We don’t have to choose education or enchantment. We can choose both.
– Ruth Wilson, educator and environmentalist

In a recent episode of the Education Suspended podcast with hosts Jessica Pfeiffer and Steve Graner, Christine Corr-Kiewra, Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln noted:

“There’s some core knowledge that we’re meant to have and understanding the world around us is part of that. And so, children tend to be drawn to this. That’s why it’s so hard to walk with the toddler. They’re stopping at every crack in the sidewalk! I feel like that’s a great analogy, actually, for what we, the adults, need to do: to slow down and pause at the crack of the sidewalk with the children.

“I think we’re drawn, children are drawn, all humans are drawn to understand the world around them. And then when we give children and ourselves the time, the space and the materials that nature provides, the scientific inquiry model plays out over and over and over and over again. So, if we want to get more children involved in STEM, if we want to get them excited in the STEM fields, let’s have them outside experimenting and they can decide what the experiment is, what their hypothesis is, and we can be the ones to document it. We can be putting it on paper and helping them construct the process or reconstruct the process after they have done it hands on.”

Corr-Kiewra continues, “Open-ended natural materials like sand and dirt and slices of wood I like to call tree cookies can be the best things for children to explore because they’re doing all the thinking then. They’re the ones deciding what it is and how to use it. And you have to have those kind of sensory rich experiences in order to continue to fuel that sense of wonder and curiosity…I think we lose that [when older children are] put in situations where we treat them as though we’re pouring the knowledge in their head…It needs to go through their hands to their heart, to their head.”

Expand the ways you and the children in your care connect with nature with these upcoming events: Tomorrow, April 4, 2024, 7-9 pm Eastern Time: Using Your Outdoor Classroom: a live online workshop with Heather Fox and Kirsten Haugen

May 8, 2024, 2-3:30 pm Eastern Time: Designing Nature-Rich Spaces That Support Community Connection and Change, by Jeff Lindstrom and Heather Fox—a free ECI Webinar.

Download the latest Nature Explore Resource Guide.