Purposefully-Framed Play: A New Spin on an Old Idea

 "Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives."-Thomas Berry

Part of being an environmental educator is understanding how people learn in order to develop meaningful lessons that resonate with your learners. One theory, experiential learning, was popularized by David Kolb and explains learning as a process of students learning by doing. This theory has since been expanded on and a new theory play-based learning has been developed. This theory expands on Kolb's original ideas and, though geared towards younger learners, is applicable to learners of all ages.

Play-based learning is a theory which explains how children are able to learn through playing, which is both a pedagogical and experiential activity. Cutter-Mackenzie and Edwards (2013) investigated three types of play to try to determine which type of play is the best suited for learning environmental concepts. While there study was geared towards younger children, I believe that it can be applicable to any age groups.

What the authors found “purposefully framed” play was the most effective type of play at getting concepts across. Purposefully framed play provides an opportunity for learners to first explore and try to make connections on their own followed by the teacher modeling and discussing the play. Afterwards this teacher/student interaction the student gets another chance to use the materials again. After participating in purposefully framed play children were able to describe the goals, outcomes, and some conceptual ideas more so than other types of play (Cutter-Mackenzie &Edwards, 2013). The interactions between the teacher/student is really what helps make this type of play meaningful.  

Purposefully-framed play combines open-ended play, modeled play, and teacher/student interactions to enhance the play experience. This method of play best supports environmental education, especially at a young age, by giving a purpose to the play (Cutter-Mackenzie & Edwards, 2013). Engaging in purposefully framed play can also support “deep learning” in that it allows the teachers to engage the students in environmental content by allowing the students to gravitate towards environmental activities of interest (Cutter-Mackenzie & Edwards, 2013). This means that with intentional planning, students can be directed to learning objectives as long as the educator is properly prepared.

This pertains to environmental education not only at a young age but also when working for older learners. This is well illustrated by using the example of using play-based learning to teach a skills such as using a bow drill to start a fire. At the start the students would have a variety of options of skills they could practice. This gives the students a chance to explore and find a skill they are interested in. By first setting out the components of the bow drill students are invited to try to figure out how it works (open-play). After the students experiment with the parts, a demonstration (modeled play) and a discussion afterwards (teacher/student interaction) would give the students an opportunity to not only use the parts of a bow drill in unison as well as explain how the bow drill fire starting method works. This gives them a chance to experiment and form connections on their own. Using this method also gives the educator a chance to do some modeling for the students to help directed their experiences in a way that would help them understand the concepts being covered.

Understanding how play can be used to teach environmental concepts is an important aspect of being an environmental educator. The theory behind purposefully-framed play bridges the pedagogical gap between knowledge and experiential learning by having the experience be guided with knowledge from the teacher (Cutter-Mackenzie & Edwards, 2013). This allows for the students to understand that there is a reason for the play, giving them a chance to connect the outcomes with concepts. Environmental educators should strive to follow a purposefully framed organization for our teaching styles to help link activities to concepts. If not, we run the risk of having the students miss out on concepts altogether.  

Works Cited

Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Edwards, S. (2013). Toward a model for early childhood environmental education: Foregrounding, developing, and connecting knowledge through play-based learning. The Journal of Environmental Education, 44(3), 195-213.

QH: The Clock Evaluation

Pretty much everyone hates being evaluated. The evaluator sits in the back of the classroom with the classroom with a clipboard and furiously scribbles away, giving a heart-wrenching feeling to whatever educator stands in the front. We've all been at the receiving end of a scrutinizing evaluation and wondered, is the way we've been evaluated the most productive?

For a peer evaluation project I recently did, I did my best to take the negative aspects out of my evaluation by presenting it in a fun, useful way. As I took my notes, I tracked the amount of time that the educator spent on each activity. Then, to present my evaluation, I drew up a series of clocks that tracked each type of activity through a color code system. This method was both fun for me to create as well as being a helpful for the educator. We were both able to visually see how the class was broken up, leading to some meaningful discussions on time management and transitioning. Had I just given the teacher a series of number or letter grades, I could have shut down the teacher and any chance of reflection. While this method should by no means be the only way to evaluate, I hope it allows people a chance to think outside the box when it comes to evaluating. I've attached the template to blog so anyone could have a chance to try out this method. Enjoy!

Word & PDF: Clock Evaluation Template

Note: If the link is not working please let me know!

Introducing Quick Hits

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” -Saul Bellow

Sometime inspiration hits during the strangest of times. I was struggling to sleep last night and as I mulled around the Internet I read an article about how sometimes the best blog posts are ones that take the least time to write. After a decent bit of rest, I woke up and thought, why not make a new post series based around that idea. So an idea was born: Quick Hits.

The concept is simple: I write a blog post in 10 minutes and give myself 5 minutes to edit (so it isn't total crap) and we'll go from there. For the start, as I develop a readership, I'm planning on picking a topic that interest me. As I go on though, I want to start taking ideas that you, the reader, choose. It can come from a Tweet on my Twitter account (@eenatureguy) or from a comment on a blog. If this is able to take off, I might make a strawpoll on the side of the blog and make this a routine occurrence. Whatever happens, I'm really excited to challenge myself and I have a feeling that this could be the start of a really fun way to blog. So give me ideas of what to write about, you guys are the ones in the driver seat for this one!

The Many Facets of Environmental Centers

"In the long term, the economy and the environment are the same thing. If it is unenvironmental it is uneconomical. That is the rule of nature"-Mollie Beattie

There is much more to running a nature center then what meets the eye. The longer I have been and the more time I've spend behind the scenes, the more I've realized that the education component of a center is just one of  many cogs of the machine. This really struck home with me while working on a larger center for a summer where of the full-time positions, 80% of them involved working in something other than teaching. It really takes more than just a teaching component to run a successful nature center, it also takes business, technology, and communication savvy to make things happen.

Diagram of the how each component of a nature center works together

Education
Taking graduate level classes in Environmental Education has helped me to realize that there is so much more to education than stringing together a series of activities related to each other. There is an art as theories and learning models blend together to make a lasting impression on learner of all ages. The best environmental educator are more storytellers or director than a teacher, directing students along a unseen plot in a way that the learning isn't just heard but experienced. That being said, most centers juggle around part-time instructors which during the busy months can be a whirl of scheduling. Of any of the facets of environmental education this component ends up being the the most memorable part of the center but in reality is only one part of it.

Science/Technology
While environmental education has begun to move away from teaching solely science to a more holistic approach, I personally feel that EE centers still have an obligation to science at their core. One great way that centers across world can aid science is by promoting citizen science projects. Some programs, such as the Christmas Bird Counts, can be national projects while other such as local watershed monitoring projects, involve collecting data on a local scale. In many cases, even taking good stewardship of the nature center's land itself teaches scientific knowledge. An aspect which I feel has a tendency to get pushed to the side a bit is technology. Newer technology can sometimes be hard for many centers to adopt as it is expensive and always seems to be changing. Needless to say, technology may be tool nature centers have in connecting students to nature.

Communication
The rise of the age of social media has added a layer of complexity to the communication. Gone are the days where print media ruled. Now, sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest have been adopted by many nature centers as they've realized social media is a powerful tool to reach their intended audience. Using social media has allowed for nature centers to reach members where they are as smartphones give the Internet at people's fingertips. While there has been the adoption of online communication, those more traditional forms such as email, newspaper advertisements and even snail mail are still extremely important lines of communication. The key is to keep communications current to fit the attention span of the current culture.

Business/Nonprofit Leadership/Administrative
This side of running a nature center is the one that I am least familiar with this one is arguable the most important. There is a lot that goes into administering a nature center, from talking to donors to grant writing to scheduling events, etc. Add onto that the legal and accounting side running the center and it's enough to make my head spin...

As you can see, the fun part of being of starting off in the EE field is that there are options of what areas you can focus on. While education may be the focus of the center, without the other facets no nature center would be able to run successfully. For this post I decided to stick to shorter descriptions of each. If there's interest, I would be more than willing to post a more in-depth analysis of each.

What part of facet of running a nature center are you most interested in? Let me know in the comments below or on tweet your answer to me @eeNatureGuy!

Motivation

 "In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught"-Babe Dioum 

Now that I have some housekeeping posts out of the way, I am excited to get started on the purpose of this blog. For my first "real" post I would like to focus on something that is important in my opinion for the new professional naturalist to get an understanding of: motivation. My hope for this post is that it will give us an opportunity to get to know each other a bit better as well as provide an initial stepping stone concept to cover we begin our exploration of environmental education. 

Dictionary.com defines motivation as providing a reason to act in a certain way. There can be many reasons to get into environmental education and it can really vary from person to person. I want to first tell you about my motivation to get into environmental education. I remember this like it was yesterday. I was sitting in lecture on my first day of Wildlife Management class as a freshman when the professor told the class something I will never forget: “Wildlife management is just as much the management of people as it is the management of wildlife.” I had an inkling from that point that education would be somewhere in my future but I could never have guessed how drastically it would shape my life. After trying my hand at a lot of different areas of the wildlife management field, I came to the conclusion that for me, environmental education was where I belonged. There is no better opportunity to reach out to individuals and connect with them in a way to instill the same love of nature that I have. At least I haven't found one yet!

One of the fallacies that I can see new professionals falling into is the thought that EE might be an easy field to get into. I have struggled for many a night with the thoughts of the future and how I can get my foot in the door for meaningful employment. If I wanted to get that full-time opportunity right out of college I probably would have been better off trying to be a lawyer, doctor, or engineer. I'm not saying isn’t possible but the prospects of getting a well-paying job right off the bat is very slim. When the most of the places of employment are non-profit and funded by grants and donations, it can be difficult to find for them to offer competitive wages. Is it possible to land the full-time gig? Sure. Is it likely? No. So to start off, it seems like an endless road of internships, volunteering, and seasonal work. This is the unfortunate situation the EE field has worked its way into and in my opinion it's the young naturalists that suffer. And unfortunately I don't foresee this trend ending any time soon...

That being said, EE is indeed a rewarding field if you are looking for more than just economic reward. Going into EE has given me the best opportunity to reach a wide audience that I can teach to about what I really care about: nature. It has given me an outlet to share my fascination of the outdoors while having an office that is more often outside than inside. It has given me the opportunity to meet countless number of amazing individuals have spent their lives living what I hope to teach to to the future generation. There really is no better way to build an environmentally conscience society then instilling a love for the land in the heart of a child.

Whatever your motivation is for getting into environmental education, embrace it. Without a purpose to dedicate to this field is daunting to break into. Keep on fighting the good fight and let me know what motivates you in the comments below :)

Welcome Aboard!

I've been contemplating starting a blog for quite some time now. It's always been something I've wanted to do in the back of my mind and I'm quite surprised that it's taken until now for me to get started. Now that I've gotten this far, I think the only thing left for me to do is to jump wholeheartedly into this endeavor.

I consider myself budding naturalist seeing that I've just graduated with an undergrad degree. As a relatively green newcomer to the field myself, I feel though I have a fresh perspective towards environmental education. What I'm looking to do is to compile a resource for newer professional naturalists to help get them them off their feet. From reviewing EE activities to awesome internships I'm looking to turn this blog into a all-around resource for those looking to work in the EE field.

In order to accomplish this, I'm going to need input from you, the readers. Please feel free to leave me a comment to let me know what you are looking for or to have a discussion with your advice. I envision this blog turning into a resource that I myself could have sorely used as I started out on my journey to working in the EE field. Until then my plan is to put together a variety of post types until I find a format that sticks.

So with that, welcome to this grand adventure. Let's lace up our boots together and go get a little bit muddy.