Term
Spring 2021
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MAED: NSEE
Facilitator(s)
Trish Harvey
Content Expert
Deb Schlueter
Abstract
Examining research shows that outdoor education has a number of benefits for students. These benefits range from academic to social emotional to physical (Fagerstam and Blom, 2012; Mygind, 2007; Pretty et al., 2009). Research also shows that many teachers report a variety of barriers to successful outdoor education implementation (Ernst, 2007; Powers, 2004), and that teachers need to understand how to use outdoor spaces to teach effectively (Eick, 2012; House, 2008). As a result, outdoor education is not being implemented widely by teachers and the benefits that come with the outdoor exposure are not being utilized. This project seeks to answer the question: How can outdoor education be used successfully to improve the success and well-being of children? The curriculum designed for this project provides an opportunity for teachers to experiment with outdoor education in a structured manner, while also offering opportunities for teachers to blend in more familiar indoor lessons to ease into the use of outdoor education. The curriculum was also designed with commonly cited barriers to outdoor education in mind. The lessons are short, meet state science standards, and offer low-cost activities to be completed by students. If used properly, the curriculum will offer teachers an opportunity to engage students in outdoor learning to see for themselves the benefits that the outdoor exposure can have on the students, not just academically, but socially, emotionally, and physically. The expected outcome from using this curriculum is that teachers will feel empowered to take learning outside of the classroom more often as a result of seeing the benefits of outdoor education for their students first-hand.
Project Type
Curriculum
Keywords
Curriculum, Science, Outdoor Education
Recommended Citation
Hradsky, Jacob, "Implementing Outdoor Education Curriculum: The Benefits Of, Barriers To, And Materials Required For Successful Outdoor Education" (2021). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 627.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/627
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects