Connecting Young Children with the Natural World: Past, Present and Future Landscapes

Tippins, Deborah J.; Neuharth‐Pritchett, Stacey; Mitchell, Debra

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9505-0_13

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…This focus is similar to goals found with studies of informal educators in other types of venues and with other audiences (Plummer & Small 2013;Small & Plummer 2010;Pattison & Dierking 2013;Tran 2007). ISEs frequently mentioned awareness of the natural world as a goal, which may be partly influenced by the number of participants from nature centers, parks, and planetariums whose educators resonate with engaging visitors in the natural world and night sky (Alon & Tal 2016;Small & Plummer 2010); engaging children in the natural environment has been taken up by preschool educators in formal settings as well (Tippins, Neuharth-Pritchett, & Mitchell 2015). Two other goals may be specific to this age group: comfort with the learning environment and providing support for parents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal Science Educators: Understanding Their Goals for Preschool-Aged Audiences

Plummer

Crowl²,

Ozcelik

2019

Res Sci Educ

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Informal science educators' (ISEs) work with young children has received limited attention in the literature. We investigated ISEs' goals for preschool-aged audiences (3-to-5 year old children), methods they describe for achieving these goals, and how ISEs understand young children as "doing science" in their venues. We interviewed 35 ISEs working at informal science venues across the U.S. Using thematic analysis, we generated codes and categories through iterative analysis of the interview data set. Our findings suggest ISEs most often described affective goals, conceptual learning goals, and a goal of increasing young children's awareness of nature and their world. ISEs frequently mentioned hands-on or active educational methods, creative experiences, and memorable experiences as ways they achieve their goals.Though science practices were rarely described as a goal for their preschool-aged audiences, ISEs believe young children are capable of participating in the practices of science and frequently described ways they provide opportunities for young children to participate in science practices, such as asking questions and collecting data. Our findings suggest a starting point for the field to understand how ISEs are working with and thinking about preschool-aged audiences, providing leverages for future professional development to support and strengthen ISEs professional practice in engaging this audience in doing science.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal Science Educators: Understanding Their Goals for Preschool-Aged Audiences

Plummer

Crowl²,

Ozcelik

2019

Res Sci Educ

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“…Overall, the identified behaviors that support STEAM learning were Observing, Exploring, Describing/Prescribing, Hypothesis/Cause and Effect/Experiments, Asking Questions, Building, Manipulating, Sorting, Measuring, Comparing, Counting, Balancing, Making Art, Music, Dance, Language and Literacy, and Signs. [ 13,15,20,23,25,30,32,33,[36][37][38][39]45]…”

Section: Steam Learning Behavior and Activities Of Children In Outdoo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Nature-Based Outdoor Learning Landscape on STEAM Concept Formation of Preschoolers: A Scoping Review

Trina,

Monsur,

Cosco

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Children are inherently curious about everything they encounter, making the early years a perfect time for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) investigations. An outdoor learning environment can influence STEAM concept formation of preschoolers with intentional design that offer STEAM learning affordances. Despite the rising interest in early STEAM education, there is still limited literature on how the outdoor environment may influence STEAM learning behaviors of preschoolers (3-5 years old). This scoping review intends to evaluate the existing knowledge regarding the physical factors that contribute to STEAM learning affordances in an outdoor environment for children aged 3 to 5. The review included studies from the last twenty years. This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the criteria outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). For this scoping review, 843 citations were discovered across four databases (JSTOR, Scopus, EBSCOhost, and Web of Science), ProQuest, and Google Scholar, and 31 articles were considered eligible for inclusion. Through the synthesis of information from those 31 studies, a list of STEAM learning behaviors of children and STEAM activity-supportive settings were identified that may positively influence preschoolers' STEAM concept development.

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“…Discussion related to the STEAM learning behavior and activities of children in an outdoor learning environment 39% [31,[33][34][35]38,41,42,44,47,49,50,52] Discussion related to the STEAM-activity-supportive settings and STEAM concept development 42% [23,28,30,32,36,37,39,43,45,46,48,51,53] Discussion related to the role of teacher and/or caregiver in nature-based STEAM learning of children 19% [7,19,21,27,29,40]…”

Section: Outcome Major Categories % Of the Overall Sample Paper Idmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The child makes a deliberate action and expects a certain outcome involving gravity, force, weight, distance, and height with those materials. [7,19,21,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]37,[39][40][41][44][45][46][47]49] Asking questions Ask other kids or adults about certain properties of play material. [7,19,21,30,31,34,37,38,[44][45][46][47]52] Building/Construction Building blocks, making a teepee with sticks, making a bridge, laying rocks on the ground, etc.…”

Section: Steam Learning Behaviors and Activities Of Children In Outdo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do Nature-Based Outdoor Learning Environments Affect Preschoolers’ STEAM Concept Formation? A Scoping Review

Trina,

Monsur,

Cosco

et al. 2024

Education Sciences

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This scoping review examined the impact of nature-based outdoor learning environments on the formation of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) concepts in preschoolers. Preschool age (3–5 years) is the time when physical interaction with surrounding built environments increases, and spontaneous learning from the environment intensifies—making it an ideal age range to promote nature-based informal learning. An outdoor learning environment can influence STEAM concept formations of preschoolers with an intentional design that offers STEAM learning affordances. Despite the rising interest in early STEAM education, there is still limited literature on how the outdoor environment may influence STEAM learning behaviors of preschoolers (3–5 years old). This scoping review intended to evaluate the existing knowledge regarding the physical factors contributing to STEAM learning affordances in an outdoor environment for children aged three to five. The review included studies from the last twenty years. This scoping review was conducted following the criteria outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). For this scoping review, 843 citations were discovered across four databases (JSTOR, Scopus, EBSCOhost, and Web of Science), ProQuest, and Google Scholar, and 31 articles were considered eligible for inclusion. The paper synthesized those 31 studies to identify the key STEAM learning behaviors of children and STEAM-activity-supportive settings that may positively influence preschoolers’ STEAM concept development.

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Connecting Young Children with the Natural World: Past, Present and Future Landscapes

Cited by 5 publications

References 40 publications

Informal Science Educators: Understanding Their Goals for Preschool-Aged Audiences

Informal Science Educators: Understanding Their Goals for Preschool-Aged Audiences

The Impact of Nature-Based Outdoor Learning Landscape on STEAM Concept Formation of Preschoolers: A Scoping Review

How Do Nature-Based Outdoor Learning Environments Affect Preschoolers’ STEAM Concept Formation? A Scoping Review

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