How do you cultivate a naturalist?

I landed on this question because while walking past the window of my independent bookstore, I saw the book The Not-So Great Outdoors by author and illustrator Madeline Kloepper.

It is a story about a young girl who is dreading her family’s upcoming camping trip. She wants nothing to do with nature and thinks nature is dirty and that there is nothing to do out there. She spends a good part of the story being grumpy and wanting to go home.

But then something changed her mind. You’ll have to get the book to find out what it was.

I read this book in the store before buying it. After leaving the store I began to wonder…

How does interest in nature develop?

Today we consider the findings of an investigation into how interest in the natural world can be developed.

What can educators in informal learning environments do to facilitate an interest in nature?

Let’s find out.

Show Notes

Hecht, M., Knutson, K. & Crowley, K. (2019). Becoming a naturalist: Interest development across the learning ecology. Science Education. 103(3): 1-23 (Download PDF)

Madeline Kloepper, author of The Not-So Great Outdoors

Find your local independent bookstore at IndieBound.

CREDITS:

• Producer: Tania Marien
• Music: So Far So Close by Jahzzar is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike License;
• SOLO ACOUSTIC GUITAR by Jason Shaw is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License.
• Subscribe to Transferable Solutions.

Affiliate Relationships:

Purchases that begin as a click through any Bookshop.org or Descript.com link (or ad) may result in a commission. 

• TALATERRA is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Connect with, and support, independent bookstores.
• TALATERRA is an affiliate of Descript.com. Edit audio and video as easily as you edit a typed document.
• Contact Us