Nurturing Affinity to Nature through Outdoor Learning in Special Places Erasmus Project

Project Title

Nurturing Affinity to Nature through Outdoor Learning in Special Places

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The Nurturing Affinity to Nature through Outdoor Learning in Special Places (NANOL) project has explored different approaches to nurture affinity to nature in primary education. The background of the project takes into consideration the studies that show children’s access to natural environments is declining and unequal, that this disconnection is changing relationships with nature, and that primary students’ ages represent a particularly fruitful developmental period for “place and nature” engagements and it is associated with exploratory and playful practices that broader inquiring minds.
The NANOL project has focused on a triple approach: the role teachers and students have in their learning processes; the relationships with other stakeholders; and the value of the place. We used the term outdoor learning and added “in special places” in the name of the project, to suggest that the geographical landscapes and biodiversity of the protected areas were considered out of the ordinary and worthy of protection. This was not to downplay the potential to develop “affinity with nature” in “ordinary” places such as school grounds, gardens, and local urban parks, but to acknowledge the particularly powerful opportunities presented in places noted for their exemplary quality in terms of biodiversity and/or landscape attributes.
The objectives of the project have been, then:
• To support primary teachers to use outdoor learning settings in nature and implement innovative outdoor learning school practices linked to curricula.
• To encourage collaboration between schools and local Natural Parks or other special places’ organisations by sharing different frames and practices between educators to stimulate affinity to nature.
To accomplish the aforementioned objectives, nine partners from different countries and backgrounds have been working together. They are: the Nature School of Haltia, Metsähallitus Parks and Wildlife, Finland; Accueil et Découverte en Conflent in the Natural Reserve of Py, France; Rak Centre of Centre Šolskih in Obšolskih Dejavnosti (CŠOD), Slovenia; Associació Centre d’Educació Ambiental Alt Ter”, Spain; Kintaus school, Finland; École publique élémentaire de Lascelle, France; Dr Robert school, Spain; University of Plymouth, United Kingdom; and University of Girona, Spain.
The methodology applied in the NANOL project has been mainly qualitative and based on participatory methods. It has been contextualised in each partner reality with the common goal to explore nurturing affinity to nature from several angles and perspectives.
Sharing of initiatives and knowledge has been the core of the transnational meetings. This is why we have organised different workshops and dynamics, to encourage active sharing and participation.
Results have been published in an electronic document entitled “Nurturing Affinity to Nature” and accessible under a Creative Commons license on the: https://dugi-doc.udg.edu/handle/10256/18058. The publication can be useful to teachers, educators, technicians and managers of protected areas that are interested in experiential education and outdoor learning in nature. The added value of the NANOL project has been that, despite having a common frame to work, each partner has supplied resources from its own context and needs in a process where the results have been complementary. Partners’ initiatives have been innovative in the sense that they have introduced new practises and featured new methods; such as student-centred approaches, the use of ICT in nature trails or cutting-edge programmes like the terrestrial educational areas.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 109155 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT DE GIRONA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH
• Metsähallitus
• Accueil et découverte en Conflent
• Associació Centre d’Educació Ambiental Alt Ter
• Kintauden koulu
• CSOD
• Escola Doctor Robert