Another interesting publication that I’ve come across on-line is “Restorative Commons: creating health and well-being through urban landscapes” from the US Forest Service. It brings together a lot of interesting work with case studies and interviews.

http://tiny.cc/5Uti8

I attended a meeting recently where I gave a presentation on a literature review that I’ve written on children’s use of the outdoors. One of the delegates enquired about how outdoor learning fits into the Curriculum for Excellence – this wasn’t something I had specifically addressed during my review of the literature but I had discussed informally with enthusiastic colleagues within the teaching community. They pointed me to the ‘Learning and Teaching Scotland’ Outdoor Learning website, which is a great resource http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/outdoorlearning/index.asp

There is a section detailing the links between the Curriculum for Excellence and outdoor learning. It highlights that education within the outdoor environment produces multiple benefits for children, and groups these into the achievement of “four capacities”:

“Successful learners”

“Confident individuals”

“Responsible citizens”

“Effective contributors”

The research section of the website links to some interesting reports http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/outdoorlearning/keyinformation/research/index.asp

I have been reading about the Create-a-Scape idea (www.create-a-scape.org.uk) – this seems really interesting as it appears to combine use of technology with getting kids outdoors (and I usually hear technology being blamed for keeping children indoors!!). Create-a-Scape involves children using a handheld computer to link sounds, text and images to a digital map, the ‘mediascape’ that is created is then experienced outside. Suggested topics for mediascapes on the website include ‘wildilfe’, ‘environmental feedback’ and ‘migration’. It would be interesting to look at the important sounds, images and places that children include in their mediascapes. I’m not sure if anyone has done any research on this (or similar?) ideas, but there is an evaluation report on the Create-a-Scape project available (http://tiny.cc/szjJz) – the selection of topics that teachers have explored through Create-a-Scape is very interesting; I particularly liked the idea of ‘mapping’ the surface of the moon on the school playing field!!

I attended the Well-being and Place conference held at the University of Durham on 7th - 9th April. The conference explored the spatiality of well-being in many different contexts. The sessions that I attended over the 3 days included many presentations relevant to the work of the Outdoors and Health Network (including presentations from OHN members Catharine Ward Thompson and Liz O’Brien).

On day one, the session on ‘Well-being, Mobility and Youth Transitions’ included several interesting presentations on the connections between young people’s physical and mental well-being, the places they inhabit and how they move through space and place. Colin Pooley’s (Lancaster University) work on how children’s mobility has changed over time was particularly interesting, as was Margaret Grieco’s (Cornell University and Napier University) presentation on the “Walking Bus in International Perspective”. Both papers raised questions about current and potential opportunities for children to engage with nature on the way to and from school.

On day two, therapeutic spaces were the focus of two sessions. The “Therapeutic Greenspaces” session explored the role of urban green space in physical and mental well-being. Catharine Ward Thompson’s (Edinburgh College of Art/University of Edinburgh) presentation illustrated the long-standing association between urban parks and human health. John Leah’s (Lancaster University) paper on “Well-being and Greenspace” suggested that a sense of community may be linked to people’s feelings of safety within greenspace. Clive Davies (Newcastle University) presented some interesting findings relating to collaborative work with two Italian Universities that has examined the “perceived benefits of green areas during periods of heat stress”. Helen Beck’s (CABE) presentation illustrated that an examination of the well-being benefits of green space will need to consider the community cohesion and social networking benefits of green space.

In the “Therapeutic Spaces” session Liz O’Brien (Forest Research) gave a presentation on the “Social and Cultural Connections with Trees and Woodlands for Well-being”. This illustrated socio-cultural benefits that may also be related to other types of green space, such as health, education and learning, community development and recreation; as well as some of the psychological, socio-cultural and physical barriers to accessing such spaces. Stephen Hughes (Central Scotland Forest Trust) presented findings from the Trust’s perception surveys, which also showed that there are physical and social benefits to be gained from the use of forest spaces.

On day three, an interesting session discussed well-being and place in relation to “Children and Young People”. Gordon Jack’s (Durham University) presentation considered the “Significance of Place Attachments for Children’s Well-being” – this raises questions about the ‘place’ of the outdoors in childhood. 

I was very interested to hear on the BBC breakfast news this morning that a Natural England survey has shown some parents now consider the countryside to be ‘out of bounds’ for their children. There is a real need for us to understand the underlying reasons for this trend and think about how we can look at the health consequences.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7977065.stm