Term
Fall 2025
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MAT
Facilitator(s)
Jana Lo Bello Miller, Jennifer Carlson
Content Expert
Naomi Field
Abstract
Outdoor education and place-based learning hold rich histories and futures. This project at large set out to explore the stories and possibilities of outdoor education and place-based learning within the K-2 landscape. The research question being addressed in this project is: How can we use meaningful place-based learning and outdoor education in the K-2 setting as a means of healing relationships with schooling and with the rest of the natural world? Through personal and professional framing, an exploratory literature review, an educator resource toolkit project, and a reflective conclusion, this work presents outdoor education and place-based learning as having myriad benefits for educators and students. Outdoor education and place-based learning offer opportunities to promote student academic growth; support student and educator physical, social, cultural, and emotional wellness; advance positive relationships between school and home communities; and foster healed and repaired relationships with the rest of the natural world and with schooling that have been damaged by long histories of racial, political, and systematic violence and oppression, specifically harming BIPOC communities.
Project Type
Resource Toolkit
Keywords
Place-Based Learning, Outdoor Education, K-2 Education, Indigenous Education
Recommended Citation
Hart, Isaac, "Teaching with Nature: Place-Based Learning and Outdoor Education Toward Healing in the K-2 Setting" (2025). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 1159.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/1159
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects