Engaging At-Risk Populations Outdoors, Digitally: Researching Youth Attitudes, Confidence, and Interest in Technology and the Outdoors.

Abstract

By using technology to enhance outdoor observation, students have significantly more interest in the use of technology outdoors and interest in observing plants and birds. This study also increased student’s confidence in knowing about and using mobile technology. This study shows that incorporating technology in science education enhances student’s self-reported confidence and interest in digital tool use and observation. Students in this study focused on scientific observation of plants but also reported an increase in their eagerness to look at and learn more about birds. This suggests that when scientific observation skills are taught to students, much more is learned than the subject of

27 observation. Instead, an attitude of curiosity is nurtured with careful and precise observation, resulting in students scrutinizing additional components of their environment more closely. This finding alone empowers outdoor educators everywhere to teach their students how to become better observers. Not how to name, memorize, or categorize, but to simply observe the minute details of at least one organism. The results of this study suggest that after a student practices scientific observation of one organism, they will increase their curiosity in other aspects of the natural world and, perhaps, their place within the whole environment. Empowering youth with the tools and responsibility to examine their surroundings using mobile technologies should be incorporated by outdoor educators who aim to engage the next generation of students in scientific observation. By encouraging youth to take and use technology outside, educators can capitalize on their learner’s existing way of thought while honing their observation skills in original ways.