Thanks for sharing your tips! I'd love to know more about the types of media you've found to be more successful in facilitating learning outdoors. Do you find that some types of activities or content work better than others?

I love these ideas to get families out and exploring. You’ve made the outdoors accessible and compelling site of wonder, discovery, fun, and adventure for families of all backgrounds. Have you been able to gather information about who uses the website? What are the ways you’re getting the word out about these great resources?

Thank you for sharing! When I was watching, I was thinking about the potential links between learning about natural sciences by exploring the outdoors and learning about health sciences by considering the physical and mental health impacts of being in nature. Are the health sciences an explicit topic of your project?

Boozhoo Megan,  As a former public broadcaster (out of WNMU-TV Marquette, Michigan), I am so excited to see this work via WGBH! I am currently at the Northern Michigan University Center for Native American Studies and much of our work with our NSF Includes program will also be outside. They may be an assumption that Native American Studies is solely about Native peoples, Native nations, etc.  Really Native American Studies is about Native peoples and their relationship with their ancestral homelands/environment (or lack thereof due to assimilation, relocation, etc.). While many of the NSF programs seem to want to move "forward" with technology, our program -- located within Anishinaabeg territories -- is curious about how to think like the Anishinaabe ancestors and living WITH the earth, trees, water, air, other beings... So... skillset questions may be -- what engineering do you need to know to build a canoe? What environmental science do you need to know to build a canoe? What water science do you need to know to build a canoe? This is also in line with the contemporary "green" movement in that our work will also discuss how to respectfully work with natural sources of materials (vs. a consumptive view of the earth as a resource).  Because we recognize that we must live in a world with forward moving technology... how do you use social media to build and reinforce relationships?  ~ April

Energetic video with a nice rhythm. Can you talk about your development process? Did you use focus groups for the parent videos or promo video? Are you writing up your findings on which apps and resources are most frequently used? I'd be interested and I'm sure others on informalscience.org would be as well.

Thank you, Martha! The video we posted here is part of the PLUM LANDING Explore Outdoors Toolkit, a new set of free, public media resources designed to help informal educators and parents infuse science learning into outdoor recreation. The Toolkit, which will debut online this summer, aims to get urban children (ages 6-9) outside exploring the environment around them while debunking the myth that nature is something that only exists beyond city limits.

In order to create the Toolkit, WGBH undertook a research process with our partner, Education Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology (EDC/CCT), to iteratively design and develop materials that would support families and educators in exploring actively exploring environmental science with children. As a part of this process, we worked with informal education programs around the country to test materials for the Toolkit in various stages of development. Topics for our parent videos (which include the video featured here and 7 additional short videos, all in English and Spanish) sprang from discussions with program directors and educators at outdoor education programs serving urban families. Scripts were developed in partnership with our project advisory board and the hosts of the videos (Rue Mapp of Outdoor Afro and José González and Melissa Avery of Latino Outdoors). Once we had rough cuts of the parent videos, we tested them with parents and made revisions based on their feedback.

WGBH and EDC are now in the process of completing the Toolkit components and finalizing the research reports. The reports, which will be posted to informalscience.org when complete, will provide additional information – both on the how the specific Toolkit materials (hands-on activities, app, animated videos, educator videos, and parent videos) were used, as well as more general insights on the challenges faced and infrastructure needed to inspire and support urban families in exploring environmental science in their neighborhoods.

Wow! How upbeat! And, you make it sound so simple to do -- get outdoors!

Thank you! There is now quite a bit of research emerging about the benefits of Nature-Based Learning! This project provides further momentum!