The purpose of this creative project was to develop a master plan for an outdoor learning lab for Daleville Elementary School (DES) in Daleville, Indiana. Utilizing a formal design process, including surveys, case study research, and site analysis, the best solution was devised specific to the needs of DES. Along with a design team from Daleville, additional DES faculty responded to a written survey to validate requests for various features. Daleville students participated in a design workshop to express their own ideas for outdoor learning activities and features. A site analysis was conducted on the school grounds utilizing criteria set for features within the design program. Three concepts were generated, leading to the development of the master plan. The research and design process used to create the master plan have provided data suitable for further research and concepts for outdoor learning labs in the elementary school setting. / Department of Landscape Architecture

Då den spontana naturkontakten har minskat för barn idag och att samspelet mellan vårdnadshavare och förskolepersonal kan styra hur mycket tid barnen vistas utomhus på förskolan kan valet av förskola påverka barnens möjligheter till naturkontakt. Målet med studien är att undersöka varför en grupp vårdnadshavare valt uteförskola åt sina barn samt vad deras uppfattningar är om barns utevistelse på förskolorna. Studien baseras på en webbaserad enkät som vårdnadshavare vid fem olika uteförskolor fått besvara. Bearbetningen av enkätsvaren utgick från en deskriptiv analys för att upptäcka variationer i svaren. Respondenterna har valt uteförskola åt sina barn eftersom förskolorna besöker naturen regelbundet, att förskolorna arbetar med hållbar utveckling samt att förskolemiljön inspirerar barnen till rörelselekar. Respondenterna efterfrågar även en variation av aktiviteter och miljöer som barnen deltar i. De vårdnadshavare som väljer uteförskola kan antas ha positiva attityder till naturen samt ett eget friluftsintresse som de vill föra vidare till sina barn. Slutsatsen är att förskolan kan behöva bli bättre med att förmedla hur de arbetar med utomhuspedagogiken samt vilken form av lärande som sker vid utevistelsen till vårdnadshavare som valt att placera sina barn på uteförskolor. / As the spontaneous contact with nature has decreased for children today and the interaction between guardians and preschool staff may govern how much time the children spend outdoors at the preschool, the choice of preschool can affect the children's opportunities for contact with nature. The aim of the study is to investigate why a group of guardians have chosen an outdoor preschool for their children and what their perceptions are about children's outdoor attendance at preschools. The study consist of a web-based questionnaire that guardians at five different outdoor preschools got to answer. The processing of the questionnaire responses was based on a descriptive analysis to detect variations in the responses. The majority of the respondents have chosen an outdoor preschools for their children because the preschools visit nature regularly, preschools work with sustainable development and preschool environment inspires the children to exercise play. The respondents also inquire a variety of activities and environments in which the children participate. The Guardians who choose an outdoor preschool can be assumed to have a positive attitude towards nature and that they might want to pass on their own outdoor interest to their children. The conclusion is that the preschools may need to improve the communication with the guardians who have choosen outdoor preschools for their children, how they work with outdoor pedagogy and what kind of learning that takes place during the outing.

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This phenomenological study investigated the benefits of a weekly canoe program for vulnerable Grade 5 First Nations students at an elementary school in Victoria, BC. The experience of student and adult participants was explored with a focus on how perceived benefits related to protective factors of resilience. This study builds on research of impacts of outdoor adventure-based, wilderness therapy, recreational, experiential, and environmental education programs. Interviews were conducted with 11 students, and 13 adults, including an Elder, the principal, school staff, parents, and volunteers. This research indicates the canoe program enhanced student's inner resources, such as self-efficacy, self-esteem and mental and physical health, and outer resources, such as connections to peers, community resources, culture, school and nature. Through many interconnections between these resources, the canoe program helped address students' vulnerability, promote their resilience and reconnect them to their traditional waterway. Future research and program recommendations are presented.

This thesis is about learning at a residential outdoor education centre [pseudonym:- Wild Country Hall]. It poses and answers three questions: • How useful might discursive positioning be as a perspective on learning? • What are the discourses at Wild Country Hall and how are they different to schooling discourses? • How might neo-Liberal discursive practices, including performativity and current schooling orthodoxies have affected the pedagogic practices at this centre? The review of literature provides an overview of the key literature on outdoor, adventure and experiential learning, considering these through the lenses of learning as acquisition, participation and transformation, before discussing the literature on the discursive positioning of identity. Literature on the discursive practices of outdoor centres is then considered in relation to literature on neo-Liberalism and performativity in schools. The methodology is ethnographic. Participant observations were conducted over a period of five years whilst children were participating in both the organised adventure activities and the residential life of the centre. Searches of the centre’s documentary archives, and follow up interviews with 22 children (aged eight to 11) and three adults were used to add richness to the observational data, and especially to better understand reported participant gains. Analysis was undertaken by coding themes in the data using QSR NVivo N6. The findings suggest that acquisitional and participatory perspectives on learning are not totally adequate for explaining the reported changes in outlook and behaviour of the children who took part in the research. These benefits may be more usefully conceptualised as discursively re-positioned identity. It is suggested that the perspective on learning as discursive positioning may be usefully employed by those studying residential outdoor education in the future. The findings show a number of over-arching discourses that dominate the life of Wild Country Hall. These include place - including the appreciation, care of and respect for nature, the sense of awe and wonder, understanding and protecting the environment – risk, challenge and adventure; and consequent confidence and resilience building by children through facing and over-coming their fears. Whilst some of these fears are linked to the adventure activities of the centre (such as fears of heights, water), other fears are associated with the residential nature of the centre; encountering and coping with homesickness, living with new people, encountering strange customs and unfamiliar social practices. So important were these unfamiliar discourses to the participating children that they may be looked upon as ‘rites of passage’. The findings suggest that encountering unfamiliar discourses may explain the efficacy of learning at Wild Country Hall. Some of the pedagogic practices at Wild Country Hall were found to valorise what may be described as ‘classroom discourses’, and these have tended to formalise learning at the centre. It is suggested, therefore, that this outdoor centre has been influenced by performativity and classroom orthodoxy, themselves shaped by neo-Liberal agenda. These influences may be narrowing the range of discourses available and limiting the centre’s continuing ability to provide unfamiliar discourses, possibly to the detriment of children’s learning. The conclusion makes a number of recommendations for policy practice and research. Recommendations for policy and practice focus on the narrowing tendencies observed at this centre, suggesting shifts in policy to retain the distinctiveness of outdoor education centres. Recommendations for research suggest that follow-up studies would be useful to test the findings in other outdoor centres and other areas of learning, whilst more methodological work could be done on memory and data research sites where contemporaneous notation and digital recording may be difficult or impossible.

A long standing program of research has found consistent and substantial evidence of the underrepresentation of people of color in national parks and has identified potential reasons for this underrepresentation and barriers to participation. However, little research has examined cases where the National Park Service (NPS) has begun to successfully address diversity issues and engage diverse audiences. Through exploration of programs that successfully engage diverse youth, this study identifies promising practices that can be incorporated into NPS diversity programs across the national park system. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase one examined the current state of knowledge and learning needs of the NPS related to relevancy among new and diverse audiences through the use of qualitative interviews with NPS staff and select individuals outside the NPS. The findings from the interviews were used to develop a conceptual model based on key themes for successful engagement. The model was then applied in phase two of the study through the examination of relevancy programs within the NPS. Phase two used case study research techniques to explore programs designed to engage youth of color at two NPS units, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area. This research examined how programs at the two study areas were successful at engaging youth of color. A model of deep engagement was developed, building on the model developed in phase one. The model of deep engagement highlights six processes through which parks can more effectively engage diverse and traditionally underserved audiences.

Structured to help readers from a range of disciplines, the thesis looks at the creation of opportunities for participation in adventure sport, specifically the development of a postural support for intermediate level performers with spinal cord injury in sea kayaking. The research has shown that it is possible to increase the performance level of disabled athletes in paddle sport through the development of appropriate adaptive equipment, which in turn promotes inclusion and the broadening of opportunities. This research project takes place against a backdrop of national events and developments; notably, changes in UK legislation to do with disability access (DDA 1995), and developments in legislation to do with outdoor safety. The research also takes place against a backdrop of national campaigns, such as the ‘Campaign for Adventure’, and an increasing number of drives to make the UK’s population more active. The broad-based multidisciplinary approach is in line with reported priorities in international disability sport research, while encompassing paddlesport specific criteria. The research takes the approach of design research to develop the product. Initially the reported studies evaluate the design process utilising desk-based research. They then proceed to utilise design methodology in field-based short and longer expedition settings. The design process utilises existing user-centred staged design approaches to explore methods for wider application. The findings reveal that the development of opportunities in adventure sport with disabled people involves engaging with a social mess. The action of problem definition and resolution can be termed in this paradigm as a wicked problem, being that is does not have one clear solution. The information needing to be exchanged in the problem resolution can be considered as sticky, being that the research process takes place in a specialised arena characterised by sparse resources and with a multidisciplinary team. The research has informed the creation of twelve tools to support those practitioners involved in this area. Used from the bottom up or top down, they provide a common language between the participant, coach, therapist and researcher to help educate and inspire each person to understand the true nature of the problem, improve the shared understanding within the team, and thereby reducing the stickiness of the information. The effect on the development of new equipment is to improve focus and user participation, so making it easier to work within the social mess. A new postural support was designed for use by intermediate level sea kayakers with spinal cord injury, the design of which is given in study 9, which is evaluated in study 10. The study suggests that future work in this area should focus on the coordination of sport science support, further exploration of the link between design research and social change, explore the validity of the tools across a broader population, and further develop the design so that the new equipment can be of benefit to the broader population.

Title: Outdoor Activities for People with Disabilities Aims: The aim of the thesis is to prepare an argumentation for creating a professional centre offering outdoor activities to people with disabilities; to explore current situation within the field of outdoor activities; to assess the interest of workers in the field of education of people with disabilities in services provided by outdoor centres for people with disabilities; to assess the interest of people with disabilities in services provided by outdoor centres for people with disabilities. Methods: The principal method of this work is a quantitative research by means of non-standard questionnaire distributed to people with disabilities and to professional workers and organizations engaged in education of people with disabilities. Results: Based on a survey of publicly accessible information there was compiled an up-to-date list of organizations and centres engaged in providing outdoor activities for people with disabilities in the Czech Republic. My personal inquiry also showed a positive approach of people with disabilities and workers with disabled people towards outdoor activities; a scale of most demanded activities was compiled; and the respondents' awareness was found of organizations aimed at outdoor activities for people with...

Call number: LD2668 .P7 1975 W8