Students are tasked with selecting an outdoor activity that they would like to engage in for at least 20 minutes  every week over the course of the semester and reflect upon their experiences before, during and after the activity.  For example, they might choose to go for a walk, seek out a hike in different parks each week, relax by the lake, or go for a swim.

 Over the course of the semester students will create, maintain, and compare a nature journal and digital science notebook.  The intent of this activity is for them to become familiar with how journals/notebooks can be used by learners to facilitate scientific inquiry endeavors from both nature-based and technology-based perspectives.

Through this experience, preservice teachers will learn about and experience the benefits of nature journaling, supports for beginning nature journaling, and how to successfully take children outdoors to learn.

This nature journaling unit is intended for use in an upper division early childhood education science and environment methods course; and will occur in three steps, likely during three consecutive class periods. The intention of this learning sequence is to prepare early childhood pre-service educators to implement nature journaling experiences in order to facilitate emergent cycles of inquiry that will extend theory build and wonder in young children. First the pre-service educators will learn about nature journaling, how to engage with the practice themselves, and how to facilitate nature journaling with young children. Then, through a series of nature journaling practice activities, the pre-service educators will engage in their own nature journaling practice as it connects to the broader early childhood science question of ecological perspective taking and participation with nature. Finally, they will explore how to facilitate and observe children’s nature journaling practice, and how to utilize the questions that emerge from this recurrent practice in cycles of inquiry planning.

Social Emotional Learning in Virtual classroom focuses on integrating three main routines to support SEL in a virtual classroom The three routines are check-in, community building, and mindfulness.  The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines social-emotional learning (SEL) as “an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”