We offer both remote and onsite consulting services on all aspects of designing and implementing outdoor learning environments, including nature schools and programs with a focus on transformative experiences through which children learn nature-based science along with the nature skills and ideas that will serve them well during this time of ecological and social upheaval.
I have degrees in Psychology (BA, UC Santa Cruz), Child Development and Education (MA, UC Berkeley), and Science Education (Ph.D. UC Berkeley), and experience as a public school science teacher, NYC science coordinator, professor of science education, alternative school principal and science teacher. This background has given me a clear understanding of the structures of public education, many of which bear a striking resemblance to those found in factories. For the last twenty years, I’ve focused on designing learning environments, curricula, and ways of relating with children that support their learning ideas and skills in ways that feel more like playing in a forest and less like working in a factory.
Instead of organizing science content into the traditional subdomains of physics, chemistry, biology, and Earth science, I think of that content as organized around the following big ideas.
- We are all remarkably similar to each other.
- We are all very different from each other.
- We are all in this together as members of a global ecosystem.
- It’s all about relationships.
- Relationships in ecosystems tend to be mutualistic and at least minimize harm.
I believe that kids can learn all of the science behind these ideas while playing in the forest and practicing the basic skills involved in preparing food, water, and shelter at home and in the wild.
For more information, send email to Peter at peterkindfield@mail.com