“I’m interested in finding the elements of outdoor education curriculum that are most effective at creating transference and an ongoing relationship with nature when students return home.” – Shannon B, IslandWood grad class of ‘22 ‍

Shannon was on campus today as part of our Researcher in Residence (RiR) program. The RiR program gives IslandWood graduates working on their master’s at the University of Washington the opportunity to complete research at IslandWood for their master’s projects.

About Shannon’s work: “When it comes to outdoor education and science camp experiences, research and program evaluation has found that there is often a lack of transference. In ‘Distancing Students From Nature: Science Camp and the Representation of the Human Nature Relationship’ by Laura Ann Terrill, she found that the curriculum she observed inhibited students from creating ongoing connections to nature. She found that the curriculum led students to become tourists to nature with no ongoing connection and that, through discussions of indigenous practices in the past-tense only, ‘nature became a place that existed in the past, separate from modernity.’ Rather than creating ongoing relationships with nature, ‘they received tours of the foreign outdoors, had fun, and returned home to their ordinary lives that were separate and distinct from the natural world.’ I am interested in finding the elements of outdoor education curriculum that are most effective at creating transference and an ongoing relationship with nature when students return home. I am asking current IslandWood graduate students to provide a survey to their School Overnight Program (SOP) students on the first and last days of SOP as well as to allow me to observe their lessons in the field in order to collect qualitative data on student participation and engagement.”

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Learn more about our graduate program in partnership with the University of Washinton here.