Natural Learning Initiative Research and Projects Located withing the N.C. State University School of Design, the NLI provides research, technical assistance and case studies on natural outdoor playspaces.
Significant Life Experiences: A New Research Area in Environmental EducationThomas Tanner (1980)
This often-cited study provides evidence that those in conservation-related careers had positive, frequent experiences in nature. Tanner suggests that effective EE that gets children outside is essential to a sustainable future.
Coping with ADD: The surprising connection to green play settings.Faber Taylor, A., Kuo, F.E., & Sullivan, W.C. (2001) Environment and Behavior, 33(1), 54-77. (Scroll down to the bottom for access to the paper--download is free but they do ask that you tell them your organization and purpose for downloading.)
Why Conservationists Should Heed PokémonBalmford, Clegg, Coulson and Taylor (2002)
Survey of UK School Children revealed they could identify more "species" of Pokémon charaters than species of native UK wildlife.
eeResearch Organizations
National Environmental Education Foundation The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) is a non-profit organization that advances environmental education through learning-oriented solutions to environmental problems.
Natural Learning Initiative
The NLI is a Research and Design Assistance Program of the College of Design at North Carolina State University. Its mission is to help communities create stimulating places for play, learning, and environmental education.
Landscape and Human Health Laboratory The LHHL at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a multidisciplinary research laboratory dedicated to studying the connection between greenery and human health.
The Children & Nature Network "Research & Studies" C&NN has set out to compile a premier set of research studies to help us all understand the connection between nature and the healthy development of children.
Several studies have shown that environmental education and outdoor experiences can improve student learning and behavior and help students with learning disabilities. Time spent outdoors benefits adults in similar ways. This page provides information and peer-reviewed studies on these topics for use in articles, grant-writing or other research.
Writing an article, grant or position paper on environmental education or the benefits of outdoor experiences? There's a wealth of information out there to pull from, but citing peer-reviewed research backs up your statements and is essential to making a good argument.
To find research and data you can use, see the eeResearch Studies block and keep a check on or subscribe to eeResearch News. Also, here are two sources of ready-to-use statistics:
The Children and Nature Network has published Children’s Nature Deficit: What We Know – and Don’t Know (compiled by by Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., and Richard Louv) which provides statistics and references to numerous recent studies and research.
NTT has combed the studies on the Children & Nature Network research pages and lists brief quotes from several cited sources. You can find the referenced studies on the C&NN Annotated Bibliography page.
Age Appropriate
One of the hallmarks of quality environmental education is content that is age and developmentally appropriate for the audience. David Sobel of Antioch University New England is widely respected for his work in this area, which is addressed in the first article exerpt and video. We've also included some other articles and opinion pieces that address this important topic.
Save The Elephants: Don’t Buy Ivory Soap This thought-provoking piece by Katie Slivovsky was orginally presented at the 2001 AZA Docents Conference, and also appeared in the "My Turn" section of NewsWeek in 2004. It addresses many of the issues surrounding age-appropriate EE.
Stuart Brown says play is more than fun
Dr. Stuart Brown argues that plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults. And it's good for adults as well. Video from TED Talks, filmed in 2008 at the Art Center for Design Conference "Serious Play," Pasadena, CA.
