Outdoor Education Collective
Outdoor education for all subject areas, ages, and geographic locations.
Planting roots and sprouting seeds in the outdoors
Mission of the Project
Provide resources and support for educators interested in teaching outdoors.
Whether you are just starting to get outdoors or ready to jump in full time, we have resources for you!
Check out this collection of lesson plans, strategies, and collections of ways to engage learners in the outdoors
Lessons learned, insight, and advice from educators currently using the outdoors as a learning space
Why support outdoor education for your school, district, or state/province?
How do you get started?
How can you best support your program, school, and educators?
Meet the Team
Special Thanks to National Geographic Society for their support of this project through the Emergency COVID19 Relief Fund for Educators
Becky is a K-5 science educator, field scientist, and PhD student in Virginia. With 17 years (and counting!) of experience as an educator, she brings knowledge from PK-5, all subjects to the table along with remote, hybrid, and in person models of outdoor education. If she had it her way, she would teach outdoors with no man made, synthetic shelters at all. Hello, treehouses! Knowing this is not everyone's dream or reality, she works to make outdoor education accessible for students and educators globally. She is passionate about studying and finding solutions to equity issues especially associated with access to outdoor learning opportunities in urban spaces.
Paula Huddy-Zubkowski, ancestral land of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Mohkinstsis
Experiential learning is at the heart of everything Paula Huddy-Zubkowski, FRGS, GTF 2018, and Canada C3 participant, endeavors to accomplish. With guidance from Indigenous community members, she brings Indigenous ways of knowing into understanding how to lead outdoor explorations. Currently she is the Instructional Media and EdTech consultant, K-12 in her District in Canada, developing lessons, videos, STEAM programming, and makerspaces for her district. Vicki Phillips stated at the National Geographic Education Summit, “We must stop seeing tech and nature as sparring partners, and start concentrating on helping them dance.” This website will do just that!
Kelly Koller, ancestral land of the Menominee
Kelly Koller is a 2018 GTF, 18-22 National Geographic Explorer, National Geographic Certified Educator and an elementary educator in the Howard-Suamico School District in Wisconsin. Kelly loves how the outdoors provides hands-on, immersive authentic learning experiences, but it's the smiles on students' faces that keeps her continuously creating and looking for more ideas.
As a 2018 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, Koller journeyed to the High Arctic of Canada and Greenland learning about natural and human communities, viewing the impacts of climate change, and delving into how an Explorer Mindset could benefit the learning process. These experiences inspired Kelly to develop of www.explorermindset.org and #OutdoorSEL, both of which aim to empower learners.