______________________
The University of
South Carolina's
Institute for Nature & Inquiry
is a collaboration of the
College of Education
and
College of Arts & Science's School
of the Environment.
________________________
Contacts:
Mary Earick, PhD
Department of Instruction & Teacher Education
earick@gwm.sc.edu
Her website
Doug Earick, MA
LONGLEAF Environmental Learning Center
dearick@environ.sc.edu
Longleaf website
________________________
Pilot Study
Undergraduate Teacher Preparation
Research Supporting the NBI Approach
- §Children inherently enjoy observing and thinking about nature (Eshach and Fried, 2005).
- §To effectively teach science through inquiry, a teacher must have a strong understanding of the inquiry process and have had opportunities to conduct projects through an inquiry-based approach (NRC, 1996; NSES, 1996; AAAS, 1998).
- §Children are able to “benefit from language and environments that provide opportunities to use methods of science, including data collection, predicting, recording, and talking about findings” (Gelman, 1998).
-
§We
also know the single greatest factor in the success of our children are
their teachers (Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 1998).
- “Outdoor activities in green environments (lead) to significant symptom abatement among all patients with ADHD across all regions and environments” (Kuo & Taylor, 2004).
- Time spent outdoors correlates with increased physical activity and fitness in children (Sallis et al., 2003; Moore, L. et al. 2003; Finn et al., 2002) and is an integral component of healthy early childhood development that enhances our quality of life and our ability to learn (Wilson, 1994).
- Environmental stewardship occurs when numerous positive outdoor experiences occur with role models (Carson, 1956/1998; Wilson, 1996b).
- The
knowledge gained in the outdoors is foundational to literacy and science
learning (Dewey, 1938/1963).
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Selected References:
-American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
-American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
-Espinosa, L. (in press). Second
language acquisition in early childhood. In New, R. & Cochran, M. (EDs.).
Early Childhood Education. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
-Eshach, H. & Fried, M. (2005). Should science be taught in the early
childhood? Journal of Science Education and Technology, 14(3),
315-336.
-Gelman, R., & Brenneman, K.
(2004). Science learning pathways for young children. Early Childhood
Research Quarterly, 19(1), 150-158.
-Gelman, R. (1998). Domain
specificity in cognitive development: universals and non-universals. In
Saboarin, M., -Craik, F. & Robert, M. (Eds) Advances in psychological
science: v2. Biological and cognitive aspects. Hove, Eng:
Psychology Press Ltd. Publishers.
-National Research Council
(1996). National science education standards. Washington, DC:
National Academy Press.
-National Academy of Sciences.
(1993). National science education standards: pre-draft report.
National Academy Press.
-Rivkin, S., Hanushek, E., & Kain,
J. (1998). Teachers, schools and academic achievement (NBER
Working Paper 6691). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic
Research.
-Tabor, P. (1997). One
Language, Two Languages. Brookes.
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