Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Outdoor Science Education
NGSS has 3 Dimensions of learning: Disciplinary Core Ideas (traditional standards - content), Practice Expectations, and Cross-cutting Concepts., hence the cool logo! Another Way to look at these 3 key areas: What Students DO, What students KNOW, and How Students THINK. Teaching students to think like scientists and using the practices of science is 2/3 of science instruction!
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Practices - what students do
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Outdoor Science Education is at the sweet spot right in the center of this Venn diagram of Science, Math, and English Language Arts Practices! THESE are the Science practices we want to develop in our selves and our students. What more "context-rich 'text'" is there than the natural world? My motto is "the best science classroom has no walls" and that is our strength - we are inside the subject matter.
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Disciplinary Core Ideas (content - or what students know)
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Cross-Cutting Concepts - how students think
![](https://www.google.com/images/icons/product/drive-32.png)
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Environmental Principles & Concepts!!
These are now part of our standards!!
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How one Outdoor School Integrates EP&Cs into curriculum: https://classroomscience.org/articles/fyi/how-one-program-uses-hands-experiences-outdoors-teach-environmental-principles-concepts-epcs
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
SEL should be embedded in all of our teaching
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SEL in Residential Outdoor Education
Grow-Outside.org: A Social and Emotional Learning Toolkit for Residential Outdoor Ed
Each year, Residential Environmental Learning Centers (RELCs) collectively touch the lives of roughly two million youth across the United States who spend multiple days with sleeping away from home, sharing meals with classmates, and learning in outdoor settings. In addition to their many other functions, RELCs serve as ideal settings for supporting student growth in social and emotional learning (SEL). This toolkit offers strategies for adopting a more intentional approach to incorporating SEL within RELC program settings, with applications for program improvement across the environmental education field at large.