Term
Fall 12-15-2016
Capstone
Thesis
Degree Name
MAED: NSEE
Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair
Laura J. Halldin
Secondary Advisor/Reader One
Susan Hoffman, MBA.
Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two
Elizabeth Braatz, M.A.
Abstract
This capstone addressed the research question, Would the creation of an environmental, outdoor education toolkit help significantly benefit very young children reach their childhood milestone goals? It documents the creation of an educational toolkit for children aged 6 – 18 months old, which integrated age appropriate developmental milestone games and activities with outdoor themed activities. The goal was to prove that proving parents and caregivers with a toolkit for this age group of 6–18-month-old children would help make parents interested in spending more time outdoors, provide a cost-affective method for early outdoor exposure, and help parents save time by using childhood milestones that the parents and caretakers were already familiar with. The writer examines the past relationship that humans had with nature and how humans interact with their natural surroundings now. She examines how our current society's lack of interest and exposure to nature has lead to spending less time outdoors. Research supports that technological advances, coupled with current generations not being exposed to nature at early ages, contributed to children spending less time outdoors. This capstone's initial results supported the argument that early exposure to the outdoors would be successful because of the information found in the current research. Utilizing current bodies of research that prove early outdoor exposure to very young children has long lasting positive health benefits and growth potential lead to the author’s composition of the educational toolkit. The author’s final conclusions were that the toolkit successfully created a cost effective and easy to use toolkit based on participants’ responses to the question and answer hands on take home survey.
Research Methodology
Survey (attitude scale, opinion, questionnaire)
Keywords
Early Childhood, Environmental Studies
Recommended Citation
Hillstrom, Jessica K., "Developing an Educational Toolkit for Caregivers of Six-To-Eighteen-Month-Olds Mixing Developmental Milestones and Outdoor Education" (2016). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations. 4236.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_all/4236