Data Collection Plan_ Data Source Timeline/Plan for Collection | Intended Learning/Purpose | Professional Timeline: Ongoing throughout | Through the literature, | intend Literature entire semester to learn about my topic, and what's current in the field. | also Plaii for Collection: I plan to _| plan to learn from other search for and use professional | researchers’ approaches to data literature to inform my work.I | collection and to see how their will search for literature findings may be similar to or through West Chester different than the findings from University's library data bases, | my study. In addition, I plan to as well as, through web-based _| learn about other early search engines. childhood education programs that provide nature immersion opportunities. ‘Sub-topics for my literature include: multi-age learning, children’s interests or attitudes of outside play/learning, and implementing an outdoor classroom/learning environment (nature preschool or forest kindergarten), Program Timeline: 10/27-11/11/16 | The goal of this data is to have Information additional comparable data Plan for Collection: A survey will be sent to various early childhood programs that provide extensive nature immersion opportunities. ‘This will be sent by email. regarding components of a nature immersion program such as duration of time outside, ages of students served, number of children served, etc. Child Observations | Time : 10/3-11/11/16. Plan for Collection: During the six-week period, I will conduct daily observations of children in their outdoor environments. Observations will be recorded in written form and through the use of a tally/checklist form. In addition, daily weather will be recorded including ‘Through my observations, I intend to observe and tally on a daily basis the experiences each child has with their outdoor environments including what types of objects they play with, the peers they interact with, and what activities they engage in, ‘The goal is to summarize thistemperature and types of precipitation as well as the time in and out of the outdoor experience. data at the end of the collection period by age group (birth-2% and 2 ¥4-5 years old) and amount of time spent outside (0-1, 1-3, and 3+ hours). Child Interviews Timeline: 10/3-11/11/16. Plan for Collection: During the six-week period, I will conduct informal interviews with each child who can verbally communicate. These interviews may be spontaneous or planned throughout the time period. In addition, child- initiated interactions with the teacher/researcher will be recorded if it relates to a child’s perceptions and attitudes relating to their outdoor environment. The intention of conducting and recording informal interviews with the children and recording any child-initiated interactions is to gain insight regarding each child’s perceptions and des toward their outdoor environment. This data will be compared at the end of the data collection across age groups and amount of time spent outside. Researcher Journal Timeline: 10/3-11/11/16. Plan for Collection: During the six-week period, I will reflect upon the action research’ process, as well as, the observations I have and the experiences children are having, I will also use The Great Outdoors by Mary S, Rivkin and Last Child in the Woods by Richard Lowy to provide some points of reflection. The purpose for the researcher journal is to allow time for reflection on what observations Tam making, as well as, tothink about interventions if necessary. It will aid in the action research process by providing discussion points to think about and reflect on. Family Surveys Timeline: 10/3-10/7/16 and 11/7-11/11/16 Plan for Collection: Two family surveys will be conducted: one at the beginning and end of the data The first survey will gain insight regarding the outdoor experiences children have at home. In addition, the survey will examine each parent's perceptions and attitudes toward outdoor experiences,collection period. This surveys will be paper-based and returned to the researcher before the end of the collection period. play and learning to see if there isa correlation with their child's perceptions and attitudes. ‘The second parent survey will ask families to evaluate their experiences, as well as, their child’s experiences during this six-week nature immersion study. Using that information, parents will determine to what extent they would like to see nature immersion implemented in their child’s family childcare setting, Family Education Sessions/Discussion Timeline: 10/3-11/11/16. Plan for Collection: Starting in week 2, each main topic of the first family survey will be discussed through a closed, secret Facebook page that is exclusively for the families of the family childcare program. ‘The intention of these parent discussions is to provide ‘opportunity for parent education regarding each main topic in the parent survey. It will provided families with an opportunity to become more knowledgeable regarding the topic. This will serve as an intervention. In addition, discussion may clear up any confusion regarding the wording of any particular question. In particular, focus will be on any question that received of undecided, disagree or strongly disagree from any one parent. Discussion will serve as a source of data collection. /Family Logs ‘Timeline: 10/3-11/11/16 Plan for Collection: Families will be send home a form daily ‘The goal is similar to the child- initiated interactions between child/teacher, which is to capture the children’s _to record child-initiated comments their child may make regarding his/her experiences, perceptions and attitudes relating to their outdoor environments, both at homte and school. It will also provide a space to record nature-related experiences the child may have at home with family. experiences, perceptions, and attitudes regarding their outdoor environments, both at home and school, and to see if it changes over the data collection period with increased spent outside. Staff Assessments ‘Timeline: 11/11/16 Plan for Collection: The teacher/director will take a Outdoor Classroom Staff Perception Survey from Eric M. Nelson's Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms. In addition, the teacher will doa Nature Center Preschool self-assessment tool on her family childcare program through rubric found in David Sobels’s book, Nature Preschools and Forest Kindergartens: The Handbook for Outdoor Learning ‘The purpose of this survey and self-assessment is to better understand the teacher/director's perception of her outdoor classroom and experiences.