The Regeneration Lab

What if connecting with nature became a normal part of how we learn and care for ourselves? In this conversation, Waminda Parker explores nature connection as an embodied practice for wellbeing, self-regulation and meaningful learning. From moving beyond cognitive knowledge to noticing, relating and reflecting, we discuss NatureFix’s approach to helping people engage more deeply with everyday green spaces. Waminda also reflects on student wellbeing, nature as a co-facilitator, translating research into practice, and her hope that nature connection becomes embedded across disciplines rather than remaining something educators have to fight for.

Key themes
Nature connectedness · Embodied learning · Wellbeing · Noticing · Nature-based interventions

About the guest
Waminda Parker is co-founder and Director of NatureFix, where she works at the intersection of nature connection, health, education and wellbeing. With a background in biology and conservation genetics, her work focuses on translating growing research on human–nature relationships into accessible practices and learning environments that support self-regulation, deeper noticing and meaningful connection with the natural world.

Explore Waminda’s work:
Naturefix - www.naturefix.life

What changes when students are invited not only to learn about nature, but to notice, question and relate to it? In this conversation, Alette Los, Jetske de Boer and Sandra van der Wielen explore nature-inclusive teacher education through place-based observation, sensory experience, dialogue and experimentation. From adopting a place and hunting for species to the damselfly as a metaphor for transformation, we discuss how curiosity can reshape the way students see their surroundings. They also reflect on resistance, real-world learning and what it might mean to treat nature as a stakeholder in education and decision-making.

Key themes
Nature-inclusive education · Nature connectedness · Teacher education · Experiential learning · Nature as stakeholder

About the guests
Alette Los, Jetske de Boer and Sandra van der Wielen are educators and researchers at Aeres University of Applied Sciences in Wageningen, whose work spans nature-inclusive learning, biodiversity, ecology and teacher education. Through the LENS research group — Learning for a Nature-Inclusive Society, they explore how future educators and practitioners can learn with and from the living world through observation, experience, reflection and dialogue, while developing more relational ways of understanding their place within nature.

Explore their work and resources:
LENS — Learning for a Nature-Inclusive Society
Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)
De Boer, J. G., Beukenkamp, M., Los, A., Ven, S. & Wielen, S. (2025). Bugs in the system. Aeres Hogeschool.

What if education helped us remember that we are already nature? In this conversation, Lian Kaspar explores relational, embodied and nature-inclusive learning through sit spots, outdoor immersion, play, emotional awareness and reflection. We discuss how students can move from initial resistance into slower, more connected ways of learning, and why academic education should make room for the whole person. Lian also reflects on Indigenous inspiration, teacher development, cultural change in universities, and how small experiential “seeds” can help normalize regenerative approaches to learning.

Key themes
Nature connectedness · Relational learning · Embodied learning · Indigenous knowledge · Regenerative culture

About the guest
Lian Kaspar is a facilitator, educator and researcher at Wageningen University & Research and the Nature College Foundation. Her work brings together nature-inclusive education, outdoor relational learning and personal development, exploring how embodied and reflective experiences can deepen relationships with ourselves, each other and the more-than-human world. She also works with educators to expand the possibilities for relational and experiential learning within higher education.

Explore Lian’s work:
Kalapa - https://www.kalapa.nu

What if nature-based pedagogy could change not only what students know, but how they relate to the world? In this conversation, Katinka Quintelier and Karen Verduijn explore forest bathing, EcoWalks and nature-based learning in business education. From sensory practices and post-anthropocentric entrepreneurship to student resistance, collective experimentation and Plato’s Garden, we discuss how embodied encounters can challenge the idea of students as “heads on sticks.” Katinka and Karen also reflect on creating fertile ground for transformation and helping small educational sprouts grow into a wider ecosystem.

Key themes
Nature-based pedagogy · Embodied learning · Eco-justice · Post-anthropocentric entrepreneurship · Educational transformation

About the guests
Dr. Katinka Quintelier and Dr. Karen Verduijn are researchers and educators at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam whose work brings nature-based pedagogy into questions of sustainability, ethics, entrepreneurship and socio-ecological transformation. Katinka explores ethical value creation for people and nature and experiments with practices such as forest bathing. Karen works to reimagine entrepreneurship education beyond anthropocentric assumptions, bringing eco-justice and critical posthuman perspectives more centrally into the field. Together, they contribute to Plato’s Garden, a growing VU community around nature-based pedagogy.

Explore their work and resources:
Transforming Enterprise Education (TrEE) - www.transformingee.eu
Plato’s Garden - https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/research-institutes/amsterdam-sustainability-institute/more-about/asi-research-cluster-nature-based-pedagogy
Verduijn, K., Hytti, U. & Arias, S. L. (2026). Reimagining entrepreneurship education in the Anthropocene: A critical posthuman practice approach. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 26, e00653.
Quintelier, K. J. P. (2024). Approaching Wicked Issues in Practice, in Theory, and in the Wild. In Sustainability Stories.

What if nature connection is less about visiting nature and more about building a relationship over time? In this conversation, Miles Holmes explores deep nature connection through sit spots, sensory awareness, mentoring and Indigenous perspectives. We discuss how repeated encounters with place can grow from familiarity into kinship, how nature can support wellbeing and meaning-making, and why connection is more than recreation. Miles also reflects on bringing these practices into health and higher education, and on the importance of mentoring the next generation to keep the relationship alive.

Key themes
Nature connection · Sit spot practice · Sensory awareness · Indigenous knowledge · Mentoring

About the guest
Dr. Miles Holmes is an anthropologist and Director of NatureFix, whose work brings together deep nature connection, outdoor facilitation, Indigenous collaboration and nature-based approaches to health and wellbeing. Drawing on more than two decades of nature connection practice and work with Warlpiri communities in Central Australia, Miles explores how repeated attention to place, sensory awareness and mentoring can help people move from simply encountering nature towards developing meaningful relationships with the living world.

Explore Miles’s work:
NatureFix - https://www.naturefix.life
The Connective - https://www.theconnective.co

What if nature-based learning could help students feel more connected, to place, to one another, and to themselves? In this conversation, Nicole Kras, Tara Bahl, Karen Williams and Samuel Finesurrey share how an interdisciplinary community at Guttman Community College is bringing learning beyond the classroom and into New York City’s green spaces. From mindfulness, urban farming and beekeeping to history, identity and critical reflection, we explore how embodied experiences can foster belonging, well-being and curiosity. The group also reflects on student voice, interdisciplinary collaboration, institutional support and the radical possibilities of nature-based learning in higher education.

Key themes
Nature-based learning · Belonging · Embodied learning · Interdisciplinary collaboration · Student voice

About the guests
Nicole Kras, Tara Bahl, Karen Williams and Samuel Finesurrey are educators at Guttman Community College, City University of New York (CUNY), where they contribute to an interdisciplinary community exploring nature-based learning in urban higher education. Their work brings perspectives from human services, mindfulness, history, identity and critical pedagogy into shared experiments that connect classroom learning with New York City’s green spaces, while exploring implications for student well-being, belonging, critical thinking and community.

Explore their work and resources:
Guttman Resources - https://greenguttman.commons.gc.cuny.edu/research/
Kras, N., Finesurrey, S., Williams, K. G. & Bahl, T. (2026). Uprooting traditional classroom: Belonging, wellness and critical learning through community college nature-based education. New Directions for Community Colleges.
Kras, N., Martin, T. & Bahl, T. (2025). Learning beyond words: Initial findings on non-discursive learning in nature-based education. Community College Journal of Research and Practice.
Kras, N., Martin, T., Bahl, T. & Tesser, D. (2025). Incorporating nature-based learning experiences across disciplines: Inspirations from urban community college faculty. Change, 57(1), 20–27.
Kras, N. (2024). A model for embedding nature-based learning across disciplines: A pilot study at an urban community college. The Community College Enterprise, 30(1), 9.

What if education began with the places we already love? In this conversation, Karin Wilterdink Molenaar explores nature-connected learning through geography, outdoor education and storytelling. From inviting students to bring photographs of their favourite places to using landscapes as living classrooms, we discuss how emotional connection can deepen curiosity, well-being and care for the Earth. Karin also reflects on uncertainty, giving students space to form their own relationships with nature, working with teams outdoors, and why meaningful change in higher education may begin with small experiments, supportive communities and patience.

Key themes
Place attachment · Outdoor learning · Emotional connection · Storytelling · Student agency

About the guest
Karin Wilterdink Molenaar is a lecturer at Hogeschool KPZ whose work explores sustainability, Earth systems and nature-connected learning through experiential and practice-oriented education. With a background in geography and earlier work developing the Earth and Climate programme at Aeres University of Applied Sciences, she is particularly interested in how outdoor experiences, personal stories and emotional connection can help learners develop their own relationship with the living world.

Explore Karin’s work:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-wilterdink-molenaar

What if education helped us grow through connection, reciprocity and place? In this conversation, Richard Owens explores regenerative learning, systems awareness and the conditions that help people and communities thrive. From river red gums and permaculture to regenerative futures, Indigenous knowledge and place-based learning, we discuss how education can reconnect self, others and the living world. Richard also reflects on institutional constraints, youth voice, business education and why meaningful change may begin by observing, sensing and building relationships before rushing towards solutions.

Key themes
Regenerative learning · Systems awareness · Relational learning · Place-based education · Indigenous knowledge

About the guest
Dr. Richard Owens is Director of the Woodleigh Institute, Convenor of ReimaginED Festivals, and National Director of the Australian Centre for Systems Awareness. His work spans regenerative learning, systems change, futures, leadership and educational innovation, with a particular focus on relational and place-based approaches that connect personal development, community and the living world.

Explore Richard’s work:
Woodleigh Institute - https://www.woodleigh.vic.edu.au/woodleigh/woodleigh-institute
Australian Centre for Systems Awareness - https://systemsawareness.org

What happens when students step out of everyday culture and into shared experience outdoors? In this conversation, Tom Potter reflects on decades of experiential outdoor education, from emotional and philosophical learning to student-led expeditions, reflection and re-entry. We explore how nature can help people peel back social layers, build trust, take responsibility and discover capacities they did not know they had. Tom also reflects on assessment, institutional pressures, business education, and why outdoor education may become stronger when it is woven across disciplines rather than kept at the margins.

Key themes
Outdoor experiential education · Relational learning · Student agency · Reflection · Place connectedness

About the guest
Dr. Tom Potter is Professor Emeritus at Lakehead University, whose work spans outdoor and experiential education, leadership, place connectedness and the development of outdoor education in higher education. Across several decades of teaching and research, he has explored how meaningful outdoor experiences can support relational, emotional and embodied learning, while helping students develop responsibility, judgment, leadership and a deeper relationship with place.

Selected publications:
Dyment, J. E. & Potter, T. G. (2021). Overboard! The turbulent waters of outdoor education in neoliberal post-secondary contexts. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education. 
Potter, T. G. & Dyment, J. (2016). Is outdoor education a discipline? Insights, gaps and future directions. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 16(2), 146–159.
Dyment, J. & Potter, T. G. (2015). Is outdoor education a discipline? Provocations and possibilities. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 15(3), 193–208.
Schwass, N. R., Potter, S. E., O’Connell, T. S. & Potter, T. G. (2021). Outdoor Journeys as a Catalyst for Enhanced Place Connectedness and Environmental Stewardship. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 24(2), 215–231.

What if transformative learning grew through relationships rather than instruction? In this conversation, Ruth Förster explores embodied, nature-connected approaches to learning, leadership and change. From sensory awareness and threshold walks to safe-enough spaces, storytelling and reflection, we discuss how transformative learning can engage the whole person. Ruth also reflects on bringing these practices into higher education and business contexts, working through institutional constraints, and why process-oriented education needs different ways of valuing progress, assessment and the often unseen relationships that help change take root.

Key themes
Embodied learning · Nature connectedness · Transformative learning · Regenerative leadership · Process-oriented education

About the guest
Dr. Ruth D. Förster is an educator, researcher, facilitator and coach whose work brings together transformative learning, embodiment, nature-based practice and regenerative leadership. She chairs the saguf Working Group on Education for Sustainable Development and is Co-President of Scaling4Good. Across higher education, leadership development and professional learning, Ruth creates experiential spaces that strengthen connection with self, others and the more-than-human world while supporting meaningful transformation.

Explore Ruth’s work and resources:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthfoerster/
saguf Working Group - https://saguf.ch/en/working_groups/education_for_sustainable_development
Scaling4Good - https://scaling4good.com/
Learning for Transformation - https://learning-for-transformation.ch/
Förster, R. & Sägesser, A. (2025). Connecting to Self and to Nature. In Imagining, Designing and Teaching Regenerative Futures.