This slide show presents the importance of the partnering of informal programs with formal education organizations to advance the outdoor skills education of our children. Part of a Conservation Education tutorial set on OPEN NH.

1. What is the value to working with the K-12 education community?
Expanded reach of programming and communication (multiplier effect)
Increased interest in nature-based outdoor recreation (mainstream nature-based
recreation)
Ability to influence context in which outdoor skills are taught to include
stewardship and conservation of natural resources.
Enhanced communication and rapport with resource users and constituents.
Enhanced support – monetary, political, etc. for agency efforts.
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2. Demographics - not biased by gender, ethnicity, etc.
Able to reach youth without fishing backgrounds
“captive” audience
Opportunity to divide topic into more manageable units
Opportunity to reinforce skills/knowledge
Elevates perception of program
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3. Engaging teachers to include outdoor skills in their classes (PE, Ag. and
Natural Resources, Science, and others) provides several benefits for program
coordinators.
1) They typically have at least a BS/BA in education and are trained to teach
already
2) Formal educators already are familiar with safety/liability issues
3) P t of their training includes development of teaching/learning goals and
Part f th i t i i i l d d l t f t hi /l i l d
objectives – “teaching with the end in mind” versus doing a presentations
4) As educators they are familiar with different ways students learn and
tactics to help them do so
5) Educators remain in the field many years, unlike volunteers who may only
be active a few years, especially parents who move on when their children
leave a program
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4. Several years ago, a quick postcard survey was done to get an idea of the
demographics of students (in schools) involved in the Fish Iowa! fishing
education module. The survey asked respondents to provide the number of
students they worked with and an estimate of the percentage of students in
several categories. At the time about 6% of Iowans were non-Caucasian.
Estimates of total numbers based on number of trained educators x use rate
(80%) x average number of students/educator (118)
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