a minimal budget with just one volunteer, Jon had the program
up and running by June. Christened the Bioregional Outdoor
Education Project (or BOEP), the program set out to “promote
understanding of the Colorado Plateau through interdisciplinary,
experiential curricula through a roving teacher education and
mentoring delivery system.” That summer, schools from Arizona,
New Mexico and Colorado enlisted teachers to participate in a
ten-day intensive training in outdoor education methodology. The
following autumn, Utah joined in.
Teachers who were accustomed to cinderblock walls decorat-
ed by looming clocks were suddenly playing among the Pinyon
Pines and journaling under the Junipers. In their dim classrooms,
they too longed for something more genuine and engaging. The
BOEP validated their own love of their place. A compelling part-
nership between Four Corners School and teachers had begun.
The Bridge Between Vision and Reality
Julianne explores ethnobotany Photo by Deanna Erickson
After delving into the methodology of outdoor education
through the Summer Institute, a 6-day intensive field training
teaching under her belt, and created an outdoor classroom for
held primarily outdoors, teachers land back in their classrooms,
middle school students in Farmington where she lives. She’s been
ensnared in the task of transferring their newfound enthusiasm
in the classroom teacher’s shoes, and uses her own experience as a
to a classroom full of children, laced with parental and adminis-
powerful example.
trative pressures. Enter the Regional Coordinators, the mentor-
ing component of the “roving teacher education and mentoring
More than play, better than work
delivery system” referred to earlier.
Jean Eardley teaches fifth grade in Moab, Utah and is a Bio-
In 2004, after years of piecing together teacher trainings on
regional Outdoor Educator. On a bright crisp day, she walks her
a shoestring budget, Jon and Janet sat down and created the pro-
classroom three blocks across town to test the water in a creek
gram of their dreams on paper. The vision became a National Sci-
that they have come to know as a friend. The students have
ence Foundation grant proposal that received full funding for four
crouched in the dense brush, explored the winding footpaths,
years. This allowed the program and visited after a flood to find
to pay teachers to participate, everything changed. “Teaching
offered them college credit for outdoors is important because
their work and to helped them it provides real hands-on ex-
purchase outdoor education periences that connect the ab-
resource centers for their class- stract content of the classroom
rooms. Additionally, it allowed to a shared concrete experi-
Jon to hire a Regional Coordina- ence. It is a way of getting stu-
tor in each of the four states. dents to ask questions which
Hired for their expertise
will hopefully lead them to
in outdoor education, most
want to know more. It creates
of the Regional Coordinators
an authentic learning environ-
come equipped with a Master’s
ment where books become a
degree, classroom teaching
resource that the students want
experience and years of field
to use, where writing becomes
experience. More importantly,
a way of expressing an experi-
they have an ability to encourage
ence they are anxious to share”
and inspire. They are the voice
says Eardley.
of experience that is there, for
On the Navajo Nation,
bi-monthly individual meet-
Marcella Van Cleve is a school
Jean’s Literacy Lesson Photo by Deanna Erickson
ings, to help the teachers build
counselor, Girl Scout troop
inroads for outdoor education in
leader, and dorm mother who
their schools. Even when a busy principal doesn’t have the time to
sometimes doubles as school secretary at the Pueblo Pintado
provide a teacher with an evaluation, the Regional Coordinator is
boarding school. She enrolled in the Bioregional Outdoor Educa-
there to offer feedback, observing outdoor lessons throughout the
tion Project partially because she believes it’s culturally relevant
school year. “The greatest challenge is helping them realize that
to her students. “The students I work with live in a very isolated
they do not need completely new lessons, they just need to modi-
part of New Mexico. I feel they identify with the culture, lifestyle
fy the things they are already doing to make it relevant to place or
and language they are surrounded by. They know this is their
culture or local animals and plants,” says Becky Kerr, the Regional
place” she says. On the largest indigenous nation in the U.S.,
Coordinator for New Mexico. Becky has thirteen years of science
students have much to learn from the land they walk on.
(continued on next page)
Clearing - 2009 Compendium Edition http://www.clearingmagazine.org Page 37
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