This practical workshop draws on place-responsive pedagogies and nature connection practices to demonstrate the ways in which learners can be supported to: connect to place; foster care of the natural world; and discover nature as a teacher.

Workshop participants will:

Learn about the benefits of outdoor learning, including emotional well-being and physical health benefits.

Experience a range of activities and tools that foster connection to place and grow learners' ecological literacy. Activities include ‘the Web of Life’; nature journaling; the 'Council of all Beings' and more.

Experience the ‘core routines of nature connection’ - sit spots, expanding the senses, bird language and more - and how to use these in different contexts.

Be introduced to 'nature names' - a practice that can be woven through programs or units of work to support learners to discover the plants and animals in local ecosystems and learn about their relationships with each other.

Reflect with other participants on the activities experienced and consider ways to adapt or extend them for different groups of learners or for different learning areas.

Receive access to a resource pack, activity descriptions with links to the Australian curriculum and a certificate for 6 hours of professional development.

This workshop is suited to school teachers, early childhood educators, forest school leaders, nature mentors, homeschooling parents and anyone wanting to take learning outdoors.

For school teachers, the content relates particularly to sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.6 of the Australian professional standards for teachers. The workshop demonstrates how the Australian Curriculum cross-curriculum priority area of Sustainability can be addressed while taking learning outdoors - across learning areas including Science, English, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Arts. The approaches and activities introduced in this workshop support students to increase critical and creative thinking and have the knowledge, understanding and skills to engage in creating a more sustainable world.

About the main presenter:

Emma Brindal is the founder of WiseEarth Education and has been teaching and facilitating experiential learning and environmental education programs for over a decade. She also works at Northey Street City Farm, where she has developed and run a range of permaculture and sustainability activities and programs for children and adults. Emma holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science and a Master of Education (Social Ecology).

Guest presenter:

Artist and educator Bethan Burton of Journaling with Nature will also be running a session on nature journaling to inspire you with a range of ways that nature journaling can be used to enhance outdoor learning.

Registration for the workshop:

Cost: $160 school-funded/full | $110 student/unwaged

We offer a group discount of 20% for schools / organisations with 3 or more people attending. Use the code 'group_discount' when booking or contact us to be invoiced.

Includes morning tea. BYO lunch. If your school or organisation is paying for your attendance, we can invoice you – email education@nscf.org.au to arrange this.

Contact the host of Outdoor Learning for Educators

There were 0 errors found in the information you submitted: