Learning in the Great Outdoors: First Edition

Volume One Number One

As the audacious creator of this Carnival of Environmental Education I welcome you to our inaugural edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors. We have had only a few entries submitted. I have listed more of my own posts than I would have had there been more submissions. I also have posted links to several websites that may be of interest to you. And I have gone out and solicited permission to post a few links to blogs that I found helpful or interesting. We hope our visitors will spread the word and help this grow into a real clearinghouse for web log posts about outdoor education.

Your host began compiling this while holed up in the Days Inn on Jekyll Island GA, as the 2007 Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia Conference came to a close. What a treat the conference was. I will use this first edition of the carnival to intersperse a few of the online resources we have here in Georgia to aid those who want to share the wonders of the natural world with young folks. One week later, in the midst of the annual high-stakes testing madness, we launch. I apologise for my tardiness.

Nature Centers, Preserves, and Trails

Riversider presents Ribble Coast & Wetlands - the Ribble becomes a Regional Park posted at Ribble Cycle Diaries.

From the header for this interesting web log:

The Ribble Diaries
A blog dedicated to the River Ribble, an Internationally important ecosystem which runs for 75 miles from Ribblehead in West Yorkshire, through Lancashire and out into the Ribble Estuary to the Irish Sea. The Ribble is one of Britain's Last Great Wilderness areas, full of wild beauty, with many moods and seasons as it meanders through its Green Belt, Floodplains, and Wetlands.

Little St. Simon's Island wraps around the northern end of the larger and heavily developed St. Simon's Island GA. It is a privale island and preserve that is an Eden for birds and other wildlife. Thursday your host visited there with a small group of Georgia educators and naturalists.

Accessible only by boat, the island is a relatively young addition to the coast. We observed a plethora of flora and fauna, including a juvenile bald eagle on the nest.

My wife and I visited the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area near LaFayette GA a couple of weeks ago. Another Eden! Blankets of wildflowers!

And here are a few others of my posts with pics of trails:
Our School Trail I
Our School Trail II
Our School Trail III
A Leaf Walk at Berry College
Floyd County's Pocket Trail
A River walk in Rome GA


Stephanie presents My Amazing Race- posted at Stop the Ride!.

We started off well, making good time down the hill. We stopped to look at tadpoles, wildflowers, wild rose, and blackberry brambles. Upon arriving at the destination, the three oldest children quickly changed into water shoes and commenced playing in the creek. Third child enjoyed himself thoroughly, and soon was soaking wet. Meanwhile, I scoped out the daffodils and chose my prize spot.

Anco presents Mountain Hiking Tips posted at Tipskey - Unlock Practicality, saying, "Mountain hiking is one of the fun ways to learn about nature. It can be really educational."

Classroom Gardens

Rebecca Newburn presents How to Create a Labyrinth posted at Ms. Newburn's Math 7 Blog, saying, "It's easy to make a labyrinth outside with your students. Here are simple directions."

Lesson Plans

If you haven't had the chance to participate in Project Wild, Project Wet, or Project Learning Tree, you are missing a great opportunity. Check them out! If nothing else find a copy of their curriculum books around your school or buy them from eBay. They include lots of great hands-on lessons.
Project Wild
Project Wet
Project Learning Tree

EE Opinion

My co-host here at Alone on a Limb, Mike Bock, remembers his own "outdoor education" in a post about what he sees as Authentic Teaching. Mike writes:

I grew up in an old farm house in the country. We had no TV until I was nine. I was constantly outdoors. I remember seeing a huge snake shed its skin; I remember seeing a Momma skunk with five baby skunks following in a line after her; I remember playing endlessly outside -- the clucking chickens, crowing roosters, my Dad’s garden and my Mom’s flowers. All of this, and much more, was part of my education and, like a little sponge, I took it all in.

Does U.S. Environmental Education Make the Grade? asks Larry West.

Environmental education has long struggled for legitimacy alongside more traditional disciplines within the liberal arts and sciences. But “environmental literacy” studies in the late 1980s revealed that schoolchildren lacked basic knowledge about the natural environment. This convinced the U.S. Congress to take action...

The environment is a context within which all sorts of learning can happen. Human beings are naturally curious about the world around them, and it is always available, even in urban areas, for exploration. The movement to use the environment as the basic context for learning in schools is near and dear to your host's heart. Here are some sites where you can learn more about it.

The EIC Model™
Environmental Education in Georgia
Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning (EIC)
Captain Planet Foundation
State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER)

Books

Tricia of The Miss Rumphius Effect writes in a post called Seeds and Growing Things:

Since I am lost in thoughts of spring these days, I decided that this would be a good time to offer up a list of books on seeds and the magic they bring.

Tricia also posts her guidelines for choosing science related books for elementary -- also worth a look: Selecting Literature for Science Instruction

And Tricia shows herself tio be a true kindred spirit to your host with this post: The Times They Are a Changin"

My faithful readers ... and students know well that I teach a course that focuses on teaching science and social studies. It is called Integrated Curriculum Methods because I want students to think about the curriculum as a whole and connected piece, not discrete little units that never relate to one another. Wherever possible we look at the ways these subjects relate to English and math, but more importantly, to each other.

Miscellany

National Environmental Education Week April 15-22, 2007

Shamelle at Inhance Life proposes 5 Life Lessons You Can Learn From World Cup Cricket!
Well, cricket is played outdoors.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
Learning in the Great Outdoors: the Carnival of Environmental Education
using our
carnival submission form. Or send your post to thelimb (at) mac (dot) com.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on ou
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