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Peer-reviewed article

Cultivating Collaborations: Site Specific Design for Embodied Science Learning

July 14, 2018 | Public Programs, Exhibitions
Immersion in well-designed outdoor environments can foster the habits of mind that enable critical and authentic scientific questions to take root in students' minds. Here we share two design cases in which careful, collaborative, and intentional design of outdoor learning environments for informal inquiry provide people of all ages with embodied opportunities to learn about the natural world, developing the capacity for understanding ecology and the ability to empathize, problem-solve, and reflect. Embodied learning, as facilitated by and in well-designed outdoor learning environments, leads students to develop new ways of seeing, new scientific questions, new ways to connect with ideas, with others, and new ways of thinking about the natural world. Using examples from our collaborative practices as experiential learning designers, we illustrate how creating the habits of mind critical to creating scientists, science-interested, and science-aware individuals benefits from providing students spaces to engage in embodied learning in nature. We show how public landscapes designed in creative partnerships between educators, scientists, designers, and the public have potential to amplify science learning for all.

TEAM MEMBERS

  • Katherine Gill
    Author
    Tributary Land Design
  • Jocelyn Glazier
    Author
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Betsy Towns
    Author
    University of North Carolina School of the Arts
  • Citation

    DOI : 10.1093/icb/icy027
    Publication Name: Integrative and Comparative Biology
    Volume: 58
    Number: 1
    Page Number: 127-139

    Funders

    NSF
    Funding Program: AISL
    Award Number: 1323030
    Resource Type: Research Products | Reference Materials | Conference Proceedings
    Discipline: Ecology, forestry, and agriculture
    Audience: General Public | Museum/ISE Professionals | Scientists | Learning Researchers
    Environment Type: Public Programs | Park, Outdoor, and Garden Programs | Exhibitions | Aquarium and Zoo Exhibits | Parks, Outdoor, and Garden Exhibits

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