Invitation to COPACS event: February 3, 2024
" Environmental Education through Nature Based Experiences"
Please review the information below and also check out the attached Environmental Education through Nature Based Experiences PDF!
Our district PAC is organizing this outdoor education event next Saturday to show support and parent/educator interest in outdoor based curriculum. Please come out if you can and send to others who might be interested.
COPACS is organizing an event at Cordova Bay School: Environmental Education through Nature Based Experiences – Saturday, February 3, 2024 at noon. Educational partners are welcome to join in (bring the kids!) to enjoy a Nature Wagon demonstration and a panel discussion with inspirational stories of environmental education through nature-based experiences. COPACS is providing refreshments, snacks and door prizes.
What: Panel discussion with teachers, nature-based educators and trail building non-profit and outdoor learning opportunity for students (old-growth forest walk with Nature Wagon)(bring the kids!). Hosted by COPACS and Cordova Bay Elementary School.
Why:When: Saturday, Feb 3rd, 2024 from 12:00 - 13:30
- To inspire parents, students, teachers to incorporate nature-based learning into school programming,
- Explore opportunities to support three of the SD63 strategic priorities of Mental Health and Wellness, Indigenous Learner Success and Global Citizenship
- Profile existing practices and resources such as the Nature Wagons in elementary schools and trail-building experiences at the high school level and
- Generate new ideas and connections for nature-based education
Where: Cordova Bay Elementary School - 5238 Cordova Bay Road"Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature." Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods
What we know from the current research about outdoor based learning:
- Spending time in nature, even in a state of inactivity, has been shown to improve recall of information, attention spans, social and motor skills and decrease childhood obesity, depression, stress and learned helplessness. (1)
- EEG research has shown the restorative properties of time spent in nature. Exercise in outdoor natural environments produces increased cognitive performance and significantly higher meditative and relaxed states which are retained long after the outdoor exercise/play (1)
- Some theorists have suggested that time in nature is a critical factor in healthy emotional, cognitive, and spiritual development (1)
- A recent Canadian study suggests that spending time in nature is a protective factor for mental health in young people - as little as half an hour in nature each week reduced girls's prevalence of psychosomatic issues by 24% - depression, irritability, bad temper, feeling nervous, difficulty sleeping, and dizziness, as well as head, stomach and back aches (1).
- Children are spending half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago (2) Children who play outside are more physically active, more creative in their play, less aggressive, and show better concentration (2)
- Sixty minutes of daily unstructured free play is essential to children's physical and mental health (2)
- The most direct route to caring for the environment as an adult is participating in "wild nature activities" before the age of 11 (2).
- Spending even a short amount of time outdoors helps children focus for learning (3)
Research:
1. Book: Nature-Based Therapy, by Harper, Rose, Segal pp 35-
2. The National Wildlife Federation: https://www.nwf.org/Kids-and-Family/Connecting-Kids-and-Nature
3. Children and Nature Network: https://www.childrenandnature.org/schools/
4. Poster ¡V Nature Can Improve Health and Wellbeing https://www.childrenandnature.org/wp-content/uploads/CNN_NatureImprove_16-10
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5. Poster - Nature Can Improve Academic Outcomes https://www.childrenandnature.org/wp-content/uploads/CNN_AcademicOutcomes_16
-10-27_O_newlogo.pdf
Other Resources:
* Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) in School Communities » Outdoor Play Canada <https://www.outdoorplaycanada.ca/portfolio_page/outdoor-play-and-learning-opal-in-school-communities/>
* Take me Outside Student Video Contest - <https://youtu.be/qMWkDnTs5GU%20> K-12 CLASS CATEGORY: 1ST Nakoda Elementary Grade 4 Class and
* About Us - Take Me Outside <https://takemeoutside.ca/about-us/>
* Advancing Early Childhood Education Outdoors Now Roundtable - Outdoor Play Canada <https://www.outdoorplaycanada.ca/portfolio_page/advancing-early-childhood-education-outdoors-now-roundtable/>
* Advancing Outdoor Play and Early Childhood Education: A Discussion Paper - Outdoor Play Canada <https://www.outdoorplaycanadaca/portfolio_page/advancing-outdoor-play-and-early-childhood-education-a-discussion-paper/>
* Bring Education Out (BE OUT) | Play Outside Lab - (playoutsideubc.ca) <https://playoutsideubc.ca/be-out/>
* Full article: Perceived challenges of early childhood educators in promoting unstructured outdoor play: an ecological systems perspective
(tandfonline.com) <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09575146.2022.2034140>
* Prescribing nature: Research suggests the outdoors are good for your mental health | CBC Radio <https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-sept-6-2021-1.6163980/prescribing-nature-research-suggests-the-outdoors-are-good-for-your-mental-health-1.6163985>
Here are some of the door prize titles:
* Be a good Ancestor: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59815149-be-a-good-ancestor
* If Instead of a Person: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61649191-if-instead-of-a-person
* Me and my sit spot: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63010068-me-and-my-sit-spot
* I Hear you Forest: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57698626-i-hear-you-forest
* You're Missing It: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40594590-you-re-missing-it