Research
Research shows that outdoor activity, and orienteering in particular, is good for kids.
Key Questions - why we care - what we want to accomplish
We want evidence that Navigation Games programs and orienteering in general are good for kids. Need measurable outcomes.
Funders (donors & grant-makers) care about this
Schools & government want teachers to use curricula that are evidence-based
Specifically, lesson plans should have measurable learning outcomes and assessments built in.
There are 2 categories of outcomes
Orientation / map / nav skills
Byproduct and added-on outcomes such as social/emotional, critical thinking, ...
We want evidence that NG educator workshops are effective
Helps getting accredited - which helps us market the workshops
What Navigation Games stakeholders need to know: summary of key research and assessment
Assessment of Navigation Games programs
Benefits of orienteering for children
[A paragraph with overview including SEL]
[Brain research paragraph:]
Navigation requires multiple skills (flesh this out using information fromthe book "From Here to There" by Michael Bond; cite research where possible)
There are two main approaches to navigation: egocentric and allocentric. [flesh this out / From Here to There]
Repeated solving of complex navigational problems increases brain volume in thie hippocampus [reference -sent 2/4/24 to Jackson& Maija]. This has been seen for video game play as well (Kuhn et al 2014).
Value of map reading and navigation skills for children
Methods to assess map reading and navigation skills
Effective teaching of map reading and navigation skills
Benefits of being outdoors in nature
American children average less than 20 minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play, and over 7 hours a day in front of a screen. [Update with references!]
Standards-aligned evidence-based curricula
Schools want to use standards-aligned curricula that are proven to significantly improve student outcomes - i.e., they are evidence-based. The Massachusetts Department of Education, for example, has great support for finding and making high-quality curricula, eg through its "Curriculum Matters: Instructional Materials and Professional Development" initiative. The MA DOE has resources for educator evaluation. learning standards, a database of high-quality curricular materials, evaluation of and support for curriculum-based professional learning services. See also MA standards for professional development; information for professional development providers, including an application to become accredited.
Links to additional information
Selected References
Books
Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. 2008. Amazon
Peer-Reviewed Scientific Articles
Kuhn et al, "Playing Super Mario induces structural brain plasticity: gray matter changes resulting from training with a commercial video game" Molecular Psychiatry 19:265-271, 2014.
"Comparing a control with a video gaming training group that was trained for 2 months for at least 30 min per day with a platformer game, we found significant gray matter (GM) increase in right hippocampal formation (HC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral cerebellum in the training group. The HC increase correlated with changes from egocentric to allocentric navigation strategy. GM increases in HC and DLPFC correlated with participants’ desire for video gaming, evidence suggesting a predictive role of desire in volume change. Video game training augments GM in brain areas crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance going along with evidence for behavioral changes of navigation strategy. The presented video game training could therefore be used to counteract known risk factors for mental disease such as smaller hippocampus and prefrontal cortex volume in, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disease."
Lester et al, "The aging navigational system," Neuron 95(5), 2017. A review describing the different brain circuits involved in navigation.
The discovery of neuronal systems dedicated to computing spatial information, composed of functionally distinct cell types such as place and grid cells, combined with an extensive body of human-based behavioral and neuroimaging research has provided us with a detailed understanding of the brain's navigation circuit. In this review, we discuss emerging evidence from rodents, non-human primates, and humans that demonstrates how cognitive aging affects the navigational computations supported by these systems. Critically, we show 1) that navigational deficits cannot solely be explained by general deficits in learning and memory, 2) that there is no uniform decline across different navigational computations, and 3) that navigational deficits might be sensitive markers for impending pathological decline. Following an introduction to the mechanisms underlying spatial navigation and how they relate to general processes of learning and memory, the review discusses how aging affects the perception and integration of spatial information, the creation and storage of memory traces for spatial information, and the use of spatial information during navigational behavior. The closing section highlights the clinical potential of behavioral and neural markers of spatial navigation, with a particular emphasis on neurodegenerative disorders.
Researchers discovered cells in the hippocampus with specific functions
Place cells fire when you are in a specific place
Grid cells
Head direction cells
Border cells (have been found in the entorhinal cortex, subiculum, and pre- and parasubiculum
Speed cells
Other Articles
Sources of Navigation Games information on research
hi this is normal
Gitbook - start here. We should link to this in operating manual and our public-facing lesson plans site.
AEE articles in the physical journal we receive.
books on our NG shelf - we should put the list of our library on our public-facing lesson plans site, cause there is good stuff there