Chapter 6: Implementation Examples

You’ve made it this far? Great! That was a lot, wasn’t it? You might be wondering, Well, that was all helpful, but what might it actually look like to do all this in my program? Luckily, many organization leaders have gone down this path before you, tried different approaches, and learned a lot. Over the years, we’ve interviewed many of these organization leaders and collected some of their stories to offer real-life examples of how they’ve used information in this Guide to successfully reach their goals. They share their successes, challenges, and some approaches that didn’t work out as well as they’d hoped. We think you’ll find them to be intriguing short stories of real-life implementations of the approaches described in this document.

You have already seen some of our Tales from the Field throughout this Guide. The following section is a collection of links to 40+ Tales from the Field and briefs, organized thematically to help you find real-life examples that are most relevant to you.

Some Tales from the Field are specifically about implementing approaches described in this Guide, such as professional learning, making changes to program policies to support instructional practices, or revising program curriculum to be more learner-centered and nature-centered. Other Tales from the Field focus on important aspects of program improvement that we haven’t touched on as much in this Guide, such as using BEETLES activities to support social emotional learning or bringing outdoor learning to classrooms and schoolyards. We also have Tales from the Field written by people in different positions of leadership within organizations, including instructors, program managers, and executive directors. A few are written by the BEETLES team on topics such as adapting student activities for young children, reflecting on the true history of the National Park Service, or engaging school districts in supporting environmental literacy.

These Tales from the Field cover a broad range of topics, and we hope they will be helpful to you in working toward your goals. Thanks for reading (and using) this Guide, and thanks for all the hard and thoughtful work it takes to keep a program vibrant and moving in the direction of increasing quality and effectiveness.

To help you find topics relevant to your needs and interests, we’ve grouped all of our Tales from the Field in categories below. The first seven categories match the categories in the Capacity Framework section of this Guide. Included in this list is a short description of the kinds of stories you’ll find in each category. Some Tales from the Field that speak to multiple topics may appear in more than one place.

Vision and Reality

These Tales from the Field are from leaders who grappled with how their organization’s vision wasn’t necessarily reflected in the reality of their programming and how they made shifts to move toward a more unified vision and reality.

• Designing a Custom 4-Day Curriculum with BEETLES, Part 1 and Part 2

• Improving Teaching and Learning Through Shifts in Program Policies, Part 1 and Part 2

• Building Towards an Inclusive Organizational Culture: Insights and Lessons Learned from YES Nature to Neighborhoods

Distributed Leadership

Tales from the Field in this section offer perspectives on working with a distributed leadership team. They address aspects of organizational leadership including reflecting on the role outdoor science organization leaders can play in working toward racial equity in the field of outdoor science and environmental education.

• How Our BEETLES Implementation Was a Learning Experience for Everyone Involved*

• Racial Equity: Re-Establishing the Field with Intention

• Regional Networks Tales from the Field: River Cities

• Professional Learning at Scale

Organization Policies and Priorities

These are Tales from the Field of how organization leaders made shifts in their program policies and organizational priorities to better support their goals of supporting high-quality student experiences.

• How YMCA Camp Seymour Started Revising Curriculum

• How We Changed Our “Tone-Sets” to Inspire Students for Inquiry*

• BEETLES in a Day Program

• Making a “Destination Hike” Optional to Give Instructions More Flexibility*

• Improving Teaching and Learning Through Shifts in Program Policies, Part 1 and Part 2

• Intentional Hiring and Recruitment Through the Lens of Equity and Inclusion: Insights and Lessons from Crissy Field Center

Contextual Conditions

These are Tales from the Field about engaging with local communities and responding to conditions external to organizations that nevertheless affect operations and programming, such as local and national policies and the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Santa Cruz Outdoor Science School

• Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Sierra Nevada Journeys

• BEETLES Oregon Leadership Institute

• BEETLES in a Day Program

Professional Learning and Instructional Practices

These are Tales from the Field on the role of professional learning in working toward program improvement and specific ideas about successful and less successful approaches for facilitating professional learning.

• Inter-Institute Collaboration on Professional Learning for Elementary School Teachers

• Oops! How I Wish We Hadn’t Introduced BEETLES to Staff, and What We’re Doing Now*

• How Our Two Programs Conducted BEETLES Professional Learning Collaboratively

• Professional Learning at Scale

Learning Experiences and Instructional Materials

This section includes Tales from the Field that speak to integrating best practices for learners, through teaching and learning experiences as well as instructional materials.

• ​​Offering I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of As a Tool for SEL

• Connecting BEETLES Approaches and Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices

• Celebrating Black History, Rooted in Plants, At the New York Botanical Garden

• BEETLES in a Day Program

• How YMCA Camp Seymour Started Revising Curriculum

• Designing a Custom 4-Day Curriculum with BEETLES, Part 1 and Part 2

• Nature Exploration With Young Students

Equity and Justice

This section includes Tales from the Field that detail efforts on working toward equity, inclusion, and cultural relevance from different angles within organizations.

• Revising Making Observations: Striving for Equity, Inclusion, and Cultural Relevance

• Acknowledging the Full History of the National Park Service

• Regional Networks Tales from the Field: Native Voices Project

• Racial Equity: Re-Establishing the Field with Intention

• Partnering to Develop Equitable, Inclusive, and Culturally Relevant Student Activities

• Examining Equitable and Inclusive Work Environments in Environmental Education: Perspectives from the Field and Implications for Organizations

Comprehensive Organizational Transformation

These are Tales from the Field about using BEETLES resources and approaches to make large-scale shifts in an organization.

• How We Transformed Our Program Through BEETLES*

• BEETLES in a Day Program

• Designing a Custom 4-Day Curriculum with BEETLES, Part 1 and Part 2

• Improving Teaching and Learning Through Shifts in Program Policies, Part 1 and Part 2

Supporting Social Emotional Learning

These Tales from the Field share stories of instructors and organization leaders using BEETLES activities and approaches to support social emotional learning (SEL) in the outdoors.

• • ​​Offering I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of As a Tool for SEL

  • Connecting BEETLES Approaches and Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices

  • Collaboration Spotlight: BEETLES and Social Emotional Learning at the BOOST Conference

  • Engaging and Managing Students Applied to Teen Outdoor Experiences

Using BEETLES Resources and Approaches

These Tales from the Field include a range of examples of how instructors and organizations have used specific student activities or approaches to support teaching and learning in their program.

• Offering I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of as a Tool for SEL

• Birding on the Trail

• Engaging and Managing Students in Outdoor Science

• Connecting BEETLES Approaches and Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices

• Getting Better at Letting Go as an Instructor**

• Nature Exploration with Young Students

• BEETLES Strategies in History Programming

• Inquiry Fever with Students

• After a Leadership Institute

• Working With Large Groups: Interview with Korena David

Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

These Tales from the Field include stories of how organizations modified their approaches to offer safe, in-person programming during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and thoughts from the BEETLES team on designing effective outdoor science distance learning experiences.

• Outdoor In-Person Learning: Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight Series

  • Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Santa Cruz Outdoor Science School

  • Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: McCall Outdoor Science School

  • Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center

  • Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: North Cascades Institute

  • Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Sierra Nevada Journeys

  • Partnerships in the Pandemic Spotlight: Portland Public Schools

• Designing Outdoor Science and Environmental Education Distance Learning Experiences

• Creating Learner and Nature-Centered Videos

• Racial Equity: Re-Establishing the Field with Intention

Outdoor Science Education in Classrooms, Schoolyards, and Districts

These Tales from the Field capture ideas about implementing BEETLES activities in classrooms and schoolyards, as well as working with school districts to support environmental literacy at scale.

• The Other Side of the Coin: Supporting Districts to Implement Environmental Literacy at Scale

• One Teacher’s Journey Toward Implementation

• Offering I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of as a Tool for SEL

• Pandemic Partnerships Parent

• Inter-Institute Collaboration on Professional Learning for Elementary School Teachers

Working with Subnational Networks

These Tales from the Field feature firsthand experiences of regional networks of outdoor science and environmental education organizations that met regularly. Each group chose specific goals to work toward, including collaborative professional learning, centering Indigenous voices in curriculum design, and working toward equitable and just organizations.

• BEETLES Oregon Leadership Institute

• Building Regional Networks: Lessons Learned in Collaboration and Community

  • Regional Networks Tales from the Field: River Cities

  • Regional Networks Tales from the Field: Native Voices Project

  • Regional Networks Tales from the Field: San Diego

  • Regional Networks Tales from the Field: Alabama Environmental Education Summits

  • Regional Networks Tales from the Field: Philadelphia

  • Regional Networks Tales from the Field: Minnesota Collaborative

Thoughts from the BEETLES Team

These are short pieces written by BEETLES team members that offer perspectives on a variety of topics relevant to outdoor science and environmental education programs.

• Revising Making Observations: Striving for Equity, Inclusion, and Cultural Relevance

• Content vs. Process: A False Dichotomy

• Acknowledging the Full History of the National Park Service

• Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter

• Reflections on Black History Month

• Nature Exploration with Young Students

• A Rear Admiral Argument for Ocean and Environmental Literacy

• Science Literacy, Civic Engagement, and the Current State of Affairs

• Using Games

• Designing Outdoor Science and Environmental Education Distance Learning Experiences

• Creating Learner and Nature-Centered Videos

• Reflecting on and Celebrating the Past Five Years of BEETLES Institutes