This practical text offers simple activities and lesson plans for young people in a variety of school and community settings. The author examines why outdoor education is important and includes a step-by-step guide for planning field trips through to a complete outdoor education programme.

Outdoor education, a general term describing the use of resources outside the classroom, has long been considered a method to improve student learning. This book aims to create a bridge between current school reform efforts and the field of outdoor education. Chapter 1 introduces the idea of outdoor education and relates several recent educational innovations to principles of outdoor education and experiential learning. These innovations include service learning, children's museums, constructivism, problem-based learning, technology-based authentic learning, concern for multiple intelligences, and interdisciplinary learning. Chapter 2 makes suggestions for planning outdoor learning, explains the role of the teacher in student-centered learning, and outlines a learning adventure model. Chapter 3 presents 12 outdoor adventures that move instruction into the community. Developed for grades 4-9, these adventures can be adapted to most ages or to nonschool situations or can be a model for teachers to develop their own thematic units. Each adventure contains an organizing problem, background, outcomes, activities, reflection questions, and performance assessments. Themes include observing people at the shopping center, community planning, local pollution problems, starting a democratic society, homesteading, seeing a city block, fast-food fact finding, scouting the school grounds, reading the cemetery "story," down the drain, nature in the city, and creating a nature trail. Appendices contain a brief history of outdoor education and experiential learning, an environmental inventory, bibliographies of related materials, guidelines for creating student-centered learning communities, related organizations, and 15 ways to study a place without a guide. Contains 44 references. (SV)

"This is a superb book, and does a wonderful job of relating the current state of research related to outdoor, environmental, and place-based education. The book provides a roadmap showing others to identify problems, develop research questions, put together data, and disseminate information to third parties." Joan Franklin Smutny, Founding Director of the Center for Gifted, a Northern Illinois University Partner, and Director of the Midwest Torrance Center for Creativity This book explores the phenomenon of outdoor education, an approach that permits children from all backgrounds to explore environmental, sustainability, and other issues facing them and their communities. Organized around both the conceptual and the practical issues facing school leaders interested in outdoor education, the book provides a wealth of resources for those interested in implementing outdoor education in their schools or classrooms. Infinitely flexible, outdoor education provides a lens through which teachers may explore any content area with any age group of children. Providing readers with both the theoretical underpinnings that support place-based curriculum as well as practical ways to implement an outdoor education program, the book also provides seven case studies that examine the issues facing school leaders desiring to make such a change. It guides those interested in exploring outdoor education through the curricular, instructional, and policy considerations needed to accomplish this goal. Stephen T. Schroth is Professor of Early Childhood Education/Gifted & Creative Education at Towson University, USA. He is the author of eight monographs, multiple book chapters, and numerous articles, and has taught pre-service teachers and graduate students for over twenty five years.

Information on teaching outdoor education in different regards such as extending the school curriculum or as resident outdoor education programs.

The fifth edition of this practical guide to interdisciplinary instruction focuses on the thinking and reasoning skills mandated by the Common Core State Standards and the content-learning standards required by an increasing number of states. The author provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to designing, creating, and implementing unit and lesson plans for all learners. Both pre-service and in-service elementary and middle-school teachers will find Wood’s approach to be comprehensive, with a strong theoretical foundation. Using Wiggins and McTighe’s backward design process, Wood offers specific protocols for creating unit and lesson plans at the elementary and middle-school levels. By emphasizing differential instruction, constructivist educational philosophy, application of skills in meaningful context, and the art of engaging student interest, he demonstrates how diverse student populations can benefit from the interdisciplinary approach. Prospective teachers will learn to create interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary plans that promote problem solving, creativity, and social interaction. Examples abound, with an appendix of sample unit plan designs filled with ideas for lessons and activities.

The popular Interdisciplinary Teaching Through Physical Educationis back and better than ever. This new edition guides you in integrating the content of language arts, math, science, social studies, and the arts (music, theater arts, and visual arts) with the content of physical education through active learning experiences. This book has the following features: -It provides 24 learning experiences in the five academic areas, 193 additional ideas for developing those learning experiences, and 37 new, ongoing strategies for teaching physical education through cross-curricular methods. -It is revised and expanded, offering you more teaching tools to supplement, support, and enhance your teaching. -It delivers new practical ideas and activities for classroom use, based on current theory and best practices. In part I, you'll learn about the theoretical need for and benefits of interdisciplinary teaching and learning. The authors identify models for planning and implementing interdisciplinary experiences and provide ideas for getting started, building a support network, and assessing learning. In part II, the authors describe sample learning experiences in each of the five academic disciplines and offer ideas for developing additional learning experiences. They also present suggested scope and sequence of concepts for each grade level and describe the concepts and skills that are appropriate for primary- and intermediate-grade students. Interdisciplinary Elementary Physical Educationwill give your students a wealth of knowledge while they're being active. They'll have fun while they conjugate, calculate, investigate, explore, dance--and move across the curriculum.