Instructional design is a design discipline that bridges science and arts-based practices. It has a long history of borrowing from various fields of design. Experience Design (XD) is a relatively new field that holds relevance for instructional design because, as a multidisciplinary approach, XD focuses on creating meaningful user experiences and…

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…

While the autonomous nature of free-choice learning can have numerous positive effects on student learning in science fields, there is a lack of research on how college-age adults learn in informal settings. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively describe college-age adults' experiences at informal learning settings by administering the…

This article explores how teachers and students can make the most of citizenship learning opportunities when they visit cultural institutions such as museums, galleries, and memorial parks. It shares insights from 150 Years: 150 Buses, a project that supported school groups to visit two or more of Wellington's nationally significant institutions…

This case presents the design of a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) guided smartphone tour. The tour was a redesign of an assignment for an introductory Physical Science course in which students take a guided tour of a local canyon. The app is downloaded to students' personal devices and provides a guided tour. I am giving special attention to…

Students enrolled in a graduate seminar benefited in multiple ways from an intensive 3-day field trip to Washington, DC. Constructed around the theme of environmental justice, the trip gave students a chance to learn about street tree distribution, park quality, and racial segregation "up close." Working with personnel from the United…

The focus of this research was to test the impact of an authentic science experience on preservice teachers' self-efficacy and their beliefs about their perceived outcomes with middle level students. Data show that there was a statistically significant decrease in the levels of self-efficacy towards teaching science and no significant change in…

Student engagement may be enhanced by providing educationally purposeful activities outside of the classroom. This study considers the influence of a multi-day industry tour on student engagement for undergraduates majoring in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. Data were collected from students' reflections in journal entries focused on an…

To address the Council on Accreditation of Parks, Recreation, Tourism, and Related Professions accreditation standard 7.01.01, the Entry Level Competency Assessment was developed to measure 46 competencies in four categories needed by entry level professionals. Students rated their competence prior to beginning their senior internship. The results…

The environmental integrity of many urban protected areas in developing countries is at risk and the important mission to reach out to people living close to them provides a special opportunity to spread the conservation message. Guided visitation to urban national parks with the necessary and appropriate interpretation can contribute towards…

Students participating in summer research internships at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park kept electronic journals to document their experiences. We used a combined content analysis to quantify the responses from the students in particular areas of interest and to understand the essence of experiences from the explanations provided in their…

Practitioners in informal science settings--museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, libraries, aquariums, zoos, and botanical gardens--are interested in finding out what learning looks like, how to measure it, and what they can do to ensure that people of all ages, from different backgrounds and cultures,…

Using phenomenological analysis, the authors examined the long-term effects of an environmental education school field trip on fourth grade elementary students who visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The authors' findings suggest that one year after the experience, many students remembered what they had seen and heard and had developed a…

Camping and working and learning in national parks may sound like a great way to spend the summer, but for participants enrolled in Rocky Mountain Experience, it is much more. Rocky Mountain Experience is a unique university course that focuses on application of service-learning principles as students travel to, camp in, and complete service…

The integration of classroom learning with field experience provides students of recreation with an understanding of the applicability of their college course work to the problems facing recreation professionals. (JD)