Nature provides a meaningful context for integrated science and literacy learning and contributes to student achievement on standardized tests

The purpose of this study was to explore how outdoor experiential learning can be used to integrate language arts and science curricula as a means by which to support student academic achievement in meeting and exceeding state academic content standards. Providing a case study of one third grade teacher in a rural school district in the United States, Eick investigated the following: (a) what motivates a teacher in a formal education setting to enhance their curriculum through nature-based learning; (b) what ways curriculum can be meaningfully enriched by nature-based activities; and (c) if outdoor experiences and nature-based learning enhances student learning and test performance.

This study involved 22 children in one third grade classroom and took place over the duration of one school term in 2009. Eick conducted an initial interview of the third grade teacher prior to the beginning of the study as well as after the study was completed, chronicled his experiences as a co-teacher/researcher and reviewed daily lesson plans and related documents of the teacher over the duration of the study. Of the 22 students involved in the study, 16 student Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) reports for reading proficiency were assessed in the spring of 2010 and compared to the third grade population of the school as a whole, the school system, and the state.

Results from the study revealed that student scores were above the statewide passing rate in 2010, equal to the school system's entire third grade, and slightly above the school's third grade as a whole.

Eick found that the teacher's childhood experiences in nature as well as value for nature were strong determinants of integrating nature-based learning into the curriculum. Further, Eick provided examples of instructional activities the teacher used to connect nature-based learning to science and language arts state curriculum standards. This study lends an additional point of reference in the growing body of evidence that nature-based learning can be integrated into formal education settings to enhance science and literacy learning, even in the context of high-stakes testing pressures.