What is the science behind personality tests and do they have a place in education? What about learning styles? Do they help children learn? Have you ever been asked to take a personality test for a job? How have you seen these tests used in the classroom? What about Learning Styles? Are you a visual, Read More
Category: Nature Education
Teaching techniques that are useful for outdoor educators and parents exposing children to nature.
NJEF Putting Ourselves in Our Nature Journals
Join the Nature Journal Educators Forum as we discuss ways to put ourselves into our nature journals! Can this be a form of self care? Relevant science data? A way of narrating our experiences? Read More
NJEF: Nature-Averted Kids
During this Nature Journal Educator’s Forum summer session, NJEF discusses ways to help with nature-averted kids and kids who might be strongly attached to their electronics. (Note: this recording was from June 2022; John Muir Laws was traveling during this time). Read More
NJEF: Best Practices with Words
What are the best ways to use words in our nature journals? How can we expand students’ tool kits? What works, what doesn’t? The Nature Journal Educator’s Forum discusses best nature journaling practices with words to help our students. Read More
NJEF: Best Practices with Numbers
What are the best ways to quantify our observations? How can we play with numbers more dynamically? Join John Muir Laws, Susan Beckhardt, Yvea Moore, and the Nature Journal Educator’s Forum as we discuss how to expand our students’ toolkits to include math in ways that aren’t scary. Read More
NJEF: Self Care
Join the Nature Journal Educators Forum this week as Kate Righter leads a discussion on self-care. How do we take care of ourselves as teachers? We will discuss various actions we can take before, during, and after our lessons to help maintain our mental and physical health. Then we will take our ideas and preferences Read More
NJEF: Lesson Ideas & Organizing Club Meetings
Join the Nature Journal Educators Forum (NJEF) as we support a fellow nature journaler, Lindsey, with lesson ideas to get started with kids along with the organization and leadership of club meet ups. (John Muir Laws was traveling during this time period. Temporarily filling in for him in facilitating the NJEF sessions were Billie Jo Read More
NJC: Episode 37, Block Diagram
Learn how to make a Block Diagram to help you describe the ecosystems you explore. This is a visual thinking tool that will help you think three-dimensionally as you explore. About The Nature Journal Connection Video Series In partnership with the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco (https://creativity.org/), I worked with a team to produce Read More
NJEF Tools for Teaching about Climate Change
Join John Muir Laws and special guests Lin Andrews and Cari Herndon from the National Center for Science Education for a discussion of best practices in teaching about climate change. To learn more about the NCSE, please visit their website here: https://ncse.ngo/ Links from session: Lesson Set One: https://ncse.ngo/scientific-consensus Lesson Set Two: https://ncse.ngo/climate-models Lesson Set Read More
NJEF Noticing Nature with Sue Slotterback
Join naturalist educator Sue Slotterback and John Muir Laws for a discussion of how she developed and grew the Noticing Nature program. This is a program for seniors in New Jersey to get outdoors and nature journal together. Learn how she connected with existing programs and needs in the community and progressively built resources as Read More