for learners. This book will be loved by students, teachers, and nature enthusiasts alike, in every part of the globe."
-S.P. Yadav, Indian Forest Service, Assistant Secretary General, Global Tiger Forum

"The Sharing Nature movement that Cornell pioneered has now expanded to countries all over the globe. Recommended by Boy Scouts of America, American Camping Association . . . and many others."
-Southern Maryland Parent Line

"This classic volume belongs on any short list of the most important environmental books-instead of dire warnings or policy prescriptions, it offers the gift of a more direct connection to the natural world. That connection, once made, is one of the things that can power the movement we need!"
-Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy; founder 350.org

"For almost 30 years I have been telling students, teachers and leaders on my courses that if they only ever buy one book it should be Sharing Nature with Children! It will give them the tools to immediately immerse children of all ages and backgrounds in the natural world and form the basis for a lasting relationship.
​This new edition reflects the thousands of workshops, training sessions and constant feedback generated over the past 35 years. The underlying philosophy has been expanded and deepened, each activity has been carefully reviewed and re-written and, of course, now includes everything in one amazing book. My students will be overjoyed-as will anyone buying this important book."
-Alan Dyer, Director, Centre for Sustainable Futures, Plymouth University, Englan

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Availability: In Stock! Joseph Bharat Cornell Foreword by Richard Louv $17.43​ Paperback, 216 pages (8.5" x 5.5") Full-Color Photography ISBN 978-1-56589-287-3 Silver Nautilus Award Winner, Animals & Nature (2015) Indie Book Awards: Grand Prize Winner for Non-Fiction Books, 2nd place (2015) Silver, Evergreen Medal Nature Conservation (2015) INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award Finalist: Nature (2015) Qualifier, Green Earth Book Award (2016) Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Grand Prize Winner for ​ Non-Fiction Books, 2nd place (2016) Awards sparked a worldwide revolution that connected millions of parents, educators, and children with nature.

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Educational Resources for Parents, Teachers & Homeschool Families

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As children return to school this fall, the back to school season is looking unlike anything that has been experienced before. The 2020-2021 school year will present new challenges for families and teachers alike, whether youth are returning to school in the classroom, online or at home. To support teachers, parents and homeschool families in their educational efforts, Michigan State University Extension has compiled a list of helpful resources that can be used by varying audiences to supplement school plans. Arranged by audience, grade level and topic, a variety of resources are available in differing delivery methods. While not all tools utilize school standards, many do.

Questions? Contact the 4-H program coordinator in your county or 4-H Supervising Educator Dorothy Munn at munnd@msu.edu.

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Educational Resources for Parents, Teachers & Homeschool Families

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As children return to school this fall, the back to school season is looking unlike anything that has been experienced before. The 2020-2021 school year will present new challenges for families and teachers alike, whether youth are returning to school in the classroom, online or at home.

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Educational Resources for Parents, Teachers & Homeschool Families

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Educational Resources for Parents, Teachers & Homeschool Families

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As children return to school this fall, the back to school season is looking unlike anything that has been experienced before. The 2020-2021 school year will present new challenges for families and teachers alike, whether youth are returning to school in the classroom, online or at home. To support teachers, parents and homeschool families in their educational efforts, Michigan State University Extension has compiled a list of helpful resources that can be used by varying audiences to supplement school plans. Arranged by audience, grade level and topic, a variety of resources are available in differing delivery methods. While not all tools utilize school standards, many do.

Questions? Contact the 4-H program coordinator in your county or 4-H Supervising Educator Dorothy Munn at munnd@msu.edu.

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Educational Resources for Parents, Teachers & Homeschool Families

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As children return to school this fall, the back to school season is looking unlike anything that has been experienced before. The 2020-2021 school year will present new challenges for families and teachers alike, whether youth are returning to school in the classroom, online or at home.

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How Plants and Animals Prepare for Winter

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How Plants and Animals Prepare for Winter

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How Plants and Animals Prepare for Winter - Project Learning Tree

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As the temperature outside begins to drop, noticeable changes take place all around us. All living things, including humans, must adapt to their environment in order to survive. Let’s take a closer look at how plants and animals prepare for winter.

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Animal tracking basics for the field - how to measure a track

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Animal tracking basics for the field - how to measure a track

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Belle Isle Nature Center did this activity with their Nature Tots program in the winter of 2019

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Snow painting is a great winter activity for kids. It is a unique way to both introduce your children to the joy of creation and nurture their artistic talent. Kids will love the chance to explore a new medium to create art. Even if your little ones aren't especially creative, they will still have fun.

Snow painting is easy, requires very little preparation, and can keep kids outside in the fresh air for a while. It's also an activity the whole family can do together.

What You Need

Liquid food coloring

Spray bottles

Small plastic bowls (optional)

Assorted paintbrushes (optional)

Gather the Necessary Items

﻿At the very least you need yellow, red, and blue food coloring and three spray bottles. If the kids want to do more than paint with spray colors, you may also want to gather some plastic bowls and paintbrushes.

Prepare the Spray Bottles

﻿Fill the spray bottles with cold water. (Hot and even warm water could melt the snow too much.) Add a few drops of food coloring to each so you have one bottle of red, one of blue, and one of yellow water. Be sure the bottles have enough coloring in them to make the colors visible once they are sprayed on the snow. (You may need to test the colors the first time you mix them.) Although you need only three colors, you can have more if you want (see tips 1 and 4).

Send the kids out to paint!

﻿ All the kids need are their spray bottles, and their imaginations and creativity. You can show them how the spray bottles work and have them test the way the colors mix to create other colors. They may end up doing nothing but experimenting with the colors! They may also want to create artistic abstract designs, or make simple drawings.

Take pictures!

﻿ You're sure to want pictures of the paintings the kids created, as well as some pictures of them as they are making their paintings.

Buying food coloring

﻿ Food coloring is available at most grocery stores. Nothing more than the basic, primary colors are needed.

Spray bottles

The spray bottles you need are the type that contain window cleaning liquid. Empty versions of these bottles are available at discount department stores like Target, Wal-Mart, or K-Mart. You can also often find them at many drug or dollar stores. They are made of plastic and are quite inexpensive. The more you get, the more colors you can mix up, though only three are necessary.

Brushes are completely optional for snow painting. You might not want the younger children to use brushes since dipping brushes in colored water can be messy. Another thing to consider is brush size. Small paintbrushes, used for painting around the trim on walls, are probably a good bet. You could go a little smaller, but if they're too small it will be hard to see what was painted.

Mixing colors

﻿ When kids spray the primary colors on top of one another on the snow, they should see how the colors mix to create other colors (red and yellow make orange, for example). However, the kids can mix the colors ahead of time and even have spray bottles with the extra colors they mix.

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Get Creative This Winter and Go Snow Painting

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Snow painting is a great winter activity for kids. It is a unique way to both introduce your children to the joy of creation and nurture their artistic talent. Kids will love the chance to explore a new medium to create art. Even if your little ones aren't especially creative, they will still have fun.

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Even though children increasingly spend most summer days inside or at a full-day camp program, the idealistic image of summertime is still one of free play: neighbors racing bikes, friends building a fort, siblings producing a show, a family on the beach.

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10 Outdoor Winter Activities for Preschoolers - Project Learning Tree

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The winter environment offers an abundance of learning opportunities for preschoolers, even in cold climates. Here are 10 winter activities that you and your preschoolers can enjoy outdoors.

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Teaching science through sledding

Run out into the snow and try to improve your sledding time.

Anyone, even children, can conduct science in the natural world. This can be done within a family, in a day care setting, as part of school activities, a 4-H club or with any group working with young children. Michigan State University Extension will explore how a favorite winter activity, sledding, involves science.

The 2014 Winter Olympics begin Feb. 6 and the world will be entertained by the action taking place in Sochi, Russia. As your family watches the athletes whoosh down the track in the bobsled, luge and skeleton, ask questions such as, "How do they go so fast?" After watching, see what you can do in your backyard or on your favorite sledding hill.

Why do we sled in the winter? Couldn't we slide through the dirt just as well? What is it about snow that makes us slide faster? If you have a good sledding hill, there are a number of variations that you can experiment with to try to move faster and further. Using a stopwatch you can measure the time and anything stuck in the snow can be used to measure distance. Although the children are having fun, they are also learning about physics and engineering (even if you don't call it that).

Ask yourself the following questions during different parts of your sledding adventure:

1. The Push - If you just sit on top of the slope, before it starts angling downhill, do you go anywhere? Newton's first law is that, "an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest." In order to overcome the friction between the sled and the ground, you need a push.

2. The Stop - What makes the sled slow down and stop? Why doesn't it just keep going? Friction between the sled and the snow causes things to slow down.

3. Weight of the rider - Do heavier kids (or parents) move further or faster than lighter kids? Why might that be? Try sending down the sled with nobody and see how that changes things.

4. Leaning on the sled - If you lean forward or backward on the sled do you go farther? Why? What about face down versus on your back? Does going backwards change anything?

5. Material of sled - Sleds can be made of all sorts of materials. How does this change the speed? Why? Sleds can be made from plastic garbage bags, pieces of cardboard, garbage can lids, or with or without runners. Commercially made sleds have lots of different shapes. Do they contribute to the speed and distance?

6. Changing the bottom - Can you make the sled even slipperier? Try putting soap, vegetable oil, wax or other substances on the bottom of your sled. See if that reduces friction.

7. Type of track - Sliders may notice that they go faster and further the longer they ride on the same track. Why does this happen? If you sprinkle water on the track the night before to freeze into ice, will that change your speed?

Kids can give you a new appreciation for snow. By going out and asking questions while the children are having fun and conducting science experiments, you might be helping develop a scientist, engineer or a future Olympian.

Did you find this article useful?

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Run out into the snow and try to improve your sledding time.

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A snowy day, a trip to Grandma's, time spent cooking with one another, and space to pause and discover the world around you come together in this perfect book for reading and sharing on a cozy winter day.

One winter morning, Lina wakes up to silence. It's the sound of snow -- the kind that looks soft and glows bright in the winter sun. But as she walks to her grandmother's house to help make the family recipe for warak enab, she continues to listen. As Lina walks past snowmen and across icy sidewalks, she discovers ten ways to pay attention to what might have otherwise gone unnoticed. With stunning illustrations by Kenard Pak and thoughtful representation of a modern Arab American family from Cathy Camper, Ten Ways to Hear Snow is a layered exploration of mindfulness, empathy, and what we realize when the world gets quiet.

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A snowy day, a trip to Grandma's, time spent cooking with one another, and space to pause and discover the world around you come together in this perfect book for reading and sharing on a cozy winter day. One winter morning, Lina wakes up to silence.

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Guiding Principles of Place-Based Stewardship Education

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Guiding Principles of Place-Based Stewardship Education

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Educators can use our guiding principles and an associated rubric to imagine what their place-based stewardship teaching could be and to set goals for the future. Few real-world efforts will fulfill every principle to the highest extent; indeed, it may not be possible for a single effort to excel in every aspect described in these documents. We provide the principles as a compass of sorts—to help educators further develop their practice in a way that recognizes our shared values and aspirations for teaching and learning.

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A Compass and a Path Forward

Educators can use our guiding principles and an associated rubric to imagine what their place-based stewardship teaching could be and to set goals for the future. Few real-world efforts will fulfill every principle to the highest extent; indeed, it may not be possible for a single effort to excel in every aspect described in these documents. We provide the principles as a compass of sorts-to help educators further develop their practice in a way that recognizes our shared values and aspirations for teaching and learning.

Teachers will find the principles and rubric useful for self-reflection and for strengthening their place-based stewardship education efforts to respond to the particular conditions in their communities. Internally, the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative's regional hubs will use the principles and rubric to reflect on their work in participating schools and communities and to help determine where and how they should increase their support and assistance.

These resources, along with our case studies, were developed as part of a program grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Guiding Principles of Place-Based Stewardship Education | Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative

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Educators can use our guiding principles and an associated rubric to imagine what their place-based stewardship teaching could be and to set goals for the future. Few real-world efforts will fulfill every principle to the highest extent; indeed, it may not be possible for a single effort to excel in every aspect described in these documents.

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From the Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the student population in the U.S. is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Providing quality, equitable STEM education for PreK-12 students, particularly students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields, requires curriculum, instruction, and assessment that value their cultural practices and reflect their lived experiences.

In this Spotlight, DRK-12 projects share how their work incorporates culturally responsive STEM instruction, curricula, and assessment, or intersects with culturally responsive STEM education in ways that contribute to the knowledge base around broadening participation in STEM. In addition to describing their work, project teams share culturally responsive instruments as well as recommended readings. Hear from four projects discussing culturally responsive science instruction in a related webinar.
In this Spotlight...
Webinar on Culturally Responsive Science Instruction

April 4, 2022
Panelists: Julie Brown, Angelina Castagno, Pradeep Dass, Shannon Davidson, Lama Jaber, Darold Harmon Joseph, Kristina Anna Kramarczuk, Diane Jass Ketelhut, Allison Metcalf, and Mark Pacheco.

This session explored innovative models and tools at the frontier of culturally relevant and responsive instruction. Researchers described frameworks for equitable and responsive science teaching, models for developing responsive teaching practices, and tools for examining those practices.

View Recording and Resources

Featured Projects

Advancing Equity and Strengthening Teaching with Elementary Mathematical Modeling (NSF #2008997, 2010202, 2010269, 2010178)

PIs: Julie Aguirre, Mary Carlson, Jennifer Suh, Erin Turner
Grades: K-5
STEM Discipline: Mathematics with a focus on mathematical modeling

Description: Advancing Equity and Strengthening Teaching through Elementary Mathematics Modeling (EQSTEMM), is a multi-site research and professional development project that focuses on equity-centered mathematics modeling in elementary math classrooms ( www.eqstemm.org). Mathematical modeling is, "a process that uses mathematics to represent, analyze, make predictions, or otherwise provide insight into real-world phenomena" (Bliss & Libertini, p. 8, 2016), and gives students equitable access to complex problem solving, quantitative reasoning and communication skills required for participation in STEM-related disciplines and civic engagement (English & Sriraman, 2010; Lesh & Zawojewski, 2007). Project goals include to: a) develop and refine a model for an innovative practice-based, equity-oriented PD that includes on-line blended learning spaces for teachers in diverse settings; b) refine tools and structures for modeling lessons to advance equitable participation, develop specific math modeling competencies, and in turn, c) increase access, participation, and learning of mathematical modeling for culturally and linguistically diverse children.

A signature feature of our project design is to emphasize modeling tasks and routines that connect to students' cultural and community contexts (Turner et al, 2020; Turner et al, 2022, Suh, 2018, Carlson, 2022). Community based mathematical modeling opens up the curriculum to be a mirror for students to see themselves in mathematics, and as a lens for students to analyze the world around them and see another's point of view through mathematics. We believe community-based modeling activities can advance equity and cultivate civic empathy (Mirra, 2018) in culturally and linguistically diverse elementary classrooms.

We use the Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching Framework (Zavala & Aguirre, 2021) (see https://www.eqstemm.org/crmt ) to enhance teachers' professional learning about equity centered modeling instruction. The CRMT framework is organized into 3 focus areas comprised of 3 related dimensions: 1) Knowledges and Identities (Cultural/Community funds of knowledge, Re humanizing, Student Thinking and Ideas); 2) Rigor and Support (Cognitive Demand, Scaffolding Up, Affirming multilingualism), and 3) Power and Participation (Distributing Intellectual Authority, Disrupting Power and Status, Analyzing and Taking Action). We collaborate with teachers in planning relevant modeling tasks and refining teacher moves grounded in CRMT that advance equity and foster growth in students as modelers.
Culturally Responsive Instruments:
Products:

Conference Proceedings:

Aguirre, J., Anhalt, C. & Suh, J.M. (2019). Flint Water Crisis: Social Justice through Mathematical Modeling. Annual meeting of the International Commission for the Study and Improvement of Mathematics Teaching. Braga, Portugal:Université du Minho.

Suh, J.M., & Anhalt, C. (2019). Core Practices in Mathematical Modeling. In Pedro Palhares (Ed.), Proceedings of the 71st annual meeting of the International Commission for the Study and Improvement of Mathematics Teaching (pp. 55-61). Braga, Portugal:Université du Minho.

Suh, J.M., & Matson, K., Carlson, M., Wickstrom, M., Levy, R., Jamieson, S., Roth-McDuffie, A., Turner, E., Seshaiyer, P., & Anhalt. C. (2018). Exploring the Nature of Mathematical Modeling in the Early Grades. In T.E. Hodges, G. J. Roy, & A. M. Tyminski, (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 1478-1486). Greenville, SC: University of South Carolina & Clemson University.

Suh, J.M., & Matson, K., & Seshaiyer, P. (2018). Mathematical Modeling Competencies Essential for Elementary Teachers. In T.E. Hodges, G. J. Roy, & A. M. Tyminski, (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 1122-1125). Greenville, SC: University of South Carolina & Clemson University.

Suh, J.M., Britton, L., Burke, K. and Ferguson, L. (April, 2018). Enhancing Mathematics Teaching And Learning For Social Justice Using Mathematical Modeling. Paper published in the American Educational Research Association Online Repository, New York, New York.

Suh, J.M., Turner, E., Anhalt, C., Carlson, M. A., Wickstrom, M., McDuffie, A. R.,... & Lee, D. H. (2019). Exploring the Nature of mathematical modeling in the early grades. In S. Otten, A. G. Candela, Z. de Araujo, C. Haines, & C. Munter (Eds.), Proceedings of the forty-first annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 1967-1978). St Louis, MO: University of Missouri.

Suh, J.M., Anhalt, C., Carlson, M. & Cortez, R. (May 2021). Mathematical Modeling Across Cultures: Broadening Opportunities by Leveraging Social Justice, Local Knowledge, and Equitable Mathematics Instruction.. North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Virtual Conference.

Presentations:

Turner, E., Aguirre, J., Carlson, M. & Suh, J. (2022 February). Centering Equity in Blended Learning Professional Development with Elementary Mathematical Modeling. Association of Mathematics Teacher Education. Henderson, NV.

Turner, E., Aguirre, J., Carlson, M. & Suh, J. (2021 February). Advancing Equity and Strengthening Teaching Through Elementary Mathematical Modeling. Association of Mathematics Teacher Education. Virtual Conference

Suh, J.M., Turner, E., Roth McDuffie, A., Aguirre, J. & Birkhead, S.(2020 February). Defining Core Practices for Mathematical Modeling for Elementary Mathematics Teachers. Association of Mathematics Teacher Education. Phoenix, AZ.

Recommended Readings:

Aguirre, J. M., Mayfield-Ingram, & Martin, D. B. (2013). The impact of identity in K-8 mathematics: Rethinking equity-based practices. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. https://pubs.nctm.org/view/book/9780873538565/9780873538565.xml

Carlson, M. A., Wickstrom, M. H., Burroughs, B., & Fulton, E. (2016). A case for mathematical modeling in the elementary school classroom. In Christian R. Hirsch (Ed.), Annual perspectives in mathematics education (APME) 2016: Mathematical modeling and modeling mathematics (pp. 121-29). National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. https://www.nctm.org/Store/Products/APME-2016-eChapter-11--A-Case-for-Mathematical-Modeling-in-the-Elementary-School-Classroom-(Download)/

Cirillo, M., Bartell, T. G., & Wager, A. (2016). Teaching mathematics for social justice through mathematical modeling. In C. Hirsch & A. Roth Mcduffie (Eds.), Annual perspectives in mathematics education: Mathematical modeling and modeling with mathematics (pp. 87-96). National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. https://www.nctm.org/Store/Products/APME-2016-eChapter-8--Teaching-Mathematics-for-Social-Justice-through-Mathematical-Modeling-(Download)/

Suh, J. M., Burke, L., Britton, K., Matson, K., Ferguson, L., Jamieson, S., & Seshaiyer, P. (2018). Every penny counts: Promoting community engagement to engage students in mathematical modeling. In R. Gutierrez & I. Goffney (Eds.), Annual perspectives in mathematics education: Rehumanizing mathematics for students who are Black, Indigenous, and/or Latin@ (pp. 63-78). National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. https://www.nctm.org/Store/Products/APME-2018-Ch-5--Every-Penny-Counts--Promoting-Community-Engagement-to-Engage-Students-in-Mathematical-Modeling-(Download)/

Suh, J., Matson, K., Seshaiyer, P., Jamieson, S., & Tate, H. (2021). Mathematical modeling as a catalyst for equitable mathematics instruction: Preparing teachers and young learners with 21st century skills. Mathematics, 9(2), 162. https://doi.org/10.3390/math9020162

Suh, J. M. & Seshaiyer, P. (2019). Promoting ambitious teaching and learning through implementing mathematical modeling in a PBL environment. In M. Moallem, W. Hung, & N. Dabbagh (Eds.), Handbook of problem-based learning (pp. 529-550). Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119173243.ch23

Suh, J. M., Wickstrom, M.H. & English, L.D. (2021). Exploring Mathematical Modeling with Young Learners. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63900-6

Suh, J. M., Matson, K., Birkhead, S., Green, S., Rossbach, M., Seshaiyer, P., & Jamieson, T. S. (2021). Elementary teachers' enactment of the core practices in problem formulation through situational contexts in mathematical modeling. In J. M Suh, M. Wickstrom, & L. English (Eds.), Exploring Mathematical Modeling with Young Learners. (pp. 113-145). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63900-6_6

Turner, E. E., Varley Gutierrez, M., & Díez-Palomar, J. (2011). Latino/a bilingual elementary students pose and investigate problems grounded in community settings. In J. N. Moschkovich, T. Téllez, & M. Civil. (Eds.), Latina/os and mathematics education: Research on learning and teaching in classrooms and communities (pp. 149-174). Information Age Publishing. https://www.infoagepub.com/products/Latinos_as-and-Mathematics-Education

PI: Brian Williams
Grades: K-5
STEM Discipline: Science (+ Engineering Practices)

Description: Historically, the public education community has struggled with providing all children with equitable access to quality science education, particularly in urban communities. SCI-Bridge is a teacher development project that aims to address inequities in access to quality science education in urban elementary schools by preparing teachers to effectively implement culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy in the classrooms. The project is supported by a National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12 grant. A new science instructional model that intersects effective practices in science education with the theoretical principles of culturally relevant pedagogy was designed and is being implemented. Grounded in evidence-based practice, the new model, SCI-Bridge, features how culturally responsive classroom management, facilitated discourse, and contextual anchoring can be implemented as part of science instruction in elementary classrooms.
Culturally Responsive Instruments:

Culturally Responsive Instructional Observation Protocol (CRIOP): Framework & Measurement tool. Employed as a measurement tool.

Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale (CRCMSE): Tool used to measure the self-efficacy of teachers as it relates to their perceived ability to execute specified Culturally Responsive Classroom Management. (Contact Dr. Siwatu for the access to the instrument.)

Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (CRTSE): Tool used to measure the degree of confidence that educators have regarding their ability to carry out specific teaching practices associated with educators who have adopted a culturally responsive pedagogy. (Contact Dr. Siwatu for the access to the instrument.)

Products:

Recommended Readings:

Freire, P. (2005). Education for critical consciousness​. Continuum. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/education-for-critical-consciousness-9781350190146/

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice​. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. https://www.tcpress.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-9780807758762

Gay, G. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching principles, practices, and effects. In H. R. Milner IV & K. Lomotey (Eds.), Handbook of urban education (pp. 353-372). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203094280-35

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994, 2009). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. Jossey-Bass. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Dreamkeepers%3A+Successful+Teachers+of+African+American+Children%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781118622988

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius. An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic. https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/teacher/books/cultivating-genius-an-equity-framework-9781338594898.html

Powell, R., Cantrell, S. C., Correll, P. K., & Malo-Juvera, V. (2017). Culturally responsive instruction observation protocol (4th ed.). University of Kentucky College of Education. https://www.uky.edu/projectplace/criop

Siwatu, K. O. (2007). Preservice teachers' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 1086-1101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.07.011

Siwatu, K. O., Putnam, M., Starker, T. V., & Lewis, C. (2015). The development of the culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy scale: Development and initial validation. Urban Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915602534

Weinstein, C. S., Tomlinson-Clarke, S., & Curran, M. (2004). Toward a conception of culturally responsive classroom management. ​ Journal of teacher education​, 55​(1), 25-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487103259812

PI: Lama Jaber
Grades: K-12
Target Audience: Pre-service and in-service science and mathematics teachers
STEM Disciplines: Science, Mathematics

Description: When students perceive that their experiences and funds of knowledge are not relevant to their science and mathematics learning, they may view these fields as inaccessible. This in turn creates a barrier for their engagement, one that is particularly consequential for students from historically underrepresented populations. There is a pressing need, then, to prepare STEM teachers to open up their classrooms to students' diverse ideas, experiences, and knowledge, and to design instruction in ways that respond to and leverage those as resources in the classroom. Our project addresses this need by exploring how cultivating teachers' epistemic empathy-their attunement to and appreciation of students' intellectual and emotional experiences within epistemic work-might foster responsiveness in the classroom. Questions guiding our work include: How can epistemic empathy be cultivated in teacher education? How does it shape how teachers understand their roles, goals, and priorities as science or mathematics teachers? And how does it shape teachers' responsiveness to student thinking and emotions during instruction?

The project draws on literature on responsive teaching which asserts that learners' diverse experiences and funds of knowledge are resources for engaging in disciplinary ways of thinking. This stance challenges deficit narratives that position students-particularly those from historically marginalized groups-as lacking. In our work, we examine how cultivating teachers' epistemic empathy can promote such an asset-based stance that supports teachers' responsiveness to students' resources-their linguistic, emotional, cultural, and experiential knowledge-in moments of instruction. Using a design-based approach, the research team designs and implements educative experiences aimed at cultivating teachers' epistemic empathy including: discussions of readings that feature learners' ways of thinking beyond what is traditionally viewed as "scientific" or "mathematical"; engaging in science and mathematics investigations to interrogate one's own learning and emotions in those disciplines; analyzing videos and artifacts of student thinking to support teachers' facility with interpreting student ideas and a stance of humility and curiosity towards all students as sensemakers; and interacting with students and analyzing those interactions to expand teachers' attention to learners' diverse sense-making repertoires and to surface and problematize biases that manifest in moments on instruction
Products:

2021 DRK-12 PI Meeting Poster

Publications

Jaber, L. Z., Dini, V., & Hammer, D. (2022). "Well that's how the kids feel!" Epistemic empathy as a driver of responsive teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 59(2), 223-251. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21726

Jaber, L. Z. (2021). "He got a glimpse of the joys of understanding": The role of epistemic empathy in teacher learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 30(3), 433-465. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2021.1936534

Jaber, L. Z., Southerland, S., & Dake, F. (2018). Cultivating epistemic empathy in preservice teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 72, 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.02.009

Recommended Readings:

Duckworth, E. (2006). The having of wonderful ideas and other essays on teaching and learning. Teachers College Press. https://www.tcpress.com/the-having-of-wonderful-ideas-and-other-essays-on-teaching-and-learning-3rd-edition-9780807747308

Hammer, D., & van Zee, E. H. (2006). Seeing the science in children's thinking: Case studies of student inquiry in physical science (Book and DVD). Heinemann. https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Science-Childrens-Thinking-Physical/dp/0325009481

Levin, D. M., Hammer, D., Elby, A., & Coffey, J. (2012). Becoming a responsive science teacher: Focusing on student thinking in secondary science. NSTA Press. https://my.nsta.org/resource/2683

Linker, M. (2014). Intellectual empathy: Critical thinking for social justice. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.5914478

Rosebery, A. S., Warren, B., & Tucker‐Raymond, E. (2016). Developing interpretive power in science teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 53(10), 1571-1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21267

Relevant Websites (not from this project):
PI: Edith Graf | Co-PIs: Robert Moses, Gregory Budzban, Peter van Rijn, Sarah Ohls and Jessica Andrews-Todd, Yvonne Lai, Cheryl Eames, William Crombie, Charlenne DeLeon-Cuevas
Grades: 9-12
STEM Discipline: Mathematics

Description: In our earlier project, Development and Empirical Recovery for a Learning Progression-Based Assessment of the Function Concept, both focus groups and cognitive interviews guided the revision of mathematical tasks assessing the concept of function. The focus groups consisted of near-peer mentors from the Young People's Project (YPP), who offered feedback on the tasks from the students' point of view. Similarly, many of the cognitive interviews were conducted by staff of YPP. This approach was helpful in identifying potentially construct-irrelevant task features, particularly around the language used in the tasks. Following administration of a pilot, we again revised the tasks, taking statistical results into account. Several of the cognitive interviewers participated in these conversations and offered their perspectives on the interpretation of the results. In our view, task design informed by students' perspectives is central to culturally responsive assessment development.

In our current project, Investigating the Role of Collaboration on the Development of Student Ideas using a Learning Progression for the Function Concept, we extend our earlier work into the realm of collaborative problem solving (CPS). Mathematics has its own language and cultural norms, and mathematizing intuitive understandings is challenging. The Algebra Project's Five-Step Curricular Process (Moses, Kamii, Swap, & Howard, 1989; Moses, West, & Davis, 2009) was designed to support a transition from a shared mathematical experience to a symbolic representation. A feature of the process is that many of the steps are facilitated by collaborative co-construction: Students discuss the mathematical experience in their own words, and with guidance from their teacher, identify features to be mathematized. Finally, students capture the structure of the mathematical experience as a symbolic representation.

The planned study in the current project is modeled to be consistent with this process and involves both small-team CPS and whole-class discussion. Through these activities, we intend to support students in the transition to the language and culture of mathematics, by building on their existing language, culture, and intuitive understandings. As with the earlier project, we will include student voice: for example, YPP near-peer mentors will contribute to an upcoming usability study.
Products:

Video (2019 STEM For All Video Showcase) | Video (2020 STEM For All Video Showcase)

Publications:

Eames, C. L., Graf, E. A., van Rijn, P. W., Budzban, G., & Voepel, T. (2021). The finite-to-finite strand of a learning progression for the concept of function: A research synthesis and cognitive analysis. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2021.100864

Graf, E. A., van Rijn, P. W., & Eames, C. L. (2021). A cycle for validating a learning progression illustrated with an example from the concept of function. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2020.100836

Recommended Reading:
PI: Jennifer Kidd
Grades: K-6
STEM Discipline: Engineering, Technology

Description: Ed+gineering project partners preservice teachers (PSTs) and engineering students to collaboratively design and deliver culturally responsive engineering lessons to elementary students. From this project, we expect PSTs to cultivate the pedagogical knowledge, professional skills, and attitudes they need to integrate culturally responsive engineering into their instruction as most of them are not exposed to engineering as part of their professional training, and as a result, feel unprepared to teach engineering in their future classrooms. PSTs ' preparation is scaffolded through three different collaboration models. Collaborations 1 and 3 use a "field trip" model, where local elementary students from Title I schools travel to the University campus for an "Engineering Day". During this visit, students will take a tour of a residence hall and student recreation center, observe various Engineering labs (e.g. Motor Sports, Manufacturing), and participate in an hour-long engineering lesson taught by collaborating education and engineering students. Distinct from Collaboration 1, the teams of education and engineering students in Collaboration 3 travel to the local participating schools at the beginning of the semester to teach an Introduction to Engineering lesson, where PSTs informally talk with the students about issues within their local communities (e.g., local flooding mitigation), or globally (e.g., clean water/water distribution mechanisms), that may be solved through an engineering task. PSTs use students' input to design a culturally responsive fluid mechanics-focused engineering challenge for their lesson so that students can make a personal connection to the upcoming lesson, and develop relationships between the PSTs and their elementary students. Our second collaboration model takes place in an after-school technology club for 5th graders. PST, engineering student, and 5th grade student work together over five weeks to design, build, and code bio-inspired robots that solve global challenges. The PSTs help the 5th graders draw upon their interests and knowledge of global issues to develop their solution. We believe such early exposure to engineering will enhance elementary students' STEM knowledge and increase the likelihood of pursuing an engineering career. At the same time, the lessons give PSTs needed practice with engineering and culturally responsive pedagogical practices.

Culturally Responsive Instruments: Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) underscore the importance of including engineering instruction in K-12 education, creating an urgent need to help prepare future teachers and assess their readiness to integrate engineering into their courses. The Ed+gineering research team proposed a framework and an instrument to assess preservice teachers' preparedness to integrate engineering at the elementary and middle school level. Key pedagogical features of successful engineering instruction and culturally responsive pedagogy underscore the dimensions of the instrument. The instrument, called EIPECK, was designed to assess perceived pedagogical content knowledge associated with engineering integration into K-12 education. A paper describing the development and validation of EIPECK is currently in review. The outcomes from this paper will provide an assessment framework and an instrument that can be used to inform and evaluate engineering education training initiatives in teacher preparation programs by providing the PST's perspective on their level of preparation to integrate engineering into K-12 classrooms.
Products: Recommended Reading:

Gay, G. (2018). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press. https://www.tcpress.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-9780807758762

Yarema, S., Grueber, D., & Ferreira, M. (2014). Methods & strategies: Learning science in cultural context: Resources from a school yard hike. Science and Children, 51(5), 66-69. https://my.nsta.org/resource/94041/methods-and-strategies-learning-science-in-cultural-context

Description: Energy is a foundational concept of physics and plays an integral role in a web of sociocultural realities, economic issues, and public policies. The Energy & Equity project supports high school teachers to develop a robust model of energy, grounded in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and also intentionally constructed to support engagement with current sociopolitical issues. Teachers and university researchers collaboratively explore energy learning as a means for promoting discussions of energy justice and energy equity globally and in our local communities. By developing a model of energy in physics that is fully aware of how science is sociocultural, teachers (and their students) gain the opportunity to create science concepts informed by their cultural worlds and educational priorities. We especially support teachers to create culturally responsive educational experiences through place-based education that honors Indigenous presence.

The two major components of the Energy and Equity model are (1) the professional development (PD) experience, including both an intensive in-person summer workshop (SW) and an online professional learning community (PLC), and (2) the Energy and Equity Portal, an online resource for teachers to share instructional materials and report on action research.
Products: Recommended Readings:
Description: RIEL Biology collaborates with in-service biology teachers to develop and implement an instructional framework that supports emergent bilingual (EB) student participation and achievement in biology. This framework builds on foundational ideas in culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy to recognize, recruit, and reinforce the many strengths that EB students bring to classrooms. RIEL Biology's goal is to hone this framework-which consists of promoting collaboration, affirming science identities, using multiple modalities and languages, attending to students' identities and experiences, and connecting classrooms to pressing issues in students' lives.

Culturally Responsive Instruments: The RIEL Biology Observation Protocol (coming soon! The project is still validating this instrument but will share a preview during the April 4 webinar on Culturally Relevant Science Instruction)

Products:

Video (2021 STEM For All Video Showcase)

Publication:
Pacheco, M. B., & Brown, J. C. (2022). Newcomer emergent bilingual students' meaning-making in urban biology classrooms: A communities of practice perspective. Urban Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859211073893

Presentations:

Brown, J. C. & Joyce, M. C. Keynote. Supporting ESOL students in STEM classrooms. Collier County School District. Collier County, FL. Jul 30, 2021 - Jul 30, 2021.

Brown, J. C., Davis, E. C., Jung, K. J., & Pacheco, M. B. (2021, June). RIEL Biology: Responsive instruction for emergent bilingual learners in biology classrooms. Virtual poster presentation. 2021 DRK12 PI meeting

https://2021.drk12pimeeting.org/meetings/virtual/xAbWpJkdx3ZxpFs97

Brown, J. C., Jung, K. J., Pacheco, M. B., I, J-Y., Kayumova, S., & Villanueva Alarcon, I. (2021, June). Considerations for STEM participation of emergent bilinguals during COVID-19. Panelist session, 2021 DRK12 PI Meeting

https://2021.drk12pimeeting.org/meetings/virtual/YyTLYxiC2v492ETg3

Joyce, M. C., Pacheco, M. B., & Brown, J. C. (2022, March). Development of an instructional protocol for culturally and linguistically responsive biology instruction for emergent bilingual students. National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). Conference proposal.

Jung, K. G., Brown, J. C., Davis, E. C., Pacheco, M. B. (2021, January). RIEL Biology: Promoting culturally and linguistically responsive education in biology. Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE). Virtual Conference.

Koukoulidis, N., Brown, J. C., & Jung, K. G. (2022, January). Biology teachers' interaction patterns with online professional learning resources. Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE). Conference proposal.

Pacheco, M.B., Joyce, M.C., & Brown, J. C. (2022, April). Towards an instructional protocol for culturally and linguistically responsive biology instruction for emergent bilingual students. American Educational Research Association (AERA). Conference proposal.

Pacheco, M. B. & Joyce, M. C. (2020). Keynote. Supporting ESOL students in STEM classrooms. Collier County School District. Collier County, FL. Dec 5, 2020 - Dec 5, 2020.

Staggs, M. M., Jung, K. G., & Brown, J. C. (2022, January). Making science relevant to students: How teachers access and incorporate funds of knowledge in the high school biology classroom. Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE). Conference Proposal.

Staggs, M. M., Jung, K. G., & Brown, J. C. (2022, March). Making science relevant to students: How teachers access and incorporate funds of knowledge in the high school biology classroom. National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). Conference Proposal.

Recommended Readings:

Brown, J. C. (2017). A metasynthesis of the complementarity of culturally responsive and inquiry‐based science education in K-12 settings: Implications for advancing equitable science teaching and learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54(9), 1143-1173. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21401

Buxton, C. A., & Lee, O. (2014). English learners in science education. Handbook of Research on Science Education, 2, 204-222. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203097267-20

David, S. S., Pacheco, M. B., & Jiménez, R. T. (2019). Designing translingual pedagogies: Exploring pedagogical translation through a classroom teaching experiment. Cognition and Instruction, 37(2), 252-275. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2019.1580283

Lee, O., Llosa, L., Grapin, S., Haas, A., & Goggins, M. (2019). Science and language integration with English learners: A conceptual framework guiding instructional materials development. Science Education, 103(2), 317-337. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21498

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). English learners in STEM subjects: Transforming classrooms, schools, and lives. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25182

Pacheco, M. B. (2018). Spanish, Arabic, and "English‐only": Making meaning across languages in two classroom communities. TESOL Quarterly, 52(4), 995-1021. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.446

PI: Angelina Castagno | Co-PI: Pradeep Dass
Grades: K-12
STEM Discipline: All STEM disciplines (specific topics are determined by the teachers in our professional development program)

Description: We strengthen K-12 teaching in Indigenous-serving schools through professional development that increases teachers' content knowledge and capacity to develop and deliver culturally responsive curriculum. With funding from NSF, we are offering STEM-specific professional development, and we are researching the implementation, effectiveness, and opportunities for improvement in our work. Our program is currently a partnership with Navajo schools, and we plan to add a partnership with San Carlos Apache schools in 2022.

Our professional development model emphasizes (1) multi-grade and cross-content-area collaboration among teachers, (2) teacher-developed instructional units, and (3) culturally responsive approaches to STEM teaching. These innovations are particularly critical for teacher professional development efforts in Native-serving schools, who are generally constrained by either lack of curricular resources or mandates to use one-size-fits-all, scripted curriculum provided by their districts. In either case, it can be challenging for teachers to fully engage culturally responsive instructional practices. Our model addresses this challenge by supporting teachers in the development of self-authored instructional units that are aligned to state content standards and locally-articulated cultural standards. Finally, all of the instructional units developed by teachers in our program are available online for broader access and impact.

Culturally Responsive Instrument(s): Our team developed the Culturally Responsive Assessment of Indigenous Schooling (CRAIS) tool based on our work over the past three years. This rubric can be used to identify and strengthen the integration of culturally responsive principles for, with, and in Indigenous-serving schools. It is available online at: https://in.nau.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/101/2021/10/CRAIS-Tool-Oct-2021.pdf

Products:

Recommended Readings: We lean heavily on the work of Indigenous scholars and those working directly on Indigenous educational issues. This body of work is robust, but a few foundational readings for our work include the following:

Bang, M., & Medin, D. (2010). Cultural processes in science education: Supporting the navigation of multiple epistemologies. Science Education, 94(6), 1008-1026. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20392

Castagno, A., & Brayboy, B. M. (2008). Culturally responsive schooling for Indigenous youth: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 78, 941-993. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654308323036

Lomawaima, T. & McCarty, T. (2006). To remain an Indian: Lessons in democracy from a century of Native American education. Teachers College Press. https://www.tcpress.com/to-remain-an-indian-9780807747162

McCarty, T. & Lee, T. (2014). Critical culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy and Indigenous education sovereignty. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 101-124.

https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.q83746nl5pj34216

PI: Cory Buxton | Co-PI: Francisca Belart, Yanming Di, Susan Rowe
Grades: 4-12
STEM Discipline: General Science with a Forestry emphasis

Description: The Supporting students' language, knowledge and culture through science, or LaCuKnoS Project, seeks to develop and refine a model of justice centered science education, bringing teachers, students, families and researchers together as co-learners. We do this through design and development work focused on three related strands: Language Development for Science Sense Making, Mapping Culture & Community Connections to Science, and Knowledge Building for Informed Decision Making. Culturally sustaining pedagogies are built into each of the strands, in recognition that equity practices are more effective when integral to a pedagogical model rather than addressed as discrete strategies. Our culturally sustaining approach highlights the value of place-based and community-based knowledge while recognizing that many students don't see their cultures, their communities, or their histories represented in science, either in school or in society.

We view culturally sustaining science education as central to moving beyond "broadening participation" strategies in science that have often focused on making science more welcoming to individuals from underrepresented groups while failing to consider how science and technology have disproportionately harmed individuals from those groups. While current science standards highlight big ideas and practices that scientists use in their work, culturally sustaining science education must also focus on pressing societal challenges and designing justice-centered solutions, starting in the elementary grades.

We recognize that human learning and progress have largely occurred through the development and use of tools for solving problems, and that learning to use new tools can help us to see new possibilities. With this in mind, LaCuKnoS supports students in applying and expanding the linguistic, cultural, and knowledge-building tools they possess to make sense of their place in the world and the impacts they wish to make. We also work directly with families through community based science workshops to support families in understanding that they have many experiences and skills that can enhance their children's science learning. Creating opportunities for families to learn, do, and talk about science together highlights roles science already plays in their lives and is central to creating culturally sustaining science teaching and learning experiences.
Culturally Responsive Instrument:

Family conversations interview card game - LaCuKnoS Family Conversations are semi-structured interviews between parents and children focused on experiences and interests in science, academic and career goals, the language of science, and the role of science and technology in society. The audio-recorded interviews are in the format of a family conversation, with parents and children taking turns drawing cards and asking each other questions. By removing the researcher from the interview, we found that families had more authentic and meaningful conversations about science in their lives. Parents have told us they are looking for ways to authentically share about their hopes and goals with their growing children while students have told us they value opportunities to engage with their families and teachers in new ways.

Products: The LaCuKnoS project is actively designing and refining a range of products for supporting culturally sustaining science pedagogies for teachers, students and families. These products include:
Recommended Readings:

Bell, P., Bricker, L., Reeve, S., Zimmerman, H. T., & Tzou, C. (2013). Discovering and supporting successful learning pathways of youth in and out of school: Accounting for the development of everyday expertise across settings. In B. Bevan, P. Bell, R. Stevens, & A. Razfar (Eds.), LOST opportunities: Learning in out-of-school time (pp. 119-140). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4304-5_9

Maton, K., & Howard, S. K. (2018). Taking autonomy tours. LCT Centre for Knowledge Building. Sydney: Australia, 1-35. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325655299

PI: Pauline W. U. Chinn | Co-PIs: Steven Businger, Scott Rowland, Marvin Nogelmeier, Celia Smith, Kirsten Mawyer, Kahealaniakealo Faria
Grades: PreK-12, Informal
STEM Discipline: Life and Earth Systems Science
Target Populations: Teachers of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students

Description: Imagine growing up on a Pacific island where familiar plants, animals, and places never enter your science learning because science texts and teacher preparation do not include your place, culture, or home language. These islands include Hawaiʻi, American Samoa, Tonga, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and the Marshall Islands. Pacifc Island students compose a third of K-12 students in Hawaiʻi and are the fastest growing groups of students.

Most Pacific Island families arriving in Hawaiʻi speak their heritage languages, so children learn English as a second language. The Transforming Scientific Practices, A Teacher Leadership project addresses this cultural gap with professional development situated in students' cultures and places. Teachers explore their students' cultures and communities to identify issues and resources for place-based, experiential, meaningful STEA ² M (ancestral, art) lessons that address NGSS and , socioemotional learner outcomes relevant to Hawaiʻi.

How the project addresses culturally responsive STEM education
In Hawaiian, A ʻo means both to teach and to learn, referring to this reciprocal process. Place-based educators interview community members, develop community partnerships, and conduct archival research in order to develop a community map of resources. This leads to identifying place-based STEM resources and issues relevant to both their community and teaching. In the process of curriculum mapping, educators write NGSS curriculum addressing their place-based project. Building upon family and community partnerships, their lessons employ culturally responsive pedagogies intended to engage Native Hawaiian (NH) and Pacific Islander (PI) students in learning grounded in their cultures and communities. Teachers employ story telling, practice-and place-based learning, traditional ways to transmit deep ecological knowledge and complex cultural practices across generations. Transdisciplinary, place based expertise and curricular leaders develop as teachers write lessons that intersect place, culture, and science content.
Products: Recommended Readings:

Bang, M., Douglas L. Medin, D. L., & Atran, S. (2007). Cultural Mosaics and Mental Models of Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 13868-74. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706627104

Brayboy, B.M.J. Toward a Tribal Critical Race Theory in Education. Urban Rev 37,425-446 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-005-0018-y

Coleman, S., Chinn, P., Morrison, D. & Kaupp, L. (March 2019). Practice Brief 57: How place-based science education strategies can support equity for students, teachers, and communities. http://stemteachingtools.org/brief/57

Kūlana Noi'i (n.d.). http://seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Kulana-Noii...

McCarty, T. L., & Lee, T. S. (2014). Critical culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy and indigenous education sovereignty. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 101-124. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.q83746nl5pj34216

Packer, M. J., & Goicoechea, J. (2000). Sociocultural and constructivist theories of learning: Ontology, not just epistemology. Educational Psychologist, 35, 227-241. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3504_02

Additional DRK-12 Projects

PREVIOUSLY FEATURED IN THE 2019 SPOTLIGHT

Culturally Responsive Indigenous Science: Connecting Land, Language, and Culture (NSF #1720931)
PIs: Paula Groves Price | Co-PIs: Kimberly Christen; Higheagle Strong, Z
Grades: 4-9
STEM Discipline: Science, Technology
Target Populations: Native American students
Description: In collaboration with three tribal communities in the Northwest, the Culturally Responsive Indigenous Science (CRIS) project catalyzes new approaches to Indigenous science teaching and learning through land-based science curriculum and hands-on enrichment programs that weave Indigenous knowledges and languages with western science and digital tools to increase Native American students' learning, engagement and achievement across the sciences.
Approach to Addressing Culturally Responsive STEM Education: Core to the project's innovation, the CRIS project team includes tribal language/culture teachers, school science, mathematics, special education teachers, university faculty, and graduate students. Through a community-based approach to curriculum design, the project team collaborates to develop land-based science curriculum that weaves together traditional ecological knowledge, language, technology and western science in ways that address national science standards while honoring tribal culture, language, and sovereignty. To accomplish this, the CRIS team gathers quarterly in each tribal homeland and at Washington State University to develop curriculum modules, engage in teacher professional development, and provide enrichment programming for Native American youth. All project activities are designed for students and teachers to critically problem-solve local issues related to the environment and sustainability from the perspective of traditional knowledge, stories, and language. The modules include innovative lessons with H5P interactive content, digitized and archived cultural materials from the Plateau Peoples' Web Portal, and media resources. Teachers and students utilize the CRIS project website and iPad application to access the modules, engage in interactive lessons, gather content, and create video and project-based assessments. This project builds bridges between schools, tribal departments, and communities and develops a regional network of support across tribal nations.
Early Findings: Including elders/community knowledge keepers and centering Indigenous languages and culture in the curriculum development process is a critical component of developing culturally responsive Indigenous STEM education. Culturally responsive and sustaining Indigenous STEM education requires approaching curriculum, teaching, learning, assessment, and research methodologies from the knowledge systems of the community. Building strong relationships based on trust, respect, and reciprocity is key for researchers engaging in culturally responsive work. Following cultural protocols is equally important to following institutional research protocols. Many research instruments and survey tools are not culturally responsive, so researchers should be prepared to build culturally responsive evaluation instruments.
Products: Video (2020 STEM for All Video Showcase) | Video (Annual Field Trip) | Video (CRIS Summer Camp) | Lesson Plan Template
Recommended Reading: Tuck, E., McKenzie, M., & McCoy, Kate. (2014). Land education: Indigenous, post-colonial, and decolonizing perspectives on place and environmental education research. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 1-23. doi:10.1080/13504622.2013.877708

Learning in Places (NSF #1720578)
PI: Carrie Tzou | Co-PIs: Megan Bang, Sharon Siehl
Grades: K-3
STEM Discipline: Ecology, Biology, Earth Science
Description: Seattle Public Schools, Tilth Alliance, the University of Washington, and Northwestern University partner with K-3 children, families, educators, and community-based organizations to co-design equitable, culturally based, field-based science education utilizing outdoor habitats, including gardens. We are working to reimagine how children can engage in phenology motivated field-based science driven by "should we" questions that cultivates ethical deliberation and decision-making around socio-ecological systems and issues that are consequential to them, their families, and their communities.
Approach to Addressing Culturally Responsive STEM Education: We start from the assumption that all learning is cultural and that all learning shapes identity. By this we mean that we all have cultural ways of knowing and understanding the world around us, and how we learn shapes who we are and who we might become. Yet, science is often taught and designed in a way that treats the practices and places in which we do science as ahistorical, acultural, and unproblematic. Our project engages a diversity of voices⁠-students, families, teachers, and community-based organizations⁠-in co-designing what we call a "seasonal storyline" that engages learners and their families in field-based science that connects family knowledge and place-based, student-led investigations. The storyline begins with an exploration of what we call "socio-ecological histories of place", where students and families explore the ways in which places have been and continue to be shaped by human decisions, from our earliest geologic time to Indigenous People's time, to imagining the possible futures of places and our responsibilities to them. Students develop "should we" questions to learn about places across timescales and the layers of relations between human communities and the rest of the natural world to explore socio-ecological systems and decision-making. Through these investigations they come to understand the connection between field-based data and evidence, family and community practices and priorities, and place-based histories and futures. Finally, students share their "should we" questions with recommendations for decisions to peers and their families.
Early Findings: We have found that when co-designing with community-based organizations, teachers, and families, it is critically important to explicitly address issues of power, equity, and inequity, especially as they pertain to deficit perspectives of families of color and teaching science. Initial analyses point to the power of orienting students to sensemaking along multiple time and spatial scales: that, when asked to notice and wonder about places, they engage in more expansive thinking about how and why places come to be, and what scientific and engineering practices they could use to find out more about places.
Products: Teaching Tools
FUNDED IN 2021 FUNDED IN 2019 FUNDED IN 2018 FUNDED IN 2016
Related Resources

Blog | Critically Examining Whiteness in Culturally Responsive Education
By Christa Haverly, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Northwestern University
Culturally responsive teaching is responsive to students' lived experiences, cultural repertoires of practice, linguistic resources, and other ways of knowing and being in this world. Here I take up race, recognizing that this is just one part of the culturally responsive story. To that end, though I am cautious to center another White voice in a conversation about culturally responsive teaching, I offer the following narrative as a critical reflection on my racialized positionality in hopes that it creates space for dialogue with and among White researchers while continuing to listen to and learn from scholars of Color (including from this spotlight).

CADRE Report | The Use of Theory in Research on Broadening Participation in PreK-12 STEM Education: Information and Guidance for Prospective DRK-12 Grantees
This CADRE resource for prospective DRK-12 grantees identifies some of the theories that current and recent DRK-12 grantees are using in their research on broadening participation, including culturally relevant pedagogy and other theories that can intersect with culturally responsive STEM education.

CAISE Report | Focusing on Cultural Competency in STEM Education
This report details the need for cultural competency and the spectrum of cultural competency and provides practical activities to aid educators in creating a culturally active learning environment.

PI Meeting Session (2016) | Culturally Responsive STEM Education
At the 2016 DRK-12 PI Meeting, Amy Wilson-Lopez (currently an NSF program director) led a roundtable discussion on culturally responsive STEM education. This session handout introduces the theoretical foundations of culturally responsive education (including culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 1975, 2013) and culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2014)), constructs for grounding STEM education in students' lives, applications of culturally responsive education in the STEM disciplines, and key questions and issues in culturally responsive STEM education.

Reading List | Culturally Responsive STEM Education
This list of publications on the topic of culturally responsive STEM education were compiled thanks to National Science Foundation-funded projects featured in CADRE's Spotlight.

STEM Teaching Tools Brief | How to Avoid Known Pitfalls Associated with Culturally Responsive Instruction
This brief explains the importance of connecting science teaching to the cultural knowledge, experiences, and ways of knowing of students and their communities by attending to the historical and dynamic nature of culture, inherent variation within cultural communities, and issues of power and sovereignty that come with responsibly connecting to culture.

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Culturally Responsive STEM Education | CADRE

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the student population in the U.S. is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Providing quality, equitable STEM education for PreK-12 students, particularly students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields, requires curriculum, instruction, and assessment that value their cultural practices and reflect their lived experiences.

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the student population in the U.S. is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Providing quality, equitable STEM education for PreK-12 students, particularly students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields, requires curriculum, instruction, and assessment that value their cultural practices and reflect their lived experiences.

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Creative STAR Learning | I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!

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earth.fm: Listen to nature sounds, fall in love with the Earth

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A non-profit, growing library of immersive nature sounds from all over the world. Become part of our family and help preserve the planet.

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Concepts, skills, and qualities taught: Auditory awareness, serenity
When and where to play: Day and night / natural area
Number of people needed: For 1 person or more
Suggested age range: Ages 5 and up
Materials needed: Paper, pencil(s)

​The drumming of a woodpecker-wind streaming through the trees-flutelike calls of a hermit thrush-water cascading down a steep, rocky incline.

​Enchanting choruses of natural sounds delight players of Sound Map. Children love this activity and sit surprisingly still while mapping the sounds around them.

To play, give each person a piece of paper with an X marked in the center. Tell the participants that the paper is a sound map and that the X represents where each player is sitting (once he's chosen his spot). When a player hears a sound, he makes a mark on the paper to represent the sound. The location of the mark should indicate the direction and distance of the sound from the player's seat. Tell players not to draw a detailed picture for each sound, but to make just a simple mark. For example, a few wavy lines could represent a gust of wind, or a musical note could indicate a singing bird. Making simple marks keeps the focus on listening rather than on drawing.

Encourage the players to close their eyes while listening for sounds. To help them increase their hearing ability, ask them to make "fox" ears by cupping their hands behind the ears. This hand position will create a greater surface area to capture sounds. Then show them how to cup the hands in front of the ears (palms facing backwards) to hear sounds behind them more easily.

To hear a variety of natural sounds, choose an area that encompasses several habitats, such as meadow, stream, and forest. Tell the players they have one minute to find their special "listening place." Setting a definite time limit prevents restless players from walking around too long and disturbing the rest of the group. For the same reason, tell players to remain in their spots until you signal that the activity is over.

How long should you play? From 4 to 10 minutes is good-depending on the group's age and interest level, and on how active the animals are. Once you've called the group back together ask them to divide into pairs, each to share his sound map with a partner.

After players have shared their maps, you can ask them questions such as these:

What sounds were the most familiar to you?

What sound had you never heard before? Do you know what made the sound?

What sound did you like best? Why?

Sitting quietly-listening to the soothing voices of nearby trees, birds, and rustling grasses-calms us and deepens our appreciation for the life around us. Sound Map is an excellent activity for instilling greater awareness of one's surroundings.

"This earth was the most glorious musical instrument,
and I was audience to its strains."
Next activity

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Concepts, skills, and qualities taught: Auditory awareness, serenity When and where to play: Day and night / natural area Number of people needed: For 1 person or more Suggested age range: Ages 5 and...

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Soundwalking in the Time of COVID-19, recorded by Sharon Gill, a SWMLC board member and a professor of biological sciences at Western Michigan University, leads participants through a series of listening exercises to help them hear the sounds of nature while walking at a Land Conservancy preserve or natural area. Participants are encouraged to listen to the podcast for the first set of instructions, walk while listening to the natural sounds around them, then pause to resume the podcast and the next instruction.

The entire podcast may take up to 45 minutes to complete, but you can easily shorten the exercise to fit your needs. (Suggestions for shortening it are included in the recording.) To access the podcast, visit swmlc.org.

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Soundwalking in the Time of COVID-19 was created by Sharon Gill, a SWMLC board member and Professor of Biological Sciences at Western Michigan University, (with help from Rachel Steining) as a way to help people find inner balance through deepening their connection to nature in ways that are both new and traditional.

Sharon has recorded a podcast that leads participants through a series of listening exercises. Participants are encouraged to listen to the podcast for the first set of instructions, walk while listening to the natural sounds around them, then pause to resume the podcast and the next instruction. The entire podcast may take up to 45 minutes to complete but you can easily shorten the exercise to fit your needs (suggestions for shortening are included in the recording).

This Soundwalk may be used at any SWMLC preserve or natural area of your choosing. Participants are encouraged to return to the same place around the same time of day to repeat one or two exercises. Getting to know one's environment is like getting to know a friend.

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Soundwalking in the Time of COVID-19 was created by Sharon Gill, a SWMLC board member and Professor of Biological Sciences at Western Michigan University, (with help from Rachel Steining) as a way to help people find inner balance through deepening their connection to nature in ways that are both new and traditional.

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As an undergraduate at Clark University, Tara pursued a double major in psychology and political science. During this time, while working as a grassroots organizer for tenants' rights, she also began attending yoga classes and exploring Eastern approaches to inner transformation. After college, she lived for ten years in an ashram-a spiritual community-where she practiced and taught both yoga and concentrative meditation. When she left the ashram and attended her first Buddhist Insight Meditation retreat, led by Joseph Goldstein, she realized she was home. "I had found wisdom teachings and practices that train the heart and mind in unconditional and loving presence," she explains. "I knew that this was a path of true freedom."

Over the following years, Tara earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Fielding Institute, with a dissertation exploring meditation as a therapeutic modality in treating addiction. She went on to complete a five-year Buddhist teacher training program at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Working as both a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher, she found herself naturally blending these two powerful traditions-introducing meditation to her therapy clients and sharing western psychological insights with meditation students. This synthesis has evolved, in more recent years, into Tara's groundbreaking work in training psychotherapists to integrate mindfulness strategies into their clinical work.

In 1998, Tara founded the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC (IMCW), which is now one of the largest and most dynamic non-residential meditation centers in the United States. She gives presentations, teaches classes, offers workshops, and leads silent meditation retreats at IMCW and at conferences and retreat centers in the United States and Europe. Tara's podcast is downloaded more than 3 million times each month. Her themes reveal the possibility of emotional healing and spiritual awakening through mindful, loving awareness as well as the alleviation of suffering in the larger world by practicing compassion in action. She has fostered efforts to bring principles and practices of mindfulness to issues of racial injustice, equity and inclusivity; peace; environmental sustainability, as well as to prisons and schools.

Together with Jack Kornfield, Tara co-founded Cloud Sangha and the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program, which serves participants from 74 countries around the world.

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Biography for Tara Brach, a leading western teacher of Buddhist meditation, emotional healing and spiritual awakening.

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In-depth mindfulness programs for teens and adults

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In-depth mindfulness programs for teens and adults

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Young people deserve our best attention and support

Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) offers innovative formats and teaching frameworks. Our mindfulness practices help deep listening skills, self-awareness, and communication, essential competencies for success in all areas of life.

What we do FAQs for Parents

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Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) | Mindfulness Retreats for Teens & Young Adults

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Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) offers innovative formats and teaching frameworks. Our mindfulness practices help deep listening skills, self-awareness, and communication, essential competencies for success in all areas of life. What we do FAQs for Parents

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Minds is a non-profit dedicated to empowering Washington DC-area schools by teaching mindfulness-based practices to students, educators, and parents.

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Non-profit making DC schools more conscious and compassionate environments by teaching mindfulness to students, educators, and parents.

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(suggested by Roberta Hunter)

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New project: ILLU.ai - On-Brand AI Images ↗

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New project: ILLU.ai - On-Brand AI Images ↗

New project: ILLU.ai - On-Brand AI Images ↗

New project: ILLU.ai - On-Brand AI Images ↗

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tree.fm - Tune Into Forests From Around The World 🌳🔈

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People around the world recorded the sounds of their forests, so you can escape into nature, while in lockdown or unable to travel. Use this site to chill, meditate or do some digital shinrin-yoku.

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 2021_01_11_ Presentation_Collaborative Teaching Support Network 

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Little Mindfulness Activities that are easy!

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Little Mindfulness Activities that are easy!

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Calm the Mind, Calm the Class with the DeStress Monday at School Program

Start the school year right with our DeStress Monday at School program! Join the thousands of teachers around the world who've used our free 10-week email series to introduce stress management practices into their personal routine and their classroom.

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Calm the Mind, Calm the Class with the DeStress Monday at School Program Start the school year right with our DeStress Monday at School program! Join the thousands of teachers around the world who've used our free 10-week email series to introduce stress management practices into their personal routine and their classroom.

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Resources for Outdoor Science Programs Student-Centered  ♦  Nature-Centered

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Science and Teaching for Field Instructors

Student-Centered ♦ Nature-Centered

For a slightly longer introduction to BEETLES, watch the 7-minute video.

BEETLES: Infusing outdoor science programs with research-based approaches and tools to improve science teaching and learning.

Our professional learning resources are designed for program leaders to use with field instructors. They provide experiences and rationale about outdoor science instruction designed to inspire instructors to improve their teaching. Our student activities inspire students' wonder and curiosity about the natural world, support their innate tendencies for exploration and guide them to make explanations based on evidence.

All BEETLES resources embody our five research-based design principles.

People learn Outdoor Science best when they:

ENGAGE DIRECTLY WITH NATURE

Experience Instruction based on how people learn

PARTICIPATE IN CULTURALLY RELEVANT LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

LEARN THROUGH DISCUSSIONS

One Centennial Drive
Berkeley, CA 94720-5200
Contact Us

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Science and Teaching for Field Instructors Student-Centered ♦ Nature-Centered For a slightly longer introduction to BEETLES, watch the 7-minute video. Our professional learning resources are designed for program leaders to use with field instructors. They provide experiences and rationale about outdoor science instruction designed to inspire instructors to improve their teaching.

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NAAEE Guidelines - Early Childhood Environmental Education   

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NAAEE Guidelines - Early Childhood Environmental Education   

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Misty

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Outdoor Learning for Schools

Welcome to the Nature Based Education Consortium Outdoor Learning resource page! This page is an information hub, built to support school districts and community partners interested in Outdoor Learning.

See this page for ideas on outdoor classrooms, funding, scheduling, guidance for schools and many opportunities for teachers to find training on how to implement outdoor learning. Read and share the Outdoor Learning Quick Reference Guide for an easy entry into outdoor learning this fall.

​

This page is continuously changing - if you have a resource that you think should be listed here, please send it to Nathan Broaddus, NBEC Manager. Bookmark this page and check back often for new information and opportunities. NBEC is proud to be host to this true community effort, which is based on participation of partners statewide.

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Outdoor Learning in Schools | Nature Based Education Consortium | Maine

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Outdoor Learning for Schools Welcome to the Nature Based Education Consortium Outdoor Learning resource page! This page is an information hub, built to support school districts and community partners interested in Outdoor Learning. See this page for ideas on outdoor classrooms, funding, scheduling, guidance for schools and many opportunities for teachers to find training on how to implement outdoor learning.

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https://padlet.com/delimajo/42b20w7f5hlpgb2m

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Received: 7 August 2019 / Revised: 26 August 2019 / Accepted: 28 August 2019 / Published: 2 September 2019

1. Introduction

Recent research has paid increasing attention to the healing effects of both mindfulness training and exposure to nature, and research at the intersection between environmental psychology and meditation science seems to be a growing field [ 1], as does the variety of applications available [ 2]. Possible cumulative or synergistic effects may exist. An example is the correlation between the feeling of being connected to nature and the capacity to be mindful (i.e., trait mindfulness), which has been documented by Schutte and Malouff [ 3]. Another example is the theory-based hypothesis that meditation training and exposure to nature complement each other when combined [ 4], and are not merely the addition of independent effects.

1.1. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is considered to involve the intentional regulation of attention with an attitude of non-judgment, openness, curiosity, and acceptance of one's current experience [ 5]. While state mindfulness may change rapidly, trait mindfulness can be enhanced through meditation. In programs such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), most formal meditations can be characterized as "attention training": Attentional regulation is cultivated by intentionally bringing the attention back to a chosen object (concentration meditation), by paying attention to whatever thoughts or sensations unfold by themselves in the mind (open-awareness meditation), or by being aware of the awareness itself [ 6, 7]. Informal mindfulness is also part of the MBSR curriculum, and is cultivated while one engages in everyday activities [ 6]. Short mindfulness interventions have been documented to enhance state mindfulness [ 8] but most research on mindfulness training concerns the effects of programs such as the eight-week MBSR and MBCT. These have been proven to affect health positively with regard to psychological [ 9, 10], physical [ 11, 12], and social functioning [ 13, 14]. With regard to the mechanisms that underlie mindfulness interventions comparable to MBSR, evidence has been found regarding cognitive and emotional reactivity, mindfulness, and ruminative negative thinking, and preliminary but insufficient evidence has been found regarding self-compassion and psychological flexibility [ 15].

1.2. Natural Environments and Exposure to Nature

Nature can be defined as "areas containing elements of living systems that include plants and nonhuman animals across a range of scales and degrees of human management, from a small urban park through to relatively 'pristine wilderness'" [ 16] (p. 120). For the purposes of data extraction, this article uses Mausner's [ 17] categories of natural environments, which seem appropriate for the task and compatible with Bratman et al.'s definition.

It has been shown that spending time in nature promotes health, prevents health problems such as stress, depression, and anxiety [ 18, 19, 20], and improves immune functioning [ 21] and interpersonal functioning [ 22]. The pathways to positive health effects may be via physical and social activity as well as improved air quality [ 23]. Improved immune functioning from contact with microbial or other antigens [ 21] or exposure to certain natural substances such as phytoncides from trees [ 24] may also function as a mechanism for associated health benefits. The most widely investigated psychological pathways are attention restoration and stress reduction, but other factors, such as emotion regulation and feelings of awe or mystery, may mediate positive health outcomes [ 20]. A number of nature-based interventions have been developed that draw on the healing effects believed to be inherent to nature, including forest therapy, e.g., [ 25, 26], wilderness therapy e.g., [ 27], adventure therapy e.g., [ 28], and horticultural therapy e.g., [ 29].

1.3. Possible Interactions between Mindfulness and Exposure to Nature

Attention is a psychological mechanism suggested to underlie the positive effects of both mindfulness training as a component of trait mindfulness [ 30], and exposure to nature [ 31] as part of attention restoration. Kaplan's attention restoration theory (ART) is one of the most widely applied and empirically supported theories about the benefits of exposure to nature for mental health [ 31, 32, 33]. According to ART, directed attention is a limited resource, but it may nonetheless be restored. ART suggests that exposure to nature can support the restorative process [ 34, 35], in part because such natural settings are often physically distant from one's stressful everyday life, and also because nature promotes so-called soft fascination, which is defined as effortless attention drawn to fascinating objects. Although several environments and settings might potentially foster soft fascination, it has been suggested that natural environments are particularly well suited, as they inherently possess patterns that are sufficiently extended, rich, and coherent to engage the mind, which is believed to enable fascination in an "undramatic fashion" [ 35] (p. 174). ART is most often applied in relation to human-nature contact, but Kaplan [ 4] argues that similar mental processes may also occur during mindfulness meditation. The meditator is often distanced physically or mentally from everyday life, and can become softly fascinated as he or she effortlessly observes the stream of sensations, feelings, and thoughts. In order to be restorative, Kaplan argues that both exposure to nature and meditation need to fit the individual's inclinations, motivations, and capabilities [ 4]. He suggests in particular that the untrained meditator, who tends to use effort in meditation, will have easier access to soft fascination in a restorative environment [ 4]. This may be true whether the meditation is part of a manual-based mindfulness program or a single guided meditation.

Another possible interaction between attention restoration and mindfulness is that paying attention to the environment is necessary for soft fascination to occur. This was shown in a study by Jiang, Schmillen, and Sullivan [ 36]: Students in a natural environment who were occupied with their portable electronic devices did not restore their attention in the same way as students in the same natural environment with no such devices. However, even when one is willing to pay attention to nature, the mind can easily wander, and the recollection of present-moment awareness may be challenging. This capacity is cultivated through mindfulness, which would therefore seem to support the acquisition of the potential health benefits of exposure to nature.

As research including both mindfulness and nature is a growing field, and common mechanisms and interactions seem to exist, it may be timely to make an initial synthesis in order to assess the quality and extent of research in the field. To our knowledge, no systematic review or meta-analysis currently exists that investigates the potential effects of nature-based mindfulness (mindfulness conducted in nature).

1.4. Aims

The primary aim of this study was to systematically review all existing studies investigating nature-based mindfulness interventions, and to quantify the results through meta-analyses. The hypothesis was that, due to the beneficial health-promoting effects of mindfulness and exposure to nature, combinations of mindfulness and nature evaluated in open trials would be positive, and the effects of nature-based mindfulness would be superior to passive control conditions, to mindfulness in non-natural settings, and to interventions in natural settings without mindfulness. Specifically, manual-based stand-alone mindfulness conducted in nature was to be evaluated, with the hypothesis that exposure to nature would positively affect the outcomes. To qualify the results, the additional aims were to explore the potential moderating effect of 1) the type of natural setting and 2) the type of mindfulness practice.

2. Materials and Methods

The study was preregistered in PROSPERO (registration number CRD42017065639).

2.1. Selection Criteria

The PICOS approach [ 37] was used to evaluate studies' eligibility.

2.1.1. Population

Adults and adolescents (>12 years) with or without a formal mental or physical diagnosis were included.

2.1.2. Intervention

Interventions included both exposure to nature as defined by Mausner [ 17] and guided mindfulness, defined as "paying attention on purpose, in the present moment." We left out one criterion often employed in the definition of mindfulness-namely, obtaining a non-judgmental attitude-in order not to exclude studies that did not address this more meta-cognitive component of the mindfulness construct cf. [ 38, 39]. Studies were excluded if they only examined the effect of exposure to virtual or indoor nature.

2.1.3. Comparators

Study groups were compared with (1) interventions without exposure to nature but with guided mindfulness, or (2) non-active control conditions (e.g., waiting lists or written materials). Studies were also included if they employed other or no comparators, in which case they were then evaluated as open trials.

2.1.4. Outcomes

These were any psychological (e.g., depression), physiological (e.g., heart rate), or interpersonal (e.g., prosocial orientation) outcomes based on client-level data for which an effect size could be calculated.

2.1.5. Study Design

Both open and controlled studies were evaluated. Only quantitative peer-reviewed studies reported in the English language were considered for inclusion.

2.2. Search Strategy

Search terms for mindfulness and nature were found in the target research articles. An abstract-based search was then conducted in electronic databases covering the natural environment and psychology. The databases searched were PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, and Ovid, covering Agricola 1970 to August 2018; Ovid MEDLINE(R) Epub ahead of print, in-process, and other non-indexed citations; Ovid MEDLINE(R) Daily; Ovid MEDLINE(R) 1946 to present; Cab Abstracts 1910-2018; and Embase 1974 to present. Search terms related to mindfulness (Meditati* or mindfulness or MBSR or MBCT) were combined with search terms related to therapies used in natural settings-or "forest bathing", Ecotherapy, "Eco therapy", "Eco-therapy", "Nature-based therapy", "Nature-based therapy", "Wilderness therapy", "Horticultural therapy", "Nature therapy", "Nature involvement", "nature-based intervention*", "cognitive behavior therapy*", or "Nature-assisted therapy"-and with search terms related to the natural environment and "Restorative nature", "nature contact", "nature exposure", "nature-based activities", "Restorative garden", "Healing nature", "Healing garden", "Therapeutic nature", "Therapeutic garden", "Therapy garden", "Care garden*", Wilderness, Forest*, Woods, Outdoor*, "Open space*", Park, "Green space*", greenspace*, "Natural environment", "Marine environment", "Ocean wealth", or "Blue gym".

The search terms were defined and the searches were conducted for the period from the earliest dates available in the databases through August 2018. Additionally, a backward search (snowballing) and a forward search (citation-tracking) were conducted for the included articles. Abstracts and full texts were evaluated, and disagreements over the inclusion/exclusion of a study were resolved by consensus.

2.3. Data Extraction

Means and standard deviations for all quantitative outcomes were extracted. When these were not available, other test parameters were used (e.g., F and p). In cases where an effect size could not be calculated, the study's authors were contacted. Studies were coded for participant characteristics (i.e., age, gender, and race/ethnicity), duration of intervention (from first to last intervention session), time to follow-up, and number of hours with mindfulness practice. All health outcomes were categorized as measures of physical, psychological, or interpersonal outcomes. The characteristics of nature were coded as either mixed outdoor environment containing natural elements (often with predominant built structures), garden/park with settings composed of natural elements intended to make it "appear natural", or forest/wild nature with predominantly natural elements unaffected by human interventions [ 17]. The types of mindfulness were coded as formal mindfulness i.e., guided meditation, or informal mindfulness where attention is guided to the present moment during everyday activities. Formal mindfulness was coded as open-awareness meditation versus concentration meditation. Mindfulness was also coded as the intention to induce state mindfulness or build trait mindfulness [ 6, 7]. All the coding was verified by the co-author. Data extraction protocols are available upon request from the corresponding author.

2.4. Quality Assessment

Studies were evaluated for quality using the quality assessment tool for quantitative studies from the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) [ 40]. For each of the six components: Selection bias, study design, confounders, blinding, data collection methods, and withdrawals and dropouts, the studies were rated as strong, moderate, or weak, following the guidelines from the EPHPP tool. These ratings were, also in accordance with the EPHPP guidelines summed to create a global quality score (see Table 1). For studies with no weak ratings for the six components, the global quality score was set to be 1 = strong. Studies with one weak rating the summed score was set to be 2 = moderate. If two or more of the six components had weak scores, the global quality rating was set to be 3 = weak. Ratings were made and disagreements were discussed and resolved by consensus.

2.5. Analytical Overview

Meta-analyses were performed for the designs and outcomes combined, as well as separately for each of the design types and each of the outcome categories. Analyses were conducted for two time periods: From pre- to immediately post-intervention, and from pre-intervention to the last follow-up assessment. All analyses were based on random-effects models.

The planned exploratory moderation analyses of categorical variables (e.g., type of nature and type of mindfulness) were explored with meta-ANOVAs. Analyses were performed when a sufficient number of studies (k ≥ 3) was identified for a given moderator category. Continuous moderator variables (i.e., age, % women, % Whites, number of sessions with mindfulness, duration of treatment, and time to last follow-up) were considered in meta-regression analyses, based on random-effects models and estimated with the maximum likelihood method. In the regression analyses, the proposed moderators served as independent variables, with effect size serving as the dependent variable.

Effect sizes were expressed as Hedges' g in order to adjust for potential bias to overestimate the effect size in small samples [ 41], with values of 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 considered small, medium, and large respectively [ 42]. A p-value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Positive effect sizes indicate a positive effect of the interventions. Each effect size was weighted by its precision (inverse variance), so that interventions with larger samples contributed more to the estimate of the overall effect size. Heterogeneity was explored using Q and I ² statistics. Q-tests concern the probability that results reflect systematic between-study differences. Due to the generally low statistical power of heterogeneity tests, a p-value of 0.10 was used to indicate heterogeneity [ 43]. The I ² statistic is an estimate of the degree of heterogeneity, and is considered to be unaffected by the number of studies. An I ² value of 0% indicates no observed heterogeneity. Values of 25%, 50%, and 75% are considered low, moderate, and high respectively [ 44].

Positive and negative findings may not be equally likely to get published, introducing the risk of publication bias. The distribution of effect sizes was therefore visually inspected by means of funnel plots and tested with Egger's test [ 45]. When the analyses indicated possible publication bias, an adjusted effect size was estimated using Duval and Tweedie's [ 46] trim-and-fill method, which imputes missing results and recalculates the effect size. In addition, the file drawer problem-the possibility that unidentified or unpublished studies with null findings could alter statistically significant meta-analysis results-was evaluated by Rosenthal's fail-safe number [ 47]. If the fail-safe number exceeded 5k + 10, with k being the number of studies included in the meta-analysis, the file drawer problem was considered sufficiently low to allow acceptance of the results as unaffected by that potential source of bias.

All analyses were conducted using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis program, version 3.3.070 Eaglewood, NJ, USA: Biostat ("Comprehensive Meta-Analysis," 2014).

3. Results

3.1. Search Results

A total of 987 publications were identified: 949 through searches in databases, and 38 from other sources. After the screening of abstracts, 841 records were excluded, resulting in 146 full-text articles; of these, 120 were excluded, primarily due to a lack of relevant content on interventions (see Figure 1). Five authors were contacted for the data necessary to calculate an effect size. Three authors provided the data. In the fourth case, the effect size was set to zero, and the study was included. The last study was excluded due to a lack of information concerning the relevant outcomes. In total, 26 articles from 25 independent studies were included. Seven interventions with mindfulness in a natural setting were compared with a similar intervention without exposure to nature (i.e., active control). Seven studies compared interventions with groups in non-active control conditions (i.e., passive control), and 13 studies were evaluated as open trials.

3.2. Characteristics of Studies

The characteristics of the 25 included studies are summarized in Table 1. Most studies were from Western countries (12 North American and five European), while eight were from Southeast Asia. Included in the meta-analysis were a total of 2990 participants across the studies (mean N per study: 120, range 19-659). The mean age was 30.71 (range 12-89), with 51.8% female (range 0-100) and 66.2% White/Caucasian participants. In five studies, physical illnesses were targeted (i.e., cancer, hypertension, coronary diseases, chronic diseases, or pain). In six studies the treatment target was a psychological diagnosis (e.g., stress, anxiety, and depression), and five studies investigated treatment for substance abuse. Eight included participants with no diagnoses. Twelve studies reported effects on psychological measures (e.g., anxiety and depression). Nine studies had physical outcome measures (e.g., heart rate variability and cortisol level), and eight studies reported effects on interpersonal measures (e.g., work function).

The EPHPP assessment tool was used to evaluate the studies' quality [ 40]. Global ratings were strong for one study, fair for six, and weak for 18 studies. Most studies obtained a strong score for data collection methods (k = 22) and for reporting withdrawals and dropouts (k = 14); on the other hand, most studies obtained a weak score for selection bias (k = 13) and blinding (k = 21).

Table 1. Characteristics of included studies.

Study
Author, Year, Country

Population
N = Included (Completed/Follow-up), Age = Range (Mean), Gender, Ethnicity, Target Group

Intervention
Duration, Content

Comparators Duration, Content

Outcomes
Measurements, Tools

Time
Intervention, Timings of Data Collection

Setting
Location of Study Group

EPHPP
Quality

Comparator: interventions incl. mindfulness, but without nature contact

Passmore & Holder [ 50]
(2017)
Canada

2 weeks. Instructions to be mindful of emotions evoked by natural objects/scenes in everyday life; to describe strong emotions and take pictures of the nature that evoked them.

Same intervention as study group, human built environment.
Passive controls: Continue regular routines.

Affect (PANAS), elevation (EES), meaning (SMS), connectedness (GSC), prosocial orientation (PSO), connectedness to nature (CNS), engaging with beauty (EWB)

T1: Just before intervention (PANAS only)
T2: Just after 2-week intervention (all measurements)

Everyday environment of university students

3

N = 73 (63)
Age = 46.2
% female = 85.7
% Whites = N/A
Study group: Major depressive disorder

4 weeks, 3 hours weekly, for CBT, positive psychology tools, and mindfulness meditation on breath, wind, forest, and sounds (insight meditation).

Same program as study group, indoor setting.
Meditation focus on breath and indoor or window objects.
Passive control: TAU.

Depression (BDI, HRSD, MADRS), quality of life (SF-36), stress (HRV, cortisol)

T1: Just before treatment, all measurements
T2: T1 + 1 week, depression questionnaires
T3: T1 + 2 weeks, depression questionnaires
T4: After 3 weeks of treatment, all measurements

44-ha arboretum, 2035 species

2

Study 1:
N = 89
Age = (23)
% female = 64
% Whites = N/A
Study 2:
N = 51
Age = (23)
% female = 72.5
% Whites = N/A
Study groups: Stressed

5 weeks, 1 weekly 90-min. session. Manual-based meditation training program (REST), each session beginning and ending with 15-20 min. guided open monitoring meditation (no specific tradition). Exercises and themes. Homework: 15 min. meditation most days.

Classroom setting. Same schedule as study group. Beginning and end of sessions: Focused attention meditation (no specific tradition), exercises and themes.

Attention (LDST; TMT study 2), affect (SCAS)

Study 1:
T1: Before/after session 1
T2: Before/after session 3
T3: Before/after session 5
Study 2:
T1: Enrollment
T2: Before/after initial 20-min. meditation in session 1
T3: Before/after initial 20-min. meditation in session 3
T4: Before/after initial 20-min. meditation in session 5

Botanical garden incl. tropical greenhouse, water bodies, orangery

3

Comparator: Non-active control conditions (see also Kim 2009 and Passmore 2017 above)

Warber et al. (2011) [ 57]
USA

4-day residential program.
Study group 1 (MFTE): Meditation, guided imagination, journaling, drawing, nature activities, nature imagination.
Study group 2 (LCP): Nutrition, physical exercise, stress management based on mindfulness and whole-person approach.
Both groups: Telephone coaching biweekly for 3 months.

No treatment.

Depression (BDI, BSI), stress (PSS), hope (SHS), gratitude (SG), quality of life (SF-36), spirituality (ISWBS), personal transformation (TCQ), physical activity (PPAQ),
stress (HR, BP, BMI, lipid levels, lipid particle size, high sensitivity C-reactive protein, biomarkers IL-6 and IL-10)

T1: Just before treatment
T2: Just after 4 days' treatment
T3: T2 + 3 months
T4: T2 + 6 months
Biophysical measurements only at T1 and T2

"Beautiful" rural settings

3

Studies with no comparators relevant for this review

Corazon et al. (2018) [ 64]
& Stigsdotter
(2018) [ 65]
Denmark

10-week nature-based therapy, 3 times, 3 hours per week. Activities individually and in groups: Exercises in accordance with
MBSR and related to nature experiences, such as mindful walking in natural setting. Gardening and relaxation/reflection time. Individual therapeutic sessions (CBT) and support for return to work.

Sick leave and contact with GP (from national database), well-being (PGWBI), burnout (SMBQ)

T0-T1: 1-year time span
T1: Treatment start
T2: Just after 10 weeks' treatment
T3: T2 + 3 months
T4: T2 + 6 months
T5: T2 + 12 months

1.4-ha wild forest garden located in larger arboretum

2

12 weeks, once per week, 6 hours. 40 min. walks, 60 min. horticultural therapy, 90 min. indoor yoga and meditation (1 session), 60 min. supportive group therapy (5 sessions).
Homework: yoga (video).

Well-being (FACIT) incl. physical, cancer fatigue (CFS), quality of life (SF-36), mood (POMS-SF), anxiety (STAI), natural killer cell activity (NK)

T1: Just before treatment
T2: Just after 12 weeks' treatment

Park incl. forest, streams, lawns, gardens; yoga and meditation indoors in the park

3

N = 704 (659)
Age = 16
% female = 32
% Whites = 85
Study group: behavior/ substance/
mood issues

90-day program. Nomadic hiking and/or expeditions and tasks associated with outdoor living. Therapeutic tools: The wilderness itself, CBT, choice therapy, family systems, mindfulness techniques, diet, physical exercise. Individual/ group therapy sessions twice a week.

Psychological and behavioral symptoms and social functioning (Y-OQ_SR)

T1: At intake
T2: T1 + 3 weeks
T3: T1 + 5 weeks
T4: At discharge
T5: T4 + 6 months
T6: T4 + 18 months.

Wilderness in undeveloped areas

3

N = 43 (32)
Age = 18-24 (22.9)
% female = 0
% Whites = N/A
Study group:
Substance abuse

90-day, 10-bed outdoor behavioral healthcare program (Shunda Creek), incl. weekly 1-5-day adventure trips integrating mindfulness-based experience (MBE) with psychotherapy.

Subjective discomfort, interpersonal relations, social roles (OQ-45.2), mindfulness (FFMQ)

T1: At intake
T2: At discharge (average T1 + 93.7 days)

Wild nature, incl. mountains

3

8-week, 15-bed program: family therapy, daily individual/group therapy, educational programming. Base camp model: Adventure therapy and development of mindfulness skills.

Emotional and behavioral symptoms (Y-OQ SR 2.0),
mindfulness (CAMM)

T1: Just before treatment
T2: Just after 8 weeks' treatment

Wild nature, incl. mountains

3

Chapman et al. (2018) [ 72]
Canada

N = 177
Age = 18-24 (21.5)
% female = 0
% Whites = 42.1
Study group:
Substance use

90-day outdoor behavioral healthcare program (Shunda Creek): Weekly 1-5-day adventure trips integrating MBE with psychotherapy.

Subjective discomfort, interpersonal relations, social roles (OQ-45.2)

T1: At intake
T2: At discharge (average T1 + 79.6 days)

Wild nature, incl. mountains

3

Unsworth et al.
(2016) [ 73]
study 2
USA

3 days' Aztec adventure camp in nature, incl. 15 min. formal daily morning meditation, and encouragement to continue mindfulness practice throughout the day.

Self-nature interconnectedness,
nature in self (INS), mindfulness (FMI)

T1: Just before treatment
T2: Just after 3 days' treatment

Wild nature

3

3.3. Intervention Characteristics

The interventions were highly heterogeneous concerning length, setup, and content, as well as the amount and type of mindfulness, and the choice of natural setting. All studies had psychological endpoints, and the most prevalent outcomes were psychological wellbeing or positive emotions (k = 14), attention (k = 7), depression (k = 5), and anxiety (k = 4). Physiological endpoints were reported in eight studies, all including cardiovascular system outcomes, e.g., heart rate variability and blood pressure, and four studies reported outcomes related to the immune system, investigating e.g., natural killer cells and inflammation. Of studies including interpersonal outcomes (k = 7), four reported on interpersonal functioning and three on workability. The length of intervention varied from 15 minutes to 90 days, with follow-up data available for eight studies. The follow-up time ranged from two weeks to 18 months post-treatment.

Three main types of intervention emerged:

Short single-instruction intervention studies (k = 7) aimed at healthy participants, who were guided either to be mindful on their own while sitting or walking, or to be more extensively mindful in their everyday lives.

Weekly meetings (once or more per week) targeting stressed, anxious, or depressed people (k = 6), mostly with gardening activities and psychotherapy. One study stood out in this format as only containing meditation training.

Residential interventions (k = 11), of which five were wilderness therapy of several weeks' duration. Participants in these studies were young people, mostly males diagnosed with substance use disorders. The other six residential interventions were shorter and in diverse settings.

Among the interventions reporting on formal meditation (k = 8), three had full meditation training protocols: MBSR, MBCT [ 74], and restoration skill training (ReST) [ 54]. The MBSR and MBCT were integrated in extended nature-based interventions, with only ReST being a stand-alone program. Five studies mainly included concentration meditation, while open-awareness meditation was exclusively practiced in two programs. Among the informal mindfulness interventions (k = 8), four gave brief guidance toward the present moment, and three investigated a specific program of mindfulness-based experience [ 69] that integrated psychotherapy with mindfulness on adventure trips. The interventions' natural environments varied widely, from designed small gardens to vast wild nature areas. The amount of time devoted to guided mindfulness was less than five hours in all but two studies.

3.4. Pooled Effect Sizes and Between-Study Differences

The overall combined effect size from pre- to post-treatment across outcomes and designs was significant and of medium size (g = 0.54, p < 0.001; see Table 2). Studies employing an open, non-controlled design, again across outcomes, revealed a significant effect of medium size (g = 0.66, p < 0.001); the same was true for studies with passive control groups (g = 0.58, p < 0.001). Studies using active control groups also revealed a significant effect, albeit small in size (g = 0.26, p = 0.023). Only one intervention was found that had a natural setting but without mindfulness as an active control group, and only one intervention included manual-based stand-alone mindfulness conducted in nature. The effects of these types of intervention were therefore not calculated.

When the effects from pre- to post-treatment were evaluated for individual outcomes across designs, the effect on psychological outcomes was significant and of medium size (g = 0.55, p < 0.001). The effects on social (g = 0.39, p = 0.004) and physical (g = 0.36, p = 0.011) outcomes were significant and of small size.

Concerning effects at follow-up, the combined effect across designs and outcomes was significant and of moderate size (g = 0.56, p < 0.001). Only the studies employing an open trial design were sufficient in number to perform a separate meta-analysis, which also revealed a significant effect of medium size (g = 0.66, p < 0.001).

A number of planned moderation analyses were conducted, none of which were statistically significant. However, type of nature (p = 0.068, Q = 3.4) and trended toward significance. Interventions in wild/forest environments obtained a numerically larger effect (g = 0.66) than interventions in garden/park environments (g = 0.33). Moreover, the type of mindfulness (p = 0.078, Q = 0.31) did as well trend towards significance, and informal mindfulness interventions obtained a numerically larger effect (g = 0.80) than formal mindfulness interventions (g = 0.37). The effect size for inducing state mindfulness was larger (g = 0.62) than for building trait mindfulness (g = 0.10). No significance was found for this moderator (p = 0.107). Only two interventions primarily used open awareness, and the moderating effect of this type of mindfulness was therefore not calculated (see Table 3).

3.5. Publication Bias

For all statistically significant results, publication bias was evaluated. Eight analyses were adjusted for possible publication bias, which in only one case (i.e., effect on social outcomes) changed the result from significance to non-significance. Seven out of 13 studies failed to meet the criterion for the fail-safe N, indicating lack of robustness for approximately half of the results.

4. Discussion

We were able to identify 25 independent studies that met our criteria. Across the designs of these studies, an initial synthesis showed overall positive effects of mindfulness in natural settings evaluated in both open trials and controlled trials using non-active control groups. These results support our hypothesis that context may play a significant role in the benefits of mindfulness-based interventions. This may be explained by the experience of the natural environment, which is so fascinating that it calls for soft attention, thereby allowing disengagement [ 4]. This is comparable to "letting go" in mindfulness, where the meditator is guided not to mentally hold on to anything, and not to push anything away [ 6]. Another explanation could be that natural stimuli occupy the attention [ 4] and consequently reduce the tendency for the mind to wander [ 5], which is another aim in mindfulness training. While experienced meditators may be able to stay present during meditation, exposure to nature may support inexperienced or otherwise challenged meditators who would otherwise be at risk of losing concentration completely or becoming emotionally overwhelmed [ 4].

A number of moderation analyses were conducted. Forests/wild nature and informal mindfulness were found to trend-wise increase positive health outcomes based on large differences in effect size, although these were not significant. The lack of significance may be due to the low number of studies, and should be interpreted according to the effect sizes. The numerically larger positive effect of natural settings characterized as wild supports the findings by Grahn and Stigsdotter [ 75], suggesting that stressed individuals prefer natural environments that are wild and untouched and offer a variety of species but are still experienced as safe.

Informal mindfulness tended to moderate positive health outcomes compared with formal mindfulness, as did inducing state mindfulness compared with building trait-mindfulness. Both may be explained by the outward focus, which may be more beneficial in a natural setting, as it allows more contact with nature. Furthermore, the possibility of engaging in activities during informal mindfulness may explain the more positive outcomes. Corazon, Schilhab, and Stigsdotter [ 76] argue that bodily involvement with the environment is important in nature-based therapy, as it strengthens the memory of experiences in nature, and thereby prolongs and confirms the therapeutic effect.

4.1. Implications for Research and Practice

The field of nature-based mindfulness is in its infancy, and is not yet defined; our study only suggests some structure. One of the aspects that are still in need of investigation is whether certain types of mindfulness are more suited than others for training and use in natural settings, and whether this depends on the characteristics of the natural setting and other components of the intervention. Informal mindfulness is compatible with ordinary activities [ 5], such as walking a forest trail e.g., [ 62], and has been shown to be a tool for healthy people to enhance the positive effects of contact with nature [ 63, 77]. Forest bathing is a research field that addresses this [ 25], but a systematic approach to mindfulness is still needed in this context. In nature-based therapy, on the other hand, informal mindfulness enhances awareness of negative thought patterns, which seem easier to detect in natural settings, and this is of value in a therapeutic context [ 66, 78, 79].

Lymeus et al. [ 54] argue that the practice of open-monitoring meditation (comparable to open-awareness meditation) in natural environments is superior to concentration meditation, as it allows natural stimuli softly and effortlessly to hold the attention to the present moment. Due to the scarcity of available studies, it was unfortunately not possible to compare open-awareness meditation with concentration meditation as moderators of positive health outcomes in this review. It is recommended that future studies should address this gap in knowledge, and should also carefully define and describe the way the mindfulness is conducted and the characteristics of the natural setting in which the therapy takes place. In addition, it seems reasonable to not only include nature in health promoting activities [ 23], but also to include informal mindfulness (i.e., guided attention to the senses with an attitude of non-judgment and openness) in nature-based therapy. Formal meditation in natural settings also seems to be a promising tool, and further research is needed to provide guidelines for such practice.

4.2. Limitations

The rather low quality of the included studies poses a threat to the validity of the findings, which need to be confirmed in high-quality studies. In particular, blinding and selection bias were issues, and only a few trials could be categorized as clinical trials according to the EPHPP assessment criteria. With only 25 studies included in this review, and in light of the heterogeneity of the participants and intervention characteristics, the generalizability is limited. Furthermore, a different definition of mindfulness than that employed in this study might affect the character and number of studies included. The included studies would preferably define mindfulness as containing an attitude of e.g., warmth and non-judgment, but meditation practices are rarely described in detail, and such narrow inclusion criteria would at present exclude most studies.

5. Conclusions

This systematic review and meta-analysis shows that nature-based mindfulness has had a positive effect on psychological, physical, and social conditions. Furthermore, nature-based mindfulness is moderately superior to mindfulness conducted in non-natural settings. However, at this point we know very little about the effect of different types of mindfulness, and more research is needed to understand what an optimal mindfulness intervention in a nature-based setting should consist of. Mindfulness in wild nature seems to be more beneficial than mindfulness in more cultivated settings, but the importance of the setting needs further investigation.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, D.D., U.S., J.D. and M.O.; Data curation, D.D.; Formal analysis, D.D. and M.O.; Investigation, D.D., I.L. and D.P.; Methodology, D.D. and M.O.; Writing-original draft, D.D. and M.O.; Writing-review & editing, D.D., I.L., D.P., U.S., J.D. and M.O.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Acknowledgments

We would like to give thanks to Sus Sola Corazon and Mimi Y. Mehlsen for inspiration and advice.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. Flow chart of literature search.

Table 2. Results from overall and subgroup meta-analyses.

Sample Size

Heterogeneity

Global Effect Aizes

Fail-Safe N c

Criterion

k

N

Q b

df

p

I²

Hedges' g

95% CI

p

Table 3. Results from meta-regression-based moderation analyses.

Moderator

B

SE

p

Participant characteristics

Mean sample age

<0.01

0.01

0.893

% women

<−0.01

<0.01

0.425

% Whites

0.01

0.01

0.506

Intervention characteristics

Intervention duration

<0.01

<0.01

0.716

Sessions with mindfulness

<−0.01

0.01

0.597

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A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Nature-Based Mindfulness: Effects of Moving Mindfulness Training into an Outdoor Natural Setting

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Research has proven that both mindfulness training and exposure to nature have positive health effects. The purpose of this study was to systematically review quantitative studies of mindfulness interventions conducted in nature (nature-based mindfulness), and to analyze the effects through meta-analyses. Electronic searches revealed a total of 25 studies to be included, examining 2990 participants.

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A wonderful resource for incorporating mindfulness and yoga into the classroom in a supportive way for both teachers and students

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We all need ongoing coaching and support to integrate our learning, continuing growing as educators, and to chat with likeminded folks about the many challenging (and funny) scenarios that arise during teaching. The LFY Coaching and Community Group, open to our training graduates at any level, is designed to offer you tangible resources to support your career, on-going coaching, and a built in group of colleagues.

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nature journaling for teachers is a great resource for guiding outdoor observation and learning

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Nature Journaling is a powerful adjunct to teaching science and should be a standard part of every classroom. Journaling is an ideal way to explore with the Next Generation Science Standards. Here you can find links to three outstanding free resources: How to Teach Nature Journaling, Opening the World Through Nature Journaling, and The BEETLES curriculum.

How to Teach Nature Journaling is the comprehensive guide for educators, parents and those who wish to mentor others to develop journaling skills. It is available both as a printed book and a free PDF download. If you love the book, please consider making a donation or purchasing a copy from my store if you are able to do so. Order or download it here.

The second edition of the acclaimed curriculum, Opening the World through Journaling: Integrating art, science, and language arts, is also available as a free download. Download the curriculum here. Much of the material in this guide has been updated and revised in How to Teach Nature Journaling. This edition was created with the support of the California Native Plant Society by John Muir Laws, Emilie Lygren, Emily Brueunig, and Celeste Lopez. This edition can be used in schoolyards, camps, nature centers, and family outings. It is geared primarily towards children age 8 and up, and meets California state standards for grades 3 through 7 but works just as well for teenagers and adults. The 2nd edition has many improvements and a wonderful new section of poetry writing activities. These activities teach children to become keen observers of the natural world by drawing and writing about plants and animals in the field. In a set of nested games and activities, students gain confidence in drawing and writing as a way to gather information. Using a set of key prompts, children and adults also discover a language to create poetry from their observations. They employ these skills and tools to put together a field guide, make treasure maps, and write poems and stories. Keeping a field journal develops and reinforces the most important science process skills; observation and documentation. All other parts of the process of science depend on these skills. We assume that we are naturally good observers, but learning to really see is a skill that must be learned and developed. Journal activities tie directly to the State of California science framework content standards and the visual and performing arts framework content standards. This project is funded to date by the JiJi Foundation.

Also, consider joining our How to Teach Nature Journaling Facebook Group, where we are building a community of nature journaling educators to ask questions, share strategies, and inspire each other on this journey.

I am an advisor for the BEETLES (Better Environmental Education, Teaching, Learning & Expertise Sharing) team at the Lawrence Hall of Science. I highly recommend the Field Journaling Sessions and materials. Download the free lesson plans and staff training manual here. Here is a video overview of this work.

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Opening the World Through Nature Journaling, a curriculum produced by John Muir Laws and the California Native Plant Society presents free, standards based, activities to engage students in nature study through journaling.

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Beetles project - a resource for outdoor science learning

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Beetles project - a resource for outdoor science learning

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this is a great resource for curriculum planning and off-the-shelf outdoor activities with instructional videos.

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Science and Teaching for Field Instructors

Student-Centered ♦ Nature-Centered

For a slightly longer introduction to BEETLES, watch the 7-minute video.

BEETLES: Infusing outdoor science programs with research-based approaches and tools to improve science teaching and learning.

Our professional learning resources are designed for program leaders to use with field instructors. They provide experiences and rationale about outdoor science instruction designed to inspire instructors to improve their teaching. Our student activities inspire students' wonder and curiosity about the natural world, support their innate tendencies for exploration and guide them to make explanations based on evidence.

All BEETLES resources embody our five research-based design principles.

People learn Outdoor Science best when they:

ENGAGE DIRECTLY WITH NATURE

Experience Instruction based on how people learn

PARTICIPATE IN CULTURALLY RELEVANT LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

LEARN THROUGH DISCUSSIONS

One Centennial Drive
Berkeley, CA 94720-5200
Contact Us

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Science and Teaching for Field Instructors Student-Centered ♦ Nature-Centered For a slightly longer introduction to BEETLES, watch the 7-minute video. Our professional learning resources are designed for program leaders to use with field instructors. They provide experiences and rationale about outdoor science instruction designed to inspire instructors to improve their teaching.

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looking to connect movement and the environment wall working within NGSS standards

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Moving Field Guide Discover - Dance Exchange

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You'll be guided through each video by Choreographer Cassie Meador and a guest environmental educator to discover nature by making a dance together. Then, go outside and record yourself doing the dance we created together! Share your dance via FlipGrid with other movers and makers around the country.

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We love making our own seed envelopes to save seeds from our garden. They're so easy to make and are a great way to upcycle any paper that you already have laying around. The paper that we use to make crafts are usually ones that I've saved from packages that I receive, or scrap pieces of paper from projects that we've done. I recommend using a thicker kraft paper, but any unbleached natural paper will work! My son loves sharing seeds from our garden with friends, so we also set up a fun little "seed share" box. There's a diagram of the steps below as well as a link to a video demonstrating the steps.

Materials:

- Square pieces of paper. We are using kraft paper that has some thickness to it and is cut into 6″x6″ size squares.
- Paper tape (for labels)
- Seeds

How to make origami paper seed envelopes:

Step 1: Fold your square piece of paper in half diagonally.
Step 2: Fold the left and right corners inward towards each other
Step 3:Tuck one corner into the pocket that the opposite side creates
Step 4: Open the envelope from the top and fill with seeds!
Step 5: Close your envelope, either using the technique shown in the diagram with the extra folds with the tip tucked in, or you can simply fold the large flap down and tape it shut.

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We love making our own seed envelopes to save seeds from our garden. They're so easy to make and are a great way to upcycle any paper that you already have laying around. The paper that we use to make