Virtual Poster Exhibit
Nature Based Therapy – Finding your authentic self in an unauthentic world
By Kit Kline, Nature Based Therapy
Nature Based Therapy is a complimentary therapy that provides a holistic health response to support people to reconnect to self through nature based interventions. Nature Based Therapy explores 8 Key components and processes that enable this connection to happen.
Finding Ecohappiness Through Diverse Nature Programs
By Sandi Schwartz | Ecohappiness Project
This poster showcases diverse nature programs for children and teens featured in Sandi Schwartz’s book, “Finding Ecohappiness: Fun Nature Activities To Help Your Kids Feel Happier and Calmer.” These programs help participants manage and cope with mental health issues like stress and anxiety through unique nature programming. Each story addresses equity and inclusion and can be replicated in other communities.
The four programs include:
- StreetWaves: Providing Children Access to Life-Changing Water Experiences
- Girls Who Click: Inspiring Young Female Nature Photographers
- Ebony Horsewomen, Inc.: Transforming Children’s Lives with Equine Therapy
- Community Greening: Bringing the Magic of Urban Orchards to Communities in Florida
Art, Parks, & Play: SPARK Art
By Elizabeth Howley & Kathleen Ownby, SPARK School Park Program
SPARK works with public schools to turn their playgrounds into community parks. Every park is unique. School SPARK committees work with landscape architects to design their ideal park within budget. They also take charge of fundraising. Every park has a public art component involving the students, either lead by the art teacher or a professional artist. The public art component draws on different aspects or traits of the community or school, for instance, the mascot, the diversity, or cultural aspects of the community and/or school.
Empowering Young People to Advance Equity at Overnight Camp
By Hannah Patterson | Camp Fire National Headquarters
Camp Fire National Headquarters has embarked on an initiative with the goal of ensuring that all campers participating in overnight camp feel welcome, emotionally affirmed and physically comfortable. Our evaluations for this project centered on empowering youth to share their own program experiences and asked them to think about ways for creating more accessible camp spaces. This poster outlines the process Camp Fire used to elicit camper feedback at ten different camps. It includes specific examples of the ways in which data was used to directly inform programmatic and site improvements. The poster also emphasizes the importance of gathering youth input to build programs where all young people can thrive.
Building Grit, Resiliency and Promoting Social-Emotional Learning in Historically Marginalized Communities through Nature
By Jo Hackl, Random House Children’s Books
We all know that grit, resiliency and social-emotional awareness are key qualities for student success and for escaping the cycle of poverty, but how do we go about building them? Jo Watson Hackl, the founder of Outdoorosity, and an award-winning author and first-generation college graduate, will present the free “Building Grit Kit,” developed and revised over twenty-four months in collaboration with experienced nature educators and a neuroscience major. The kit includes resources to engage students grades three and up to help them use nature as a springboard to promote social and emotional learning and to help students build skills to increase grit and resiliency. Handouts will be available with nature-based activities to foster social and emotional learning and increase grit and resiliency.
Indicators of Healthy Community for Children: A Systematic Review
By Amaryllis H Park, Yizhen Ding, and Chanam Lee | Texas A&M University
Environmental child-friendliness so far has been broadly defined but without sufficient empirical support based on child-specific data, and not fully examined spatial disparities related to environmental and community characteristics such as access to healthy/unhealthy options. It is crucial, therefore, to examine multiple contexts or the complex dynamic interplay of factors, to develop a holistic environmental framework or guidelines for retrofitting or building new neighborhoods with child-friendliness. In order to understand what makes a city child-friendly, this study reviews existing articles to summarize the definitions and indicators of child-friendliness from diverse perspectives. The primary aim of this study is to systematically review and identify indicators of child-friendly neighborhoods that are associated with children’s health outcomes to better understand what promotes or inhibits healthy development of children. Drawing from the empirical evidence in existing literature, this systematic review will help better understand what environmental features promote or inhibit healthy development of urban children. The outcome of this review will be a conceptual model of a child-friendly community with operational definitions that can guide future research, practice, and policy efforts.
Nature Education with Infants, Toddlers and their Families
By Pam Penton | Meeting House Child Care Center
What ingredients are in an Outdoor Classroom for Infants and Toddlers? How do these ingredients help with their development? How do we support the education of the families so that experiences occur in school and outside of school? At the Meeting House Child Care Center in Newton Massachusetts, teachers expose children and families to the natural world with small steps and lots of fun.
NatureConnect 365: EveryBody EveryDay
By Patricia Patterson | NatureConnect 365
Creative moments that allow Earth to teach. Through blended Eco-Arts and Expressive Arts modalities NatureConnect 365 promotes emergent learning opportunities implemented within classroom curriculum, after-school programming, community centered events and daily family activity. Blueprints and best practices for developing sustainable community partnerships which encourage equity in access to greenspace benefits is foundational to NatureConnect 365’s philosophy of EveryBody, EveryDay. Won’t you join us in the launch of our 2022 Summer of Learning Pop-Up #thenaturenessofme and experience for yourself and your community the joy of creating through nature connection.
Our Sense-Able Nature: Mindfully Connecting with Nature Using Your 54 Natural Senses
By Kate Trnka | The Sacred Earth Institute
We all want to get our children outside but often we don’t know how to engage them in meaningful ways. After working with thousands of students over 25+ years as a public-school teacher, I knew I wanted to develop a set of nature connecting activity cards that teachers could use with their students and get them mindfully participating in the natural world. During the creation process, I recognized that parents and grandparents as well as health and wellness professionals may also find them valuable tools – not only for getting outdoors, but to help with communication and observation skills.
The list of 54 senses, that I based my creation of these cards on, was compiled by Dr. Michael J. Cohen (Nature as Higher Power, 2013) who built on the work of Guy Murchie (The Seven Mysteries of Life, 1978).
There are 74 activity cards in the deck (the 54 senses along with themes and colors in nature). They have been used in private sessions, classrooms and workshops with participants ranging in age between four and eighty-one years old (so far). I’m particularly fond of the reflective writing/mindful dialogue prompts that facilitate communication with those who participate in the activities.
It’s All About Relationships! Shifting the Priorities of Public Schools to Include Nature Connection and Outdoor Learning… One Administrator at a Time
By Marie Robinson and Anne Stires | Katahdin Schools/RSU 89 and Anne Stires Educational Consulting, LLC
This poster tells the story of two school administrators and their journey to shift the priorities of public schools to include nature connection and outdoor learning. Children and teachers deserve to spend quality time outdoors and the public school system can no longer continue the hyper-focus on academics without considering the needs of the whole child. Building relationships with community partners and state agencies can make all the difference. How can you support nature connection at your school?
Ecotones & the Inner/Outer Landscape
By Dr. Jennifer J. Wilhoit | TEALarbor stories
This poster is a visual summary of the body of work I’ve been researching and practicing for more than twenty-five years in a myriad of settings (pre-K and K-12 traditional and private schools, outdoor education/environmental education programs, hospice and medical care facilities, environmental and restorative justice groups, special education contexts, wilderness guide circles, private practice and retreats, etc). Through the use of “ecotones” (rich area of confluence between two or more biomes) as a concept, we can gain insight into how to relate more deeply to the nature around us as well as to live more peaceably with the humans we encounter. This poster will show examples of ecotones, both literal (landscape-based) and metaphorical (i.e., the intersection between creativity and nature, spirituality and nature, etc).
Inside Out Conference Nature Quilt
By Tania Moloney | Nurture In Nature Australia
Create with nature and submit today to participate in the Inside-Out Conference virtual quilt!
At the heart of the Nature Quilt is Connection, Collaboration and Belonging.
Individually each of you are doing incredible things to connect to the children and communities you serve with nature.
When we consider each of your individual actions as a whole, they interweave to create the incredible children and nature movement.
And when we come together to collaborate on occasions like the Inside Out Conference, the threads of our impact can reach further, and we nurture a greater sense of connection and belonging to nature and to each other.
Join the Children & Nature Network and Nurture in Nature Australia in collaborating together to connect with nature and each other through this beautiful and meaningful project.
You’ll find all the details and how to submit here https://nurtureinnature.com.au/nature-quilt/
Young People & Parks
By Children, Play and Nature Committee | World Urban Parks
As children become adolescents, we watch them move from settings of play to places to socialise, be with their peers, or be alone. They want to explore more opportunities for risk-taking and challenge. These experiences are developmentally necessary for adolescents, contributing to their discovery of identity and belonging (UN General Comment No. 20, 2016).
As Park Managers, we have the opportunity and responsibility to champion the importance of parks for young people as places which enable these experiences. To do this we need to understand more about the needs of young people, involve them in the design of parks, consider their needs while organising programs, and manage strategies that focus on encouraging their access to parks. This poster examines the importance of designing parks with young people in mind, and the ways that we can do so.
Farm to Early Care and Education: One North Carolina County’s Vision to Connect Young Children to Locally Grown Foods & Nature Based Education through Gardening
By Mindy Davis, LaKeasha Glaspie, Natalie Pond | Smart Start of New Hanover County
North Carolina Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) is an initiative of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) of NC State University. Smart Start of New Hanover County (SSNHC) joined the initiative with a vison of reaching the county’s youngest citizens to educate them, their caregivers, and families on healthy eating and incorporating local foods through a variety of experiences. Seeing a need for the early care programs that served children in low-income areas, SSNHC designed their work to bring Farm to ECE to them. Now reaching over a dozen early care programs in the county, the participating programs are benefitting from having gardens for the young children to tend and harvest vegetables, implementing healthy eating curriculum in the preschool classrooms, networking with farmers and community partners, as well as engaging families in providing vegetables for meals at home and learning about resources in the county to help provide healthy food. Our journey in guiding programs through easily attainable & sustainable strategies that have proven successful in New Hanover County.
Nurturing Education of the Whole Child through an Integral Curriculum and a Focused Relationship With Nature – A Case Study
By Ann Kumpf | Cambridge School
Cambridge School in Baltimore, Maryland is a unique school that uses a holistic, integral educational approach. They educate the diverse student body to think critically and practice stewardship. A core distinctive of Cambridge’s educational approach is the concept that “children are persons” which is reflected in Cambridge’s commitment to nurture the whole child. The Outdoor Education Coordinator mentors teachers to explore ways nature can be used to foster student growth in all areas of child development. Through hands-on experiences, children are able to make multi-sensory, physical and emotional connections while also building a deep knowledge of subject matter. Connection to the natural world plays a significant role in the daily rhythms of the school day as evidenced by keeping nature study journals, incorporating natural spaces and materials across curriculum, and facilitating and supporting both structured and unstructured play in forest areas. Cambridge School’s commitment to outdoor education is supported by all major stakeholders – trustees, administration, faculty, parents and students. The outcomes and benefits of having a dedicated Outdoor Education Coordinator are reflected in the qualitative data of how teachers experienced the focused year-long professional development cohort and their descriptions of growth in the new curricular initiative.
Playwork in Nature
By Angela Wildermuth, Director & Founder | Wilderkids Urban Forest School
My poster gives participants an introduction to Playwork Theory and shares how the principles of Playwork can be particularly helpful to ‘Nature-Workers’ in strengthening and enriching a diverse and inclusive children in nature movement by supporting all children’s innate need to play unrestrictedly. Play encompasses so much more than meets the eye. Many adults are eager to teach, to help, and to guide children in discovering the wonders of nature in outdoor child care and school settings but often, adults’ interventions can distract or hinder children in play. When children’s play is hindered, so can learning and growth and even nature connection. Playwork theory in particular, can give adults parameters with which to respect and support the child’s needs for agency. When adults can be more observant and less take less prominent roles in outdoor scenarios where play happens, children can gain deeper and more positive associations with nature as they directly experience it (either alone or with others.) The poster shows photos of spontaneous child-only moments from “Wildercamp,” a summer camp which has taken place in St. Louis parks for the past 5 years and whose program directors have been informed and inspired by playwork theory. Wildercamp is a joint venture between Wilderkids Urban Forest School and a local non-profit, PLAY-MO. Wildercamp, though not a large camp, is immensely popular and young children remember the experiences they had at this park for years to come.
Galapagos Infinito: Connecting Galapagos Children to their Home
By Noémi d’Ozouville, Roberto Pepolas, Emiliano Rodriguez, Ana Maria Andrade | Fundación Naveducando
The world needs children that are connected with their home, nature, the sea, their planet. You cannot love or care for what you do not know; and in Galapagos, children do not know their archipelago, the protected areas and the sea due to lack of accessibility.
Galapagos Infinito generates transformative experiences linked with the new Galapagos curriculum for 7th grade students (10-11 years old) that has a spill over effect on their surrounding community. We leverage the tourism apparatus of the locality to achieve community experiential education objectives.
We create: (i) Digital missions with scientists, community actors, offices of the sea, actors from other islands, all the way to exploring the bottom of the sea and speaking with an astronaut at the International Space Station; (ii) Missions visiting other inhabited islands and exchanges between schools; (iii) Boat-based missions to visit the protected areas; (iv) Sailing and recreational activities at sea.
We work hand in hand with the education sector, the tourism sector, the public sector, the nonprofit sector and grassroots community actions. We join existing initiatives and efforts to generate comprehensive and sustained programming. We also connect with inspiring stories and expeditions for the children to open their hearts, minds and willingness to act for change.
Creating a natural playground to support children’s autonomy and independence
By Dr. Meg Gravil, Dr. Sherri Brown, Dr. Jill Jacobi-Vessles | IECE Consultant / University of Louisville
Playcosystem is a riff off of ecosystem. Think of a playcosystem as…
- biological community of players interacting with each other and their physical environment in a way that supports the health of all
- a complex network of healthy interconnected play communities
Think of Playcosystem as a grand experiment in how play literally plays a role in connecting people to nature. We are fostering the next generation of environmental stewards through play.
This poster shares two years’ documentation of the imagining, creating, and utility of a multi-zoned outdoor play space. The 10-acre play area offers opportunities for open-ended and physically challenging play for toddlers through adolescents. Utilizing the Theory of Behavior Settings (Barker, 1968; Price, 1976), we explore the planning that preceded construction and the importance placed on community input, specifically from children and marginalized populations. Photographs will illustrate the three distinct ‘zones’ of the play space and the affordances of each will be explored, including the availability of risky play.
Leveraging Global Storytelling and Nature to Enhance Early Childhood Education Learning Spaces
By Rebecca S Lamar | Skirt in the Dirt Global Storytelling Productions
Educators, particularly early childhood educators, have limited resources or connections beyond their own research in presenting character development using a lens of DEIB (diversity, equity, Inclusion and belonging) in classroom or other learning spaces. Skirt in the Dirt Global Storytelling Productions, (SITDGSP) provides a child-based entertainment and enrichment package to communities or organizations that foster learning environments and spaces for young children, ages 3-8. Program packages offer 40-60 min. sessions that use stories from the Natives of the Americas, the Caribbean and from Africa. The storytelling sessions are themed around nature and animals, while incorporating character development, cultural awareness, social and emotional development strategies for young children. Children are engaged in conversation, physical activities, music and props, that allow young children to express themselves in a variety of ways during sessions. Additionally, SITGSP offers professional development session for educators, which engages teachers to leverage resources to enrich the conversation, lessons, activities involved in the global stories. SITDGSP provides a family engagement toolkit for families of the children who participated in a school program. These resource kits provide resources and a letter to families explaining why it is important to enhance children’s literature using missing narratives from across the world.
Taking the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Framework Outdoors
By Sarah Sliwa, Caitlin Merlo, Kelly Cornett | CDC Healthy Schools, National Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Population Health
This poster introduces CDC’s child-centered “Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) framework for addressing health and nonacademic barriers to learning in school and highlights the relevance of outdoors learning to WSCC implementation. As schools across the country prioritize a return to in-person learning, school staff are challenged with meeting students where they are at—supporting emotional wellbeing, addressing learning loss, and promoting physical health. Outdoor learning provides multiple opportunities and benefits. Time outside offers opportunities to be physically active, to help decrease stress, and to connect with others. Linking the value of outdoors learning to WSCC may resonate with partners in education and public health.
Creating Biotopes as Childcare and Schools
By Robin C. Moore & Nilda G. Cosco | NC State University / Natural Learning Initiative (NLI)
The Necessity of Urban Green Space for Children’s Optimal Development (UNICEF, 2021), places highest priority on childcare centers and schools. Action is linked to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (international standard for childhood equity, diversity, and inclusion), together with the Sustainable Development Goals (established framework linking local action to global policy).
Children are legally required to attend schools, which have a unique mission to combat global climate change and species reduction through education.
Imagine every childcare center and school as a childhood biotope, with students learning in, though, and about nature every day. With such an early start, societal values may evolve in favor of planet Earth in time to avoid catastrophe.
Regeneration of nature in facilities serving established communities can directly demonstrate best practices in biophilic design, biotope management, and integrated curricula. Model policies for both new construction and renovation may emphasize essential functions of biodiversity, indoors and outside.
By linking global to local system change, educational biotopes could become the vanguard for a thriving planet. Landscape architects and architects must collaborate, together with associated professionals, to demonstrate the power of Nature-Based Solutions for educational facilities. Click links and QR code for more information.
Out of the Clinic and Into the Woods
By Peter Mayfield | Gateway Mountain Center
“Whole Hearts Minds & Bodies” (WHMB) is a nature-based therapeutic mentoring program that has been serving youth in a large rural region of Eastern California for the past ten years. Under the supervision of licensed clinicians, the program’s trained therapeutic guides conduct one-on-one sessions outdoors and within the context of the daily life of their young clients, who are in school, living at home, and present in their communities. By design, this non-clinical context makes effective treatment more accessible to Latinx youth and rural residents living in poverty, while also destigmatizing mental health care. WHMB’s innovative Four Roots framework, which is described here, is informed by a significant and growing body of research in neuroscience and trauma treatment that calls for “treatment from-the-bottom-up;” WHMB is a nature-based example of such an approach. Based on impressive retention rates and the reduction of symptomatic distress across the program’s large—and rapidly growing—caseload, WHMB has successfully partnered with major behavioral health agencies and care providers, including the local hospital district. The data shown here illustrates the viability of this nature-based therapeutic intervention as an alternative to traditional behavioral health treatments in healing complex trauma in youth.
Nature-Based Pediatric Occupational Therapy: A Scoping Review
By Hannah K. Burke, Lynette M. Burke, Shelly J. Lane | Colorado State University
All children can benefit from engagement with nature, but opportunity is not always available; this is particularly true for children with disabilities and/or mental health concerns. Pediatric occupational therapists can support equity in access to nature – a necessary occupational context of childhood – for these children and families. However, the extent to which occupational therapy practice capitalizes on nature-based opportunities is unclear. We conducted a scoping review of the literature to fill this gap. Results suggest that although many occupational therapists identify as using nature in their practice, there is limited occupational therapy-specific research to support their work. Literature currently focuses on how to bring natural elements into traditional clinical practices or on specific activities (i.e., surfing). Primary populations served are children with developmental, regulation, and motor delays/challenges. While it is clear that occupational therapy has particular value to add to the field of nature-based interventions, a clear conceptualization of nature-based practices for occupational therapy does not exist, and empirical evidence regarding efficacy of nature-based interventions is very limited. To open the doors to nature for children with developmental differences, and to their families, the full potential of nature-based intervention needs to be better defined, and intervention efficacy examined.
Out of the Clinic and Into the Woods
By Anita Strawn de Ojeda, Quentina Joe, Kayla Sloan | Holbrook Indian School
In order to encourage agency and self-advocacy in Indigenous students, the ELA teacher and Outdoor School Coordinator at Holbrook Indian School gave students the opportunity to hire their teachers to teach classes during the annual Outdoor School Program. Students reviewed teacher resumés, discussed qualifications in small groups, and wrote business letters to teachers requesting the teacher teach a specific class.
The poster includes a QR code which leads to a video about the HIS Outdoor School program.