Dan Kuntz

EDOE 543
Dr. Murdoch
6/22/2023

Why is Outdoor Education important and vital for the educational process?

I believe Outdoor Education is positive at any level, from preschool to grade school to

graduate school. Being in nature provides healing qualities in all areas of health: physical,

mental, and spiritual. Outdoor Education is vital for knowing our place in creation and meeting

the Creator there. Just having class outdoors has positive benefits both academically and

socioemotionally. Keeping and expanding Outdoor Education throughout education will aid

students and teachers as we strive to grow academically and to know our Creator and Savior.

Dependence on Technology

The society we live in today is technologically based. There are items that we connect to

the internet because we can not because it is necessary. For example, we have smart homes

and smart cars. Using an app on our phone, I can warm up the house before arriving home. I

can start my car in the driveway via my phone and turn on the air conditioning so I don't faint in

the greenhouse conditions inside the vehicle. These are some advantages and "smart" ways to

use technology. However, other technology applications for everyday items seem to use the

rationale of "because we can." For example, we now have intelligent refrigerators with screens

on the doors and cameras inside. We have Wi-Fi lightbulbs for when my son is supposed to be

sleeping, but instead of reading, I can turn off his lights from the coach via an app on my phone.

This application of technology into every part of our lives has positive benefits. Still, it

also has made us a bit lazier and more detached from the physical world around us. Louve

(2013) says, "we have an outsized faith in technology - a turning away from nature."

Unfortunately, turning away from nature will leave us missing a part of ourselves, and we will

feel incomplete. This empty feeling will leave us searching for something to fill it or feeling "less

than," which may cause issues with our mental health.

Dan Kuntz
EDOE 543
Dr. Murdoch
6/22/2023

Technology in the classroom has continually been increasing. The examples of

technology creeping into our everyday life are a mirror of technology creeping into education.

Coupled with additional layers of technology in education in the United States, we focus on test

scores and minutes per week of curricular education. Outdoor Education is needed to return a

balance to the classroom and the individual.

Benefits Of Outdoor Education during Covid

The Covid 19 pandemic increased the usage of technology in education. Around the

world, the pandemic shuttered many classrooms. Teachers worked from home, and students

were logged in to virtual classrooms to get their education. Schools that reopened were

encouraged to use the outdoors when it made sense. Teachers held class under trees, at picnic

tables, or even on the sidewalk in the shade of the building. Valentini and

Donatiello(2021)showed how "an outdoor educational experience could stimulate a more holistic

educational process and observed the development of empathic and sociorelational skills." The

research concluded that as we move out of a pandemic into an endemic mindset, we should not

abandon Outdoor Education, which has had many benefits. Additional noted academic benefits,

increased creativity, sequential problem-solving skills, and emotional benefits, including but not

limited to reducing antisocial behavior and diminishing bullying. So why would we want to leave

the outdoor classroom and abandon these gains that seem to occur naturally when outdoors?

The simple answer is we shouldn't.

Reintroducing Teachers and Students to Nature

Outdoor Education is vital for combatting the ever-increasing invasion of technology into

our lives. It allows for an avenue of reintroducing ourselves to nature. Unfortunately, teachers,

as well as students, have lost a connection with nature. Haines(2016) studied future teachers in

undergraduate training. The future educators expressed "a lack of both the knowledge of
Dan Kuntz
EDOE 543
Dr. Murdoch
6/22/2023

teaching and learning as well as the knowledge of content necessary to meet any standards of

teaching science." Haines indicates this is likely due to minimal nature exposure themselves. To

remedy the situation Haines and Towsen University, in a study, have begun to include Outdoor

Education as part of their undergraduate nonscience-major education and science courses.

These classes will train new teachers to confidently teach science indoors and outdoors while

simultaneously bringing elementary students out of the classroom and into nature to learn, at

minimum, the science curriculum. Future classroom educators could quickly see the benefits for

themselves and the elementary students of teaching outdoors. They recognized increased

student engagement during outdoor activities than inside the traditional classroom. They also

realized that more work goes into planning for the outdoor classroom. Expanding Outdoor

Education to more school sites requires properly educating future teachers. Training them is

vital for developing quality Outdoor Education and not just education outdoors. Recognizing the

benefits and expansion of OE will require colleges and universities to look at their process of

training teachers and include training in quality outdoor education.

Reconnecting Us to the Creator

Outdoor Education is essential to connect all of our subjects back to the Creator. Sleeth(2021)

recognized, "Other than God and people, the Bible mentions trees more than any other living

thing that tasked humanity with tending to the trees and plants." Sleeth's naturalist background

revealed a tree in the scriptures from the first to the last page of the Bible. Additionally, Sleeth

says, "every major character in the Bible appears in conjunction with a tree." Unfortunately, as

humanity has begun to move away from nature and integrate every aspect of life into

technology, we risk looking past nature. We start to see nature as just a setting for a story and

miss the deeper meaning of what God is trying to teach us today.

Dan Kuntz
EDOE 543
Dr. Murdoch
6/22/2023

White (1942) says, "Next to the Bible, nature is to be our greatest lessonbook." I have

heard that nature was God's first book, for nature was made before the Bible. I can not think of a

better place for a pre-reading student to see God's power, creativity, and care. Children are

better at seeing the overlooked details and can take note of His creation, large or small. Nature

has the power of connecting or reconnecting us to our Creator.

Recognizing Our Place in the Universe

Another essential role of Outdoor Education is that students can find their place in the

world and the universe. Haskell(2012) tells of his nature sit-spot; he refers to it as his mandala,

"where the whole universe can be seen through this small circle." Haskell took a small circle of

nature in a forest and went there to observe just nature from that circle for a year. His

observations could be about the more prominent themes of nature, the wind, trees, and storms.

Alternatively, his remarks could be about the smaller bits of nature that often go unnoticed, the

dew, ants, moss, and shadows. At times each one of us can feel small and insignificant. Maybe

this is when a student chooses to focus on the microscopic details of their sit-spots. The student

might not feel so small when they notice an ant struggling to carry a seed back to the ant hill.

Sometimes, students might feel distracted by the deadlines of research papers and article

critiques. During stressful deadlines and overwhelming projects, the sit-spot where they focus

on the clouds, the giant redwoods, or the mountains surrounding their campus. When we realize

that the God of creation controls those great features, our stress and deadlines are but a seed

carried by an ant. Outdoor Education isn't just about the curriculum. Still, it is about the details of

nature that can speak to students and teachers about what they are facing. Outdoor Education

can bring context to the individual, their place in the world, and God's care for them.

Conclusion
Dan Kuntz
EDOE 543
Dr. Murdoch
6/22/2023

Outdoor Education became a tool in the toolbelt of teachers and schools during the

height of the pandemic. Students had been learning online and were now able to return, but

school was not the environment they had left behind six months prior. Being able to go outside,

remove masks, and perform classroom activities gave educators and students a feeling of

normalness that had not yet returned to the world. In addition, outdoor Education helped with

anxiety, empathy, and sociorelational interactions that students missed during digital learning

and being at home with family or alone while others went to work.

We have seen Outdoor Education work because it had to during Covid 19 and

Haines(2016) showed that future educators know its value when adequately trained. Student

educators learned through Outdoor Education and already gauged the benefits of it with the

small amount of interaction they had teaching in an outdoor setting. Therefore, colleges and

universities must take a fresh look at their preparatory education classes. Facilities of higher

learning must integrate Outdoor Education into their curriculum. They must demonstrate how

Outdoor Education fits into any school setting and how to teach confidently outside. Not only

would that be best practices, but it would draw students to their college or university.

Students are always doing two things, thinking and growing. First, they see themselves

as small and insignificant. Finding a sit spot and looking at all the ants or seeds on the ground

around them may help them realize their more important place in the world. Conversely, seeing

the massive natural things around them, clouds, mountains, and trees, helps them know they

have a place in this world of awe and wonder. Outdoor Education helps make the big things

small and the small things big. Kids and teachers connect with the natural world around them.

Covid-19 sped up the integration of technology in education. The discussion used to be

SMART Boards or projectors. Then, it became a computer lab or laptop cart. Next, it moved to

Ipads or laptops. In the spring of 2020 everyone was taking a computer home with them to
Dan Kuntz
EDOE 543
Dr. Murdoch
6/22/2023

Zoom into class from home. Now you must have the technology to receive instruction from your

teacher or visit with your friend. Nature is the answer to technology, and Outdoor Education is

how we interface with nature at school. Far too often, we watch nature clips on video or play a

nature game instead of going out and getting our hands wet and feet dirty. Reintroducing

students and teachers to nature and away from screens will allow them to see the trees and the

forest.

God created nature before he created man. He gave humans the job of tending and

caring for His garden. As we have moved into the technological world, we have increasingly

abandoned nature and thus the work God gave us. God gave us this work so that we could

meet Him in nature. Outdoor Education places the classroom in nature where students can

discover and reconnect with God's creation. Reconnecting with creation allows us glimpses of

God's love, creative power, and imagination.

Nature via Outdoor Education helps students and teachers cope and move forward after

a pandemic. Allows students to find their place in the world, big or small. Educators in training

see the value of the hands-on engagement that comes with nature, which all training programs

should strive to include. Outdoor Education beats back the infusion of technology into every

aspect of education and our day. Outdoor Education meets our current needs and should be

included in all schools as teachers are trained formally or informally.

Haines, S. (2016). Feet Wet, Hands Dirty: Engaging Students in Science Teaching and

Learning with Stream Investigations. Journal of College Science Teaching, 46(1).

Haskell, D. G. (2012). The forest unseen a year's watch in nature. Penguin Books.

Louv, R. (2013). The nature principle: Reconnecting with life in a virtual age. Algonquin.
Dan Kuntz
EDOE 543
Dr. Murdoch
6/22/2023

Sleeth, J. M. (2021). Reforesting faith: What trees teach us about the nature of

god and his love for Us. WaterBrook.

Valentini, M., & Donatiello, P. (2021). Outdoor Education as a way of life. Journal of Physical

Education and Sport, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2021.s1072

White, E. G. (1942). The Avondale Farm. In Testimonies for the Church (Vol. 6, pp. 185–185).

essay, Pacific Press.