Letter to Readers

Welcome to the Guide for Outdoor Science Program and Organization Leaders: Building Capacity for Teaching and Learning. We’re glad you’re here.

Much of what’s in this Guide comes from professional relationships with people in the outdoor science and environmental education field. We've had the immense pleasure of being deeply engaged in the culture of outdoor science organizations, trying to collectively figure out how to make outdoor science the best it can be. The information here was collected through relationships and interactions with over 370 organizations across the United States and a few from beyond the United States.

What do we mean by organization leader?

In this Guide we use the term organization leaders to include all leaders within an organization, such as program leaders, lead instructors, executive directors, etc.

The leaders of these organizations have been using BEETLES resources with their staff in a wide variety of ways and contexts. They’ve had exciting successes, unexpected outcomes, and some bumps in the road and have given us thoughtful and honest feedback about all of it. The advice, guidelines, and recommendations shared over the following pages come from hundreds of casual conversations; emails; formal interviews; focus groups; and many, many surveys thoughtfully submitted by our field-test sites and partners. We combined those responses with our own firsthand experiences observing programs, teaching in programs, and working and musing with hundreds of you about how to improve our field. We added in all the lessons we could learn from pouring over years of research on science and outdoor science education, cognitive science, professional learning, language development, equity and justice, teaching and learning, and organizational capacity building. As we’ve observed organizations shifting their outdoor science programs toward more learner-centered and nature-centered instruction, we’ve found patterns in their challenges and successes. We’re pleased to share them here. Throughout this Guide, we‘ve based our recommendations largely on the experiences and anecdotes of leaders in the field. We then generalized from them and cited research that validates the approach, continually moving toward a principled theory of change. Our goal is to elevate the field of outdoor learning by basing our improvement efforts on the latest evidence from research, while at the same time retaining the informal and spirited wisdom and exuberance that continually draws us back to this community.

BEETLES partners.

Click the map to see an expanded view of our partners.

We cover a lot of territory in this Guide. Although it’s primarily focused on the specific use and implementation of BEETLES resources, this Guide is also about achieving your particular goals for your outdoor science programs, whether you use BEETLES resources or not. We know from experience and research that an isolated workshop now and then or a few new student activities won’t lead to deep and durable change. We have also learned from our partners that diving too quickly into big changes can lead to frustrating results. Thoughtfully planned approaches that take the long view work best. This Guide is a planning tool to help leaders successfully implement change in their organizations and programs.

Research on BEETLES resources.

The Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science showed that BEETLES Institutes shifted organization leaders’ attitudes about teaching to favor a more learner-centered approach and resulted in revisions to several outdoor science organizations’ missions, goals, curriculum, and staff professional learning opportunities. Organization leaders reported that even in short time spans, these organizational revisions led to changes in how field instructors facilitated learning experiences for students, leading them to offer more learner-centered and nature-centered instruction.

Check out the BEETLES Research and Evaluation page for more information.

We want to stimulate conversations among organization leaders about how to be the best at what you do—and we think every employee can offer leadership! Be patient, flexible, and responsive to your staff. Listen and take their feedback into consideration as you implement changes to your professional learning, curriculum, and/or organization structure. Be strategic and start where some noticeable change seems most possible. Keep revisiting your goals, discuss them extensively with your leadership team, and decide what will nudge your program a little closer to achieving those goals. While you may be excited about changes, it’s important to plan ahead, even sometimes at the expense of implementing immediately. Remember that staying the same is easy for individuals, but change is a team sport. Include people from throughout your organization to be part of these important conversations and have those conversations often.

We’ve heard countless outdoor science professionals say that they work at the “best program ever.” We admire that spirit, loyalty, love, and pride, and we have observed that each organization has its strengths, and we all have room to grow and learn from one another. Many organizations have shared their specialties—their best practices—with us, and now we’re sharing them with you, combined with our experience and perspectives and the most relevant education research and expertise we know of. We’re sharing all this so we can grow together as a field and offer even better “best” outdoor science education experiences for our learners.

We’re excited to see what you do with our humbly offered resources and tools!

Some goals your organization might have.

To offer high-quality learning experiences that result in deep understandings about nature.
To position your outdoor science program as central and essential to mainstream education and societal goals for every learner.
To build a just and equitable organization that offers just and equitable learning opportunities.
To promote connection to nature and encourage the development of the critical-thinking and decision-making skills needed to care for the environment, including human communities.
To help learners become permanently curious about nature by engaging in science practices and developing scientific habits of mind.
To nurture an ongoing staff culture of professional learning focused on improving teaching and learning.

We want to know what you think!

We would truly love to know how you use BEETLES resources. If you've got a story, email us directly or share it here.