Infusing EE into Recreational and Outdoor Skill Activities: Developing a Resource Guide for Conserve School

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to create a tool that will make it easier to infuse environmental education into recreational and skill-based activities at residential environmental education programs, but specifically for Conserve School. Conserve School is a semester school and has a limited amount of time with the students. By infusing environmental education into these common-place activities, Conserve School will be able to make the most of their time with the students. On a larger scale, this paper will show the environmental education community how to teach environmental education in a fun and engaging way. Initial literature reviews show that environmental education can be enhanced by incorporating elements of recreation, and that recreation during childhood enhances connections with nature and in turn increases environmentally conscious behavior. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and was then qualitatively analyzed. Several themes emerged, and they were incorporated along with recommendations from the NAAEE into an evaluation rubric. The rubric was combined with other resources into a resource guide to help the staff at Conserve School with infusing the overarching principles of environmental education into the already present recreational activities.