Outdoor families
You can view the latest edition of the Outdoor Families magazine here. It mostly contains features on the national parks in the USA.
Contributions to NAEE's blog come from its members, so posts do not necessarily represent the official view of the Association. Please get involved by commenting on posts, and, of course, by becoming a member.
Nature is good for you, shock
The 2nd Interdisciplinary Conference: “Getting Connected to Nature” will be held at the University of Derby, on 15 June. Submissions are invited around the core themes of the conference: • Improving links between research, policy and practice in this area • Latest research and perspectives on: – the benefits of a connection with nature –…
Exploring Nature Cycles
Circle of Life Rediscovery is running a training day which it says … “will bring alive the core routines of deep nature connection, giving attendees embodied experiences of games and activities that facilitate nature information, recreation and connection. It will fill you up with inspirational ideas and experiences in relation to Spring time. We will include…
Critical thinking about critical thinking
The Geographical Association, and SSAT, are offering professional development in critical thinking and problem solving, through the new British Council Connecting Classrooms programme. This ‘Teaching the core skills’ training package gives primary and secondary teachers of geography or history the knowledge and approaches they need to effectively integrate the teaching of core skills in their…
Outdoor earth, water and weather studies in Texas
Tom Arsuffi, Director of the Llano River Field Station, explores the importance of a sense of place. A ‘sense of place’ in nature is fundamental to learning, understanding and an informed citizenry. Texas Tech University’s Llano River Field Station (LRFS) is the place that brings diverse stakeholders together to address and provide solutions to critical…
From Potato to Planet
Here’s a new Soil Association film, ‘From Potato to Planet’. It’s by Aardman Animations and aims to help us understand the importance of soil to the planet. It also spotlights the role of organic farming and shopping in protecting soils. The Soil Association aims to increase soil organic matter content by 20% in 20 years which would make a difference…
Five perspectives on environmental education
Environmental Education Research [EER] has published a paper from the USA on practitioners’ perspectives on the purpose of environmental education. You can download it here. The Abstract says: Since the 1980s, scholars have suggested that environmental education (EE) has a ‘definitional problem’ represented by a multiplicity of perspectives that have critically impacted its discourse, practices,…
My Outdoors Competition
Natural Connections alerts us to Devon CPRE (the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England) which is supporting outdoor learning with their “My Outdoors” competition which will run from March to June. it is open to all primary schools in Devon, Torbay and Plymouth. CPRE Devon hopes to encourage children to engage with and appreciate…
Home Energy Conservation for Kids
Home Advisor – a US website – has a feature on “home energy conservation for kids”. It begins … Energy is very important. It is something that kids need and use every day at home and at school. In fact, some form of energy is used just about anywhere that you can imagine! It is…
More on the enclosures
We recently carried a guest posting from Geoff Guy about the enclosure of land and the benefits to environmental and outdoor education arising from more recent legislation open it up again through the ‘right to roam’. If you are interested in the enclosures, then you might like A Short History of Enclosure in Britain by Simon Fairlie which is published in the Land…