Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is the oldest outdoor group in the United States. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D.C. The AMC's 275,000 members, advocates, and supporters mix outdoor recreation, particularly hiking and backpacking, with environmental activism. Additional activities include cross-country skiing, whitewater and flatwater canoeing and kayaking, sea kayaking, sailing, rock climbing and bicycle riding. The Club has about 2,700 volunteers, who lead roughly 7,000 trips and activities per year. The organization publishes a number of books, guides, and trail maps.
Leave No Trace, sometimes written as LNT, is a set of ethics promoting conservation of the outdoors. Originating in the mid-20th century, the concept started as a movement in the United States in response to ecological damage caused by wilderness recreation. In 1994, the non-profit Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics was formed to create educational resources around LNT, and organized the framework of LNT into seven principles.
- Plan ahead and prepare
- Travel and camp on durable surfaces
- Dispose of waste properly
- Leave what you find
- Minimize campfire impacts
- Respect wildlife
- Be considerate of other visitors
Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. The term is not interchangeable with experiential learning; however experiential learning is a sub-field and operates under the methodologies of experiential education. The Association for Experiential Education regards experiential education as "a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities". Experiential education is the term for the philosophy and educational progressivism is the movement which it informed. The Journal of Experiential Education publishes peer-reviewed empirical and theoretical academic research within the field.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over six million members and supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).
Muskegon Community College (MCC) is a public community college in Muskegon, Michigan. The college offers 49 associate degree programs and 33 certificate programs. The college's main campus is located on a 111-acre campus in Muskegon, with extension centers in Ottawa and Newaygo counties.
Outdoor education is organized learning that takes place in the outdoors, typically during school camping trips. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey wilderness-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges and outdoor activities such as hiking, climbing, canoeing, ropes courses and group games. Outdoor education draws upon the philosophy, theory, and practices of experiential education and environmental education.
Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, ecology, earth science, atmospheric science, mathematics, and geography.
Aurora University (AU) is a private university in Aurora, Illinois, United States. In addition to its main campus, AU offers programs online and at its George Williams College campus in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. Approximately 6,200 students are enrolled in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs at Aurora University.
Charleston Collegiate School is a co-educational, nonsectarian, independent day school in Johns Island, South Carolina, United States near the city of Charleston. It was founded in 1970 under the name Sea Island Academy and in 2002 became Charleston Collegiate School. It is known for its outdoor education center and project based learning curriculum.
Mounds View Public Schools is a Minnesota school district serving the cities of Arden Hills, Mounds View, New Brighton, North Oaks, Roseville, Shoreview, Vadnais Heights and portions of Spring Lake Park and White Bear Township. The district currently operates 13 schools and a handful of other educational programs.
Sterling College is a private work college in Craftsbury, Vermont. Its curriculum is focused on ecological thinking and action through a major in Environmental Studies with concentrations in Ecology, Environmental Humanities, Outdoor Education, and Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems. The college is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Samoset Council is a Boy Scout council headquartered in Weston, Wisconsin that serves north central Wisconsin. Founded in 1920, the council gets its name from an early Boy Scout camp in the Town of Harrison named Camp Sam-O-Set. The council is served by Tom Kita Chara Lodge of the Order of the Arrow.
The Greenwood School is a specialized boarding and day school for students in grades 6 through 12. Greenwood is situated on a 100-acre campus outside the village of Putney, Vermont in the southeastern part of the state. The Greenwood School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), approved by the state of Vermont, and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).
Conserve School was a semester school for environmentally and outdoor minded high school students located in Land O' Lakes, Vilas County, Wisconsin, United States. For seventeen weeks students pursue a program of environmental studies and outdoor activities that are designed to deepen their love of nature, reinforce their commitment to conservation, and equip them to take meaningful action as environmental stewards.
Boston Schoolyard Initiative (BSI) is a public private partnership that works to transform the conditions of public schoolyards of Boston Public Schools. BSI, in collaboration with private funders, the City of Boston and Boston Public Schools, uses a community participatory design process to change neglected and unwelcome schoolyards into centers for active school and community use.
Carrie Murray Nature Center (CMNC) is operated by Baltimore City Recreation and Parks. CMNC offers environmental education programs for children, families, and adults as Baltimore City's only nature center. A native live animal collection, outdoor bird aviary, and indoor exhibits are features of the center, which is nestled in the expansive and historic Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, the largest urban forested park east of the Mississippi River.
NOVA International School Skopje is an independent, university-preparatory, coeducational, day school that offers an educational program from pre-kindergarten (three-year-olds) through grade 12.
Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center is an accredited school located in Finland, Minnesota that focuses on K–12 environmental education.
Learning space or learning setting refers to a physical setting for a learning environment, a place in which teaching and learning occur. The term is commonly used as a more definitive alternative to "classroom," but it may also refer to an indoor or outdoor location, either actual or virtual. Learning spaces are highly diverse in use, configuration, location, and educational institution. They support a variety of pedagogies, including quiet study, passive or active learning, kinesthetic or physical learning, vocational learning, experiential learning, and others. As the design of a learning space impacts the learning process, it is deemed important to design a learning space with the learning process in mind.
Hudson College is a co-educational, non-denominational private school for students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12. It is situated on a 4.5-acre campus in the former Earlscourt Junior Public School in central Toronto, Ontario.