Ranger programs across North Australia are a success story, providing important environmental, social and cultural services that help people get back out on their Country to do vital work, such as carbon abatement fire programs, weed and feral animal management, cultural site maintenance, and Learning on Country programs for youth. Many rangers…

Aldo Leopold is widely regarded as one of the founders of the modern field of ecology. He was also a skilled woodsman, hunter, and a proponent of personal development through time in the outdoors. In this essay, we focus on how Leopold viewed certain benefits concomitant with immersive outdoor experiences. Guided by his 1943 essay, "The…

Natural resources Extension educators use outdoor environmental education sites to increase public knowledge of environmental issues, but locating appropriate sites can be time-consuming. Geographic information system (GIS) software and geospatial data can help Extension professionals choose such sites more efficiently. We describe our use of GIS…

Religious education for ecological consciousness requires attention to bodily and emotional vulnerability. This selection, excerpted from Inhabitance: Religious Ecological Education (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2019), describes educational practices that embrace ecological vulnerability.

Enabling educators to meet new and challenging times requires fundamental shifts to ways of imagining and enacting their practice. A central yet often understated aspect of this educational change are the various ways in which educators receive training and development. From initial teacher training through to continuing professional development,…

Since its inception, the education for sustainable development (ESD) movement in higher education has been doomed. Its standards of sustainability, bound to measures of development which suggest human flourishing is equated with the western ideals, is precisely the double-bind Chet Bowers so passionately stood against. His critical perspective on…

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson approved legislation to establish the National Park Service (NPS) as part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. It was charged with protecting and managing the 35 National Parks and monuments in the country. One hundred years later, in 2016, the NPS protects and manages more than 400 parks located in all 50…

This paper describes an environmental education initiative called Starting out Wild (SoW) designed for toddlers and their caretakers. The program, developed by staff and volunteers of a city parks department, engages children ages 1-3 and their parents and caretakers through outdoor learning experiences. We suggest that environmental education…

The aim of this project is to define the importance of 12-day ecology-based education training upon integration with nature and understanding the human-ecosystem relationship. In accordance with this purpose, there has been collected some survey data interviewing with the participants of "Lake Beysehir National Park and Ecology-based Nature…

Grand Canyon Semesters (GCS) at Northern Arizona University are integrated learning experiences in the humanities and sciences. Students study the environmental and social challenges confronting us in the twenty-first century using an interdisciplinary approach to the curriculum. During previous semesters, participants have tackled complex issues…

Since 2004, middle and high school students have been monitoring the effects of ground-level ozone by collecting data on observable leaf injury on cutleaf coneflower ("Rudbeckia laciniata") and crownbeard ("Verbesina occidentalis") in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This project is part of an ongoing citizen-science effort in which…

As a nature interpreter who has had the pleasure to teach, learn from, and explore with many people of all ages, it is clear to this author that these young people represent among the best hope for the future of a valuable natural place in the heart of the City of Toronto that is constantly threatened--High Park. The park is multi-use: one can…

The 1988 fires at Yellowstone National Park burned 1.4 million acres in the tri-state areas of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho--encompassing the greater Yellowstone area--and burned some 800,000 acres within the park itself (Franke 2000). This article discusses this extraordinary fire event and contains helpful resources for bringing the science of…

As a result of the increased interest in nontraditional activities, such as mountain biking and backpacking, many public schools are incorporating outdoor education into their curriculum. However, little attention has been given to educating students about the impacts that outdoor activities can have on the environment. It is important that…

In the early twentieth century, a curriculum known as nature study flourished in major city school systems, streetcar suburbs, small towns, and even rural one-room schools. This object-based approach to learning about the natural world marked the first systematic attempt to introduce science into elementary education, and it came at a time when…