Explorations in Ecology - by Peter Kindfield (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In a fragmented, industrialized world, Explorations in Ecology reconnects our children with the outdoors--where curiosity, confidence, and creativity grow.

How can parents and educators be better stewards of our children's growth and development in an unstable world? With decades of experience as a science educator in K-12, alternative schools, and homeschooling groups, Peter Kindfield shares a vision for childhood education that restores a sense of wonder and belonging in young people and shows adults how to dive into outdoor education with confidence. A tremendous resource for today's ecologically minded caregivers and educators, Explorations in Ecology is chock-full of engaging, playful, science-rich activities to help kids--and their adults--better understand the world and their essential role in it.

To these ends, the book will include:

• Activities that include permaculture gardening
• Gathering edible and medicinal plants
• Bushcraft skills like building fires and shelter
• And much more!

Also included, the reader will find educational suggestions for adults about how to support children engaging in the activities in each chapter and more generally about how to nurture educational environments and communities that support children learning and having transformative experiences while playing in forests, fields, and gardens.

In addition, science background about how ecosystems work as highly interdependent, regenerative systems is selected to give adults a clearer understanding of the ecological skills and concepts explored in each chapter's activities. Science topics covered include

• Systems theory
• The water and carbon cycles
• Photosynthesis
• The molecular kinetic theory of heat
• Soil composition
• Basic taxonomy
• Rocks and minerals
• Basics of ecological design and building.

This science material is also suitable for older children.

Review Quotes

"A leader in the new nature movement, Peter Kindfield offers an inspiring guide to science, play, and pure experience. Explorations in Ecology illuminates pathways to a healthier future for people and the planet. This book is both instructive and inspiring. It deserves to be in every classroom and on every family bookshelf."
--Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and Noticing

"It is one thing to believe, abstractly, that children learning to appreciate and enjoy the natural world is valuable both for the children and the future of humanity. It is quite another to provide a guide to help accomplish that. In Explorations in Ecology, Peter Kindfield has provided just such a guide, and it is a wonderful one indeed. Use it as inspiration for your own playful interactions with kids in the natural world, in ways that are fun and informative for you as well as the kids."
--Peter Gray, research professor, psychology and neuroscience, Boston College; author of Free to Learn and Restoring Childhood

"Peter Kindfield's excellent book is sure to help children grow a keen intelligence of the natural world in exactly the way we evolved to learn such things: by making the forest the classroom and adventure the lesson. Whether it's playing tag with trees or making friends with weeds, the activities in this book will prepare young Homo sapiens for a successful lifetime as knowledgeable, wise, 'beneficial organisms' with a love of nature and learning."
--Michael Hoag, founder, Transformative Adventures; author of The Key to Abundance and Beautiful, Abundant Food Forests

"A wonderfully generative book, filled with insight built on deep experience. Here are activities, ideas, and ways of being that put us into right relationship with the living world as we teach and learn. Integrating practical advice and reframed viewpoints, Kindfield offers a generous and fruitful vision for education."
--David George Haskell, author of How Flowers Made Our World

"Kindfield understands something that many science resources for children overlook: Children have a great capacity to understand serious science, and adults need scientific grounding too. Explorations in Ecology is not simply a collection of outdoor activities. Everything in the book is anchored in a coherent understanding of ecology, pairing hands-on activity offerings with a thoughtful discussion of the adult's role. Kindfield's explanations do not flatten complex ideas into child-sized facts. Children need knowledge, but they also need a framework that allows facts to connect and matter. Here, ecology provides that framework. Explorations in Ecology is a resource that adults can return to as children grow and as their shared understanding of the natural world deepens."
--Blair Lee, MS, scientist and science curriculum developer; founder, SEA Homeschoolers

"In Explorations in Ecology, Peter Kindfield beautifully captures the essential roadmap for raising the next generations of Earth stewards through four luminous pillars in outdoor education: 1) learning through joyful play; 2) sensory activities that build self-reliance; 3) teaching interdependence through enacting ecological principles; and 4) carrying a mindset of kinship with nature. The book vividly demonstrates that when children find deep personal significance and active empathy in ecosystems, they move from being mere visitors to lifelong members of the natural world. This is an indispensable guide for educators and parents dedicated to sealing the bond between children and our planet."
--M. Kat Anderson, author of I Sing to the Earth and She Sings Back and Tending the Wild

"Many young people today are maturing in a context of ecological, economic, and cultural breakdown. Paradigms of nature-rootedness, collaboration, and interdependence--and the associated practical skills--will be essential attributes as we together build the sequels to this destructive era. And Peter Kindfield is the most wonderful of guides in playing our way to a better future."
--Shaun Chamberlin, founder, Dark Optimism and the SurvivingTheFuture.org community

About the Author

Peter Kindfield has an MA in Child Development and a PhD in Science Education from UC Berkeley and is certified in Permaculture Design. He's been a professional educator for over forty years working as a public school teacher and classroom researcher, a lead science staff developer and science coordinator for the NYC Public Schools, a professor of science education for undergraduate and graduate-level courses, and a K-12 teacher and principal of The Farm School in Summertown, TN. Currently, he offers nature-based science classes for children ages 5-14, teaching ecology and nature skills through outdoor play--both a homeschool and after-school program. He also offers consulting services on all aspects of designing and implementing outdoor learning environments, speaks at conferences about nature education, and coordinates The Deep Adaptation Educators group; the Deep Adaptation Forum is a global social network with over 17,000 members committed to responding to the collapse of our eco- and social systems with love.