With Bridget Booth and Leah Higgins of the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) and the MiPINES app
How can we connect people to outdoor spaces in their state or province? An app might not be the first thing that comes to mind, as so many are looking for ways to decrease screen time and increase green time. But maybe a bit of screen time on a carefully constructed app like MiPINES can ultimately get more people outdoors. How do these technologies impact experiential environmental educators like park naturalists? What are some of the keys to leveraging digital tools for outdoor learning? We discussed these topics and more… and got off on a tangent about the super-picky Kirtland’s Warblers in northern Michigan.
Guests:
Bridget Booth is an 8th-grade science teacher at Haslett Middle School and a certified environmental educator in Michigan. She got her start in education at Woldumar Nature Center in Lansing and has been taking students outdoors to learn ever since. She is currently the president of the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE), whose mission is to support, inspire, and empower a diverse network of individuals with a passion for environmental and outdoor learning. Bridget lives with her husband and two sons in East Lansing and will spend her summer reading, playing in the northern woods, and swimming in the Great Lakes.
Leah Higgins is beginning a career in environmental education after graduating Summa Cum Laude from Eastern Michigan University in 2019. After graduation, she worked as a volunteer intern for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and is now serving as the Education Programs Developer at the DNR RAM Center via Huron Pines AmeriCorps. Leah recognizes place-based education as a valuable component of any environmental ethic, noting that the environment is not a place “out there” but is instead the place where we all live.
Episode 62: Energy transition narratives: good-faith, bad-faith, and keeping the faith
Episode 61: A Two-Worlds Approach to nurturing empathy in young children
Episode 60: Nature’s best hope (for kids)
Episode 59: The lives of bees and pollinating wasps
Episode 58: Learning through a forest lens
Episode 57: Regenerating habitat for native pollinators
Episode 56: Having richer and more meaningful conversations with children
Episode 55: Pre-K environmental ed.
Episode 54: Engaging children in climate/waste solutions
Episode 53: The power of nature stories
Episode 52: Two-eyed seeing
Episode 51: Balancing screen time and green time
Episode 50: Navigating ecological threats with storytelling
Episode 49: Comics, cartoons, and humour for climate change ed.
Episode 48: What we can learn from trees
Episode 47: Climate literacy and resilience
Episode 46: Attention restoration theory
Episode 45: World Rivers Day
Episode 44: Phenology-based teaching
Episode 43: Regenerative education, incl. learning session
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