June 9th, 2025

Developing a Sense of Place through Nature Journaling in School Gardens

By Julia K. Davis and Eileen G. Merritt

Link to the JSE May 2025 General Issue Table of Contents

Link to Article PDF

 

Abstract: Nature journaling creates an opportunity for students to observe, wonder about and reflect on the natural world and their place in it. We explored student experiences of nature journaling in third and sixth grade elementary classrooms in a Title I elementary school located in the desert southwest. Data sources included student interviews and their journals. Through a thematic analysis, we identified several benefits of nature journaling. We found that students appreciated freedom of movement, spaciousness and awakening of their senses when learning outdoors. They described positive emotions when reflecting on their journaling experiences and conveyed a strong sense of place about their gardens. Their journal entries demonstrated evidence that some students were developing systems thinking (understandings about organisms and abiotic factors of ecosystems, relationships, and change over time). This study extends prior literature on nature journaling in K-12 settings by interviewing students from four classes about how they feel about nature journaling in addition to analyzing their journals.

Keywords: school gardens, nature journaling, environmental education, sense of place, systems thinking, sustainability education

 

The climate crisis necessitates that schools shift toward a transformative education that prepares children and youth to care for the earth they will inherit. Sustainability education can be transformative when it is holistic, utilizes methods and pedagogies from a variety of disciplines and emphasizes learned-centered strategies (Nolet, 2015). A holistic approach to education balances different dimensions of children’s development (e.g., intellectual, emotional, physical, social, spiritual and aesthetic) and fosters relationships between children and other people as well as more than human beings (Nolet, 2015; Mahmoudi et al., 2012). Rachel Carson drew attention to the importance of first-hand experiences with nature to connect students with the places and organisms around them, and cultivate a sense of wonder (1965). Outdoor experiences provide opportunities for engaging multiple senses, allowing for “fully embodied participation in the smells, tastes, sensations, sights, and sounds of one’s life-world” (Bell, 1997, p. 132). Nature journaling is a holistic interdisciplinary task that gets children outdoors learning about ecosystems.

 

Nature Journaling

Leslie and Roth define nature journaling as “the regular recording of observations, perceptions, and feelings about the natural world around you … the purpose of nature journaling is to study where you live and how you relate to it” (2003, p. 5). Laws and Lygren (2020) suggest that nature journals can be used to cultivate creativity, critical thinking skills, observation skills, curiosity, awe and wonder and nurture connection with nature. When used with groups of students, nature journaling is usually structured with a prompt or guiding question and time for participants to observe, write, and draw.

A few studies have found positive benefits of nature journaling for students in grades K-12. Nature journaling can enhance children’s descriptive writing and observation skills  (McMillan & Wilhelm, 2007); increase students’ depth of understanding about ecosystems (Cornell & Ivey, 2012), lead to more positive attitudes towards nature (Arbor & Matteson, 2024; Hu, 2022; McMillan & Wilhelm, 2007) and enhance well-being (Arbor & Matteson, 2024). A Canadian kindergarten teacher described her nature journaling process with students and suggested that nature journaling is a holistic, experiential pedagogy that can promote sensory engagement, relationship building and interdisciplinary connections (Hu, 2022). A sixth-grade science teacher described nature journaling activities conducted with students, and reported on results of an action research study. The quality of students’ journal entries and knowledge about the environment increased throughout the project (Cornell & Ivey, 2012). More evidence is needed that explores the myriad of benefits of nature journaling in different grades and contexts. This qualitative study, conducted at an elementary school in the desert southwest, explores third and sixth grade student’s experiences while nature journaling in school gardens.

 

Biophilia

Nature journaling can tap into children’s inherent affinity for animals and plants (Collado, Íñiguez-Rueda & Corraliza, 2015). Humans have a biophilic tendency, an “inherent inclination to affiliate with the natural world instrumental to people’s physical and mental health, productivity and well-being” (Kellert, 2012, p. xiii; Kellert & Wilson, 1993; Wilson, 1984). Biophilia can be experienced as an attraction to the beautiful elements of nature, a desire to know and intellectually comprehend the world, an affection or emotional attachment to nature, or through creation of symbolic representations of nature through imagery and language (Kellert, 2012). Biophilia may be evident when children show a sense of wonder about the natural world and living organisms (Carson, 1965). Biophilic tendencies are mediated by other factors, such as elements of the landscape and childhood experiences (Cajete, 1999; Carson, 1965; Kellert, 2005; Lindemann-Matthies, 2005). Teachers can plan instruction that intentionally utilizes biophilic designs in school yards to nurture a love of living things (Kellert, 2008; Cole, 2018; Scott-Webber, 2019).

 

Sense of Place

Children can make meaning of the places they inhabit and develop emotional connections when they take time to pause, observe and reflect in these places. These experiences can help foster a sense of place, a concept explored in human geography by Relph (1976, 1997), in place-based education by Smith & Sobel (2014), and child development and place-making by Chawla (1992). A sense of place has two key components: place attachment and place meaning (e.g. Farnum et al., 2005; Semken, 2005; Stokowski, 2002). Place attachment is an individual’s bond or a sense of belonging with a specific setting or landscape, and may be conveyed as biophilia in natural settings. Place attachment can be a predictor of environmentally responsible behavior (Vaske & Kobrin, 2001) and psychological well-being (Scannell & Gifford, 2017). Place meaning can be described as the “symbolic meanings that people ascribe to settings” (Kudryavtsev et al. 2012, p. 233). These meanings can be comprised of many dimensions such as social, cultural, historical, economic, esthetic, political or ecological components (Ardoin, 2006; Leopold, 1949). The development of an ecological place meaning, or the extent to which ecosystem-related phenomena such as natural habitats and objects are valued characteristics of places, may also contribute to pro-environmental behaviors or decisions, particularly in urban areas (Russ et al., 2015).

How might educators help nurture both valuing of and understanding of ecological places? Kudryavtsev et al. (2012) suggested that a combination of experiential and instructional approaches is needed. An experiential approach is based on the idea that place meanings emanate from experiences in particular places (Relph, 2007), while in an instructional approach, an educator utilizes discussion, media, art, and other indirect ways to strengthen place attachment and convey new place meanings. Nature journaling in school gardens is both an experiential and instructional learning experience; students spend time outdoors actively experiencing nature in their school garden while capturing their observations through writing, drawing, and discussion.

 

School Gardens

Nature journaling can be done in a variety of places, from backyards to city streets to national parks. School gardens are a unique place for nature journaling because students can spend time exploring ecosystems while also learning how to care for plant and animal life at their school. These places occupy a space between the classroom and the outside world. Cutter-Mackenzie (2009) conducted a study of children’s experiences in school gardens that were planted in under-resourced schools, and found that many of the students were able to practice English while in the garden, that the gardens gave the students time for “slowing down,” and they became spaces for everyday conversations between students, families, and teachers that helped to form a sense of community at the school. Many other studies have showed the potential for rich learning in school gardens (Berezowitz et al., 2015; Ozer, 2007; Williams & Dixon, 2013).

 

Systems and Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is a critical element of sustainability education beginning in early childhood and continuing through higher education and beyond (Keynan et al., 2014; National Research Council, 2012; Nolet, 2015; Sterling, 2001; Warren et al., 2014). Systems thinking provides a unique foundation to approach solving complex, interdisciplinary challenges in our socially and ecologically dynamic world (Voulvoulis et al., 2022). School gardens provide opportunities for students to learn about ecological systems through direct experiences with biotic and abiotic factors, observing their features, functions and interactions—three key elements of systems (Meadows, 2008).

How might these understandings develop over time? The Framework for K-12 Science Education in the United States outlines disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering skills that students in the United States should learn throughout their schooling (National Research Council, 2012). Systems and System Models is one of seven crosscutting concepts which must be scaffolded over time to develop deeper understanding. A suggested learning progression for Systems and System Models was outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013b). In grades K-2, students learn that objects and organisms can be described in terms of their parts, and systems in the natural and designed world have parts that work together. By the end of fifth grade,  students should understand that a system is a group or related parts that make up a whole and can carry out functions its individual parts cannot. Also, a system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions. In grades 6–8, students begin to model systems and to consider how systems may interact with other systems. This is the time when systems thinking begins to develop as they consider interactions between rather than within a system. Schoolyards and gardens are places where human and natural systems intersect, creating rich opportunities systems thinking practices to emerge.

 

Present Study

In this study, we collaborated with four teachers and their students as they participated in weekly nature journaling. The following research questions guided our study:

1. What do students experience and learn while nature journaling in school gardens?
   1. What do they appreciate about nature journaling?
   2. How did students characterize their sense of place in their school gardens?
   3. What understandings about ecosystems were conveyed in their journals?

 

Methods

Study Context

Our study was conducted at a PK-8 elementary school in the desert Southwest. The school is a public, Title I school with five gardens and a variety of green spaces on their campus. Fifty-two percent of students are economically disadvantaged, 52% White, 36% Hispanic 5% African American, 4% American Indian and 2% Asian. The bountiful and lovely gardens outside each grade level are cultivated and maintained by dedicated volunteers with help from staff and students (see Figures 1 and 2).

 

 

Our team had worked with educators at this school previously, and wanted to find a way to engage the students more actively in the garden space. We co-developed the plan for a nature journaling program with one of the master gardeners. The principal invited two third-grade and two sixth-grade classes to pilot the program. Prior to collecting data, the second author met with the teachers a few times to provide them with nature journaling resources and effective practices. Both authors attended nature journaling sessions to observe and support the teachers and students. The nature journaling initiative began in late January and continued through May of 2019.

During the study the teachers were encouraged to take their students outside to the gardens once a week for ten weeks to journal for 20–30 minutes. Each class journaled 8–14 times throughout the study.  We purposefully encouraged teachers to be very open and flexible with their prompts and classroom nature journaling norms, using their own knowledge of their students and curriculum to guide their work. For example, every year the school releases ladybugs into the garden. This was the first year the students were asked to nature journal about the experience. The students were asked to name their ladybug and describe where they wanted to release it and why they chose that location.

 

Nature Journals 

Student work in their journals was reflective of the prompts provided by their teachers, which required a review of these prompts in comparison to definitions of nature journaling. Teachers were given some guidance on journal prompts, but were encouraged to design prompts that aligned with their learning goals and curriculum. We found that some prompts aligned with traditional definitions of nature journaling while others were about related topics, such as cooking or sustainability. We developed the following definition of nature journaling in school settings, based on Leslie & Roth’s (2003) conceptualization of nature journaling and our experiences while nature journaling with the students:

Nature journaling is capturing what you notice, observe, think and feel about the world around you through writing and drawing while spending time in nature. The world around you is what you experience with your senses and emotions, and nature is an outdoor space or place that is full of life.

Thus, nature journaling should be about capturing the world around you while spending time in nature. After reviewing all journal prompts and entries, we determined which prompts fit the above definition and included them in the analyses (see Table 1). Students participated in 8–14 prompts total per class throughout the study and 5–8 prompts per class were included in this analysis.

 

 

Data Collection

We utilized a child-centered approach to understanding student experiences, examining their experiences firsthand through interviews and journal analyses. Our aim was to value their voices in our research process (Morgan et al., 2002; Tillman et al., 2019).  This study was approved by the Arizona State University Institutional Review Board (HRP-503a). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 students and 52 nature journals were photographed.

Prior to the start of the study, we presented the research questions and process with each class in a developmentally appropriate manner. Printed parental consent and child assent forms were then shared with each student to take home for review. Forms were translated into Spanish for students whose primary language spoken at home is Spanish. Parents and students were made aware that nature journaling would be a part of class activities regardless of study participation and if a student (or parent) did not wish (their child) to participate in the study it would not affect their grades. We obtained consent from 29/35 (82.86%) third-grade students and 27/43 (62.79%) sixth-grade students in the four classes that participated in our study. The remaining students did not return their signed parental consent and/or personal assent forms.

Interviews were conducted during class nature journaling sessions, using a semi-structured interview protocol with questions focused on children’s experiences with nature journaling. Prior to each interview, a brief reminder of the research study was shared with the student, and we asked them to confirm that they were still willing to participate and share their thoughts about nature journaling. Before photographing journals, we asked the students again if they were comfortable with us looking at and photographing their nature journals, then took photos of the journals. Students were told that if there was a certain page they did not want us to see that they could fold it over and we would not look at it. This was done in addition to the initial consent and assent to ensure students felt comfortable sharing their journals as part of a research study.

 

Data Analyses

Below, we describe our analytic process for each data source. Thematic analyses were used to analyze interview transcripts and student journal excerpts (Braun et al. 2018; Nowell et al. 2017).

Interview transcripts were uploaded and analyzed in Dedoose, a cloud-based software. Data was reviewed iteratively and discussed until we reached saturation, with the goal of “fully understanding the participants’ perspectives” (Legard et al., 2003, p. 152). First, we developed a preliminary codebook of deductive codes and sub-codes based on concepts from the theoretical framework and literature review. In our initial round of coding, both authors open coded four interview transcripts by hand, then discussed codes and definitions, adding inductive codes that emerged. In this round of coding, we added a code for biophilia (Kellert & Wilson 1993). Our codes for systems thinking were guided by prior research on systems thinking (Assaraf & Orion 2005; Keynan et al. 2014; NGSS Lead States, 2013b). After three rounds of coding and discussion, we came to agreement on the themes described below.

Photos of each page of consented nature journals were printed for analysis. Written text and drawings were both included in the analysis. We went through several rounds of data review. First, both authors open-coded four complete journals, discussed and agreed on themes. Next, the first author open-coded four additional journals, two per class and considered the application of initial codes and themes. After discussing the data and emerging themes, a codebook was developed to guide coding of physical copies of the journal pages by hand. All journals were coded by hand by the first author, then we met to reflect and develop an updated codebook using both inductive and deductive codes. Since nature journals included student drawings and handwriting, codes were summarized in a spreadsheet. We then developed code summaries for each class, which were used to guide the writing of the findings.

 

Findings

Feelings about Nature Journaling in the Garden

During the interviews, students were asked: How does nature journaling make you feel? And how does nature journaling make you feel about your school garden? Students appreciated just being outside when writing, and conveyed a lot of different positive emotions.

 

Just Being Outside (movement, awakening the senses and spaciousness)

Many students mentioned that they just appreciated being outdoors when writing, since they can move, experience things through their senses and have space. One student described their experience as calm and relaxed, “I just like getting outside… and taking a little break and refocusing myself… just being able to walk around outside and just looking at nature and the food that is actually growing outside.” Another student appreciated the sounds in nature: “usually in the classroom, it’s a bunch of chatting and talking. Out here, it’s very quiet, and you get to hear the birds chirping or buzzing.” A similar sentiment was conveyed by this student: “Well, I feel like I’m more productive when I’m out in the garden because, it sounds strange but because I like the sounds of the leaves ruffling around me.”

A sixth-grade student conveyed being glad to be outdoors and learn through experience:

“I think that every school should do it. Like I said, it helps you get out of the classroom, helps you learn things, and helps you experience things… being able to touch, feel, taste things outside of your classroom.”

A few students mentioned appreciating the spaciousness of working outdoors. For example, one said, “In the outdoors it’s more peaceful, we’re quiet in both places right, but you get to pick your own spot, you get to spread out, and you’re not next to your partners all smooshed in.”

 

Positive Emotions

Students expressed feeling happy, good, peaceful, relaxed, calm, inspired and appreciative while nature journaling in their school garden. Table 2 shows how many times the students used these words to describe their emotions in their interviews. Third and sixth-grade students voiced feeling good, calm, happy, and inspired similar numbers of times. Only third-grade students described feeling appreciative, while only sixth-grade students described the garden as relaxing. One sixth-grade student stated, “… it makes me stress free, it makes me feel like I’m a bird, like I can just go anywhere I want…”.

Another student conveyed that they felt better after writing in their journal because they were able to express how they feel. There were only a few instances of negative emotions. These negative experiences were related to heat, bugs (e.g. being scared of bees), space, and time.

 

Sense of Place Conveyed through Interviews

Students described their developing sense of place in their interviews. Their place attachment was described through their feelings of biophilia, the students’ innate connection and affiliation to nature, and through the emotions they shared about the garden during their interviews. When describing place meaning related to the garden, students included what they noticed, their sensory experiences, and elements of systems thinking.

 

Place Attachment

A majority of the students mentioned feeling a strong connection to nature and their school garden, which we interpreted as an expression of biophilia. Students typically described enjoying the plants, seeing the different colors in the garden, and being in awe of the garden’s beauty. When asked how they feel while they are in the garden, one third-grade student wrote:

“When I am outside I feel comfortable and happy. When I am outside I feel peaceful because I like all the colors and shades of green…when I am in class doing my work it feels good just knowing I have a big and beautiful garden outside my classroom.”

One sixth-grade student conveyed a strong attachment to the garden space:

“You get inspired out here…you see things, you like them and you write about them…different than your usual surroundings in the classroom, you’re used to everything, you don’t usually find anything different…but when you’re in nature, everything is always changing…plants are always growing, the wind is always blowing, it’s just gorgeous and I think that it’s really inspiring.”

Another student articulated a stronger connection to the garden than to their school and classroom:  “I’ve only been here for a year; I still don’t know my classroom very well. I’m not comfortable with this school yet. But you know what I am comfortable with? My garden.” Similarly, a third grade student described that when they first visited the school, “my first impressions were this garden.”

 

Place Meaning

Students described what the garden meant to them in a variety of ways. During their interviews, students discussed what they noticed, their sensory experiences, and their emerging understandings about ecosystems. A third-grade student shared an example of both place attachment and place meaning when asked to tell us about their school garden:

“…it’s just really beautiful because there’s a lot of trees and there’s fruits and vegetables and cabbage. And it has a lot of scent to it.”

Many of the students told us about similar experiences. Students would point out their favorite plants and spaces in the garden, note the colors and textures of plants, and even describe how they enjoy seeing how the “sun shines over nature.” One student described a flower as a “face flower” because the flower looks like it has eyes and a mustache. Another student described liking a specific type of flower because its polka dots look like a galaxy. Instances of noticing sometimes occurred with instances of biophilia and systems thinking, likely when students began connecting the details of the garden to ecological processes.

Sensory experiences were described by just over half of the students. These included instances such as enjoying the different scents of plants, hearing the breeze “rustle through leaves”, tasting kumquats and other edible plants, and feeling the sunshine and wind. One student in a third-grade class described nature journaling on a foggy day. They shared how it was a “very special day” because it felt like they were “in a cloud,” a rare sensory experience for students in Arizona.

 

Sense of Place Conveyed through Journaling

Students’ journal entries provided further evidence of their developing sense of place. Students’ sense of place was evident in the journals of three of the four classes that participated in our study. Similar to their interviews, they used emotions to convey place attachment and descriptive language to convey place meaning. Due to the open-endedness of journaling, they often combined place attachment and meaning in their statements and drawings. The students in one of the third-grade classes wrote broadly about how much they liked the colors and plants in the garden, especially flowers.

Students in one sixth-grade class discussed specific places they liked to sit in the garden, a prompt provided by their teacher. Many students discussed how they liked being in the garden because it is peaceful, shady, and they like being around the plants. Students in the other sixth-grade class also discussed specific places they were attached to in the garden, such as the “pomegranate circle” in the middle of the garden directly outside their classroom.

Many of the student’s written responses and drawings conveyed biophilia. When asked to discuss their favorite place in the garden, a sixth-grade student wrote the following about her love of the plants and animals in the garden:

 “I don’t really have a favorite place, but I like to sit next to the strawberries, peppers, and the plants where the caterpillars are and the ladybugs are. I love ladybugs and caterpillars, they’re so cute! I like sitting next to the strawberries because I like how they turn out, I like seeing how they are doing, I just like strawberries…”

A third-grader shared similar experiences of biophilia related to the fig tree directly outside of their classroom. When asked to observe how the fig tree has changed over time, the student wrote: “This tree is my favorite tree in the whole garden and it is so pretty to look at and fun to fan yourself with its big leaves.”

 

Evidence of Systems Thinking

Three elements of systems thinking were most evident: a) a focus on individual organisms and abiotic factors, b) relationships and c) change over time.

 

Organisms and Abiotic Factors 

The majority of students described only living organisms in the garden, such as leaves, flowers, bees, and birds. The third-grade students most often described and drew leaves and flowers while the sixth-grade students most often described fruit trees and birds. These observations reflect the type of gardens directly outside the classrooms of the different grade levels and the types of prompts provided by their teachers. Third-grade students included details like color, texture, shape, size, smell, leaf veins, flower petals and flower reproductive parts in their drawings of leaves and flowers. They often labeled the plants and flowers with the correct common name. In Figure 3, this student used a variety of different adjectives to describe each leaf observed, such as “The green and brown, smooth and tall, thin leaf” at the top of the page.

Abiotic factors were less frequently the focus of journal prompts and entries. However, one sixth-grade class spent a nature journaling session observing clouds. These students drew what they saw in the sky and identified the type of cloud they saw based on the details from their drawing (see Figure 4). Third graders’ journaling about fog also focused on abiotic factors of their ecosystem (Figure 5).

 

 

Relationships 

Students wrote or drew about many different relationships in the garden. Typically, these relationships were between plants and animals. For example, this student described the relationship between bees, flowers and honey, “I like the garden because there’s bees, and I like when the bees are around because bees spread the pollen and then that’s how we get honey.”

When writing about the release of their ladybugs into the garden, many sixth grade students wrote about relationships between organisms and with abiotic factors. For example, they selected shady places with plants that would be watered often so the ladybug would be able to eat and drink safely. A few students wrote about how ladybugs are natural pesticides, and one student chose a tree in the garden that needed a “hero” to rescue it from the bugs eating the leaves (see Figure 6). 

 

Change over Time

While many students described and drew static organisms in their nature journals, several students wrote and drew about plant life cycles. Students described leaves changing color and falling and flowers growing and dying. They connected these observations to seasons and weather, such as how rain makes plants grow. Often when students wrote about relationships between biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem, there was an element of change mentioned. For example, one student said, “today in the garden it is raining… the garden it will grow because it gets water and grows. and then the flowers look prettier.” Another student wrote about how plants react to the weather, stating, “when it’s really hot, some of the plants die, and some of them grow even more.” 

 

Discussion

Nature journaling is emerging as a promising practice in schools (e.g., Angle, 2022; Arbor & Matteson, 2024; Beardsley & Jung, 2024; Laws & Lygren, 2020). However, more evidence is needed with students of different ages to understand how they benefit from and feel about participation. We found that third and sixth grade students who journaled weekly over the course of three months enjoyed writing and learning outdoors, conveyed many positive emotions about their experiences, developed a sense of place in their school gardens, and showed evidence of emergent systems thinking when they spent time there writing, drawing and reflecting. While other nature journaling studies have focused on the perspective of educators facilitating nature journaling with a single class (Arnold, 2012; Beardsley & Jung, 2024; Cornell & Ivey, 2012; Hu, 2022; McMillan & Wilhelm, 2007; Warkentin, 2011), our study elicited the perspectives of elementary school students from four different classes and two different grade levels. This study extends the literature on students’ sense of place by characterizing how elementary children felt (place attachment) and what they came to understand (place meaning) about their school gardens through participation in nature journaling (Kudryavtsev et al., 2012). Our results echoed findings from other studies that showed that positive feelings about nature (Hu, 2022), descriptive writing skills (McMillan & Wilhelm, 2017), understandings about ecosystems (Cornell & Ivey, 2017) and positive well-being (Arbor & Matteson, 2024) can be fostered through nature journaling experiences. Cornell and Ivey (2012) suggested the importance of drawing explicit attention to abiotic factors when journaling. The prompts related to fog and clouds are nice examples of this, although a further step would be to explicitly ask students consider how the abiotic factors interact with living organisms.

 

Fostering a Sense of Place

Nature journaling is an effective way to help students develop a sense of place — if we want them to care about nature, or even just their school campus, we need to provide time for them to be outside to wonder, observe, and experience those places. This aligns with some of the goals for nature journaling conveyed by Hu (2022), Leslie & Roth (2000) and Laws & Lygren (2020)

Many of the student responses conveyed ecological place meaning in that they clearly valued the organisms and habitats within the various gardens around their campus (Kudryavtsev, 2012; Russ et al., 2015). The students felt very attached to the garden and found meaning in a variety of different ways. Some students described biophilia and positive emotions in how they felt drawn to the beauty of the garden and its bright colors. Other students enjoyed observing different types of plants using their senses and noticing how plants and flowers grow and change over time. Rachel Carson (1965) suggested that positive emotions and impressions of the senses are the fertile soil that sparks curiosity and interest in learning about the nature world. Their feelings about the garden spaces created and cared for by community members convey the importance of school gardens and biophilic design (Kellert, 2012; Scott-Weber, 2019). The beautiful setting at this school is a goal to aspire to for other schools and community groups. Without so much color and life surrounding their classrooms, students may not have been as engaged or joyful when nature journaling.

 

Understanding Ecosystems in Early Grades

Systems thinking is especially important for understanding sustainability issues and working on effective solutions (Nolet, 2015; Sterling, 2001). For states that aspire to the Next Generation Science Standards, third-graders learn that systems are made of component parts that interact with one another and sixth-graders learn that systems are connected to other systems (NGSS Lead States, 2013a). When students were prompted to write and draw about nature in their school garden they were primarily attuned to individual organisms and noted some simple relationships. However, they rarely considered how different parts of the garden system or how systems within the garden are connected. The students were not explicitly instructed to write about systems. However, the idea that nothing in nature exists on its own is an integral part of environmental and sustainability learning. Our world is full of complex, dynamic systems.

The focus on individual organisms is a beginning step towards more complex thinking about ecosystems. These students spent little time in their garden before participating in the nature journaling initiative. Nature journaling was likely the first time many of the students were prompted to sit, observe, wonder and draw about what they see, hear, smell, touch and sometimes taste in the garden. The students were able to notice and capture intricate details of garden organisms that many adults may miss in their own backyards today. With this intimate knowledge of the organisms in the garden and teacher scaffolding, students in upper grades can build upon their organism-level observations and extend their knowledge to ecosystems and other systems that influence their beloved ecosystems.

 

Limitations

This paper is an exploratory study of one school in a specific context. Other studies in different bioregions and school settings are needed to extend and replicate some of our findings. We did not compare early journal entries to those completed after many weeks, so we cannot be sure that journaling experiences changed their skills and knowledge. However, the teachers we worked with commented on students’ improvements and their motivation to write when outdoors, and the students reflected on their engagement and learning as well.

 

Implications for Educators 

We hope that more educators will consider integrating nature journaling into their existing curriculum, leveraging outdoor spaces, and especially school gardens, for interdisciplinary learning. We suggest that nature journaling experiences should be included as regular practice throughout elementary and middle school years, moving from simple observations and descriptive writing in elementary years to more advanced systems thinking and critical thinking about their relationship and interactions with the natural world in secondary school.

Teachers in our study often included prompts that helped students reflect on their own emotions and experiences, using prompts such as: Describe how you feel when you are in the garden (third grade), and “Draw a picture of something in the garden that matters to you, then write about why it matters to you.” The teachers who designed these prompts intuited that nature journaling was meaningful for children beyond just as a place to learn science concepts and gardening skills. These types of journaling experiences are suggested by Leslie and Roth (2000) as well as Laws and Lygren (2020). If educators integrate nature journaling on a regular basis, there should be time and space for many types of experiences such as creative writing, reflecting on their emotions as well as scientific observations. More guidance on how teachers facilitated their weekly nature journaling in this study can be found here: https://ascd.org/blogs/get-students-writing-outdoors.

Many educational interventions are expensive and require extensive professional development to support teachers. Nature journaling is holistic, interdisciplinary, and requires minimal tools (e.g. rulers, magnifying lenses, binoculars). Professional development is affordable through books and videos that are freely available (https://johnmuirlaws.com/nature-journaling-starting-growing/). Laws and Lygren (2020) provide guidance for teachers on how to teach nature journaling to address the Next Generation Science Standards as well as to foster emotional well-being. In-person workshops and a Wild Wonder conference also can inspire educators and help them deepen their practice.

 

Implications for Researchers

It may seem more straightforward to engage with educators and ask their perceptions of what students are thinking and learning, but there is no substitute for direct discussions with individual students. When seeking to understand the impacts of educational initiatives and programs on children’s learning and development, it is critical to include student perspective through their own words rather than relying exclusively on multiple choice surveys (Morgan et al., 2002; Tillman et al., 2019). Their voices and authentic work convey a lot about how they feel, and what brings them joy.

 

Acknowledgements

Sallie Marston and Daniel Fischer provided support and valuable feedback on this study. Ann and Lou Rodarte sparked ideas and helped create the beautiful spaces at the school. We also appreciate the educators, students and volunteers at Echo Canyon School who participated in this research and contributed their insights to the work.

 

References

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Ardoin, N. M. (2006). Toward an interdisciplinary understanding of place: Lessons for environmental education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (CJEE), 112-126.

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