UBC Lecturer Hartley Banack shares his passion for outdoor education, and explores why it is valuable for educators and students from a variety of disciplines.
An overnight trip, canoeing, hiking, and camping – just some of the activities that students can participate in during this summer’s Experiential Educational course, EDCP 323.
“The idea is really to help increase the amount of time spent outdoors for everyone.”
Open to anyone curious about outdoor learning – from formal educators to students across all faculties and disciplines – the programs aim to enhance connections to the natural world and will take place at the UBC Vancouver campus and Deas Island.
“The idea is really to help increase the amount of time spent outdoors for everyone – teachers and students – because we know that time spent outdoors is beneficial for our physical health, our mental health, and our social-emotional wellbeing,” said UBC Faculty of Education and outdoor education instructor Dr. Hartley Banack.
Dr. Banack, who has worked for over 10 years as an outdoor instructor administrator for organizations such as Easter Seals and Vancouver Adapted Snow Sports (VASS), is excited about the potential for community and place-based learning that the courses offer.
He emphasizes that EDCP 323 is valuable for both teachers in the K-12 school system and students from a variety of disciplines, or those working in other parts of the education centre such as summer camps and community centres. In the past, students from faculties such as Forestry, Geography, Land and Food Systems, and even Sauder School of Business have participated in the program and found resonance with it.
“EDCP 323 is valuable for both teachers in the K-12 school system and students from a variety of disciplines.”
“Folks might be looking at developing educational materials for the organizations that they work with, building community-based partnerships with people who are already involved, or looking at how this relates to sustainability – so there are a variety of ways that this makes sense,” he said.
EDCP 423 – which has EDCP 323 as a prerequisite – focuses more on how to develop, implement, assess, and revise outdoor experiential programs.
“The student responses have been very impactful, and I’m excited about that.”
With changing urban settings and understandings of the role that outdoor learning can have in society, these UBC courses deliver an opportunity to gain new skills and increase understandings of our relationship to the environment.
“I think the thing that’s most exciting is the resonance with students… what’s very exciting is the students’ response and engagement and often students who are sitting at desks for 3, 4, 12 years in a very traditional classroom will take a bit of time to shift and start feeling comfortable, but by the end of the course, the comments are ‘I know everybody in this class, I’ve really started to think differently about learning and education.’ So just the student responses have been very impactful, and I’m excited about that,” said Dr. Banack.
Register for Hart Banack’s upcoming Outdoor Education Summer Institute:
- EDCP 323, Outdoor Environmental Education – July 6-21, 2019