This website is my Fulbright Capstone Project. It is host to the following:
- The Toolkit showcases examples of outdoor learning that are happening in New Zealand and provides outdoor learning ideas, investigations, and inspiration for teachers.
- The Tips for Teaching Outdoors provides guidelines, tips, and lesson topic ideas to help teachers take their students outside for learning.
- The Resource Links page has links to relevant research, programs of interest, and sites that can help with planning for grounds improvements.
- The Photos and Videos page has my primary communication with my students and school in Austin, Texas, and may be used by other educators as a springboard to connect their students to the outdoors.
- The Blog page has been the space I have documented my learning and adventures in New Zealand to share with my community, friends, family, and all of the people who pitched in to help me be able to bring my family with me on this experience.
Receiving the Environmental Educator of the Year Award from the Children in Nature Collaborative of Austin, 2014.
Lauren Maples is a second grade teacher at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin, Texas. She has been a classroom teacher for 11 years and has also worked as an educator for other organizations. Additionally, Lauren has taught geography as an adjunct at Austin Community College and Concordia University. In 2014 she won the John F. Ahrns Award for Environmental Education from the Children in Nature Network Collaborative of Austin. Lauren is the founder and co-manager of PEAS (Partners for Education, Agriculture, and Sustainability) where she has been growing the community farm on the Cunningham Elementary campus since 2011. Her passion for plants and nature inspired her to apply for the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program. She has been awarded the Fulbright grant and is spending February-May of 2015 studying the best practices that are being used in New Zealand for place-based outdoor education.
This website is the product of my Fulbright Capstone Project.
Project objective:
The purpose of my project has been to explore place-based outdoor learning in the public school setting in New Zealand and compare it to what is happening in the United States in order to determine the best way to bring more outdoor learning opportunities to public school students in our district. I have visited and surveyed many school to take an inventory of the following components of outdoor learning: spaces used, subjects and curriculum taught, activities that occur, teachers' attitudes towards teaching outside, successes and challenges of established programs. With information gained from the inventory, I have developed this website to share with educators everywhere. I will share more insights with my district through professional development workshops this fall. It is my great hope that my project help inspire teachers and administrators take advantage of the land and close neighborhood surroundings for the purpose of getting students outside to enhance their learning in a variety of curricular contexts.
Project objective:
The purpose of my project has been to explore place-based outdoor learning in the public school setting in New Zealand and compare it to what is happening in the United States in order to determine the best way to bring more outdoor learning opportunities to public school students in our district. I have visited and surveyed many school to take an inventory of the following components of outdoor learning: spaces used, subjects and curriculum taught, activities that occur, teachers' attitudes towards teaching outside, successes and challenges of established programs. With information gained from the inventory, I have developed this website to share with educators everywhere. I will share more insights with my district through professional development workshops this fall. It is my great hope that my project help inspire teachers and administrators take advantage of the land and close neighborhood surroundings for the purpose of getting students outside to enhance their learning in a variety of curricular contexts.
US Fulbright Scholar in New Zealand
THE VIEWS AND INFORMATION PRESENTED ON THIS SITE ARE MY OWN AND DO NOT REPRESENT
THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM OR THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
THE VIEWS AND INFORMATION PRESENTED ON THIS SITE ARE MY OWN AND DO NOT REPRESENT
THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM OR THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE.