This resource has been designed to engage new audiences of young people in Learning for Sustainability, in a meaningful and lasting way, using a youth work approach.
Building young people's connection to nature in three stages.
All learners in Scotland have an entitlement to Learning for Sustainability as part of Curriculum for Excellence. It is an umbrella term that covers global citizenship, sustainable development education and outdoor learning. It allows all members of a community to work collaboratively to create a more socially-just, equitable and sustainable world, both now and for future generations.
‘Sometimes I find it hard to talk to others and feel part of the group – here, the smaller group helped and going to different outdoor places and doing new activities.’ - Feedback from a pupil involved in the Natural Leaders project
Natural Leaders is a two-year action research project to develop a youth-led approach to Learning for Sustainability. It aims to support young people identified as likely to benefit from enhanced support in the transition between primary and secondary school.
The approach has demonstrated the power of collaboration between youth work, schools and the environmental sector. Together, we’re delivering support that enables young people to build skills and relationships, while empowering them to be agents of change in the green spaces in their communities.
Read the report from year 1 of the project.
We need new, collaborative approaches to Learning for Sustainability that address clearly defined needs within the education system:
Connecting to nature is about relationships. When we feel close to nature, we recognise ourselves as part of the natural world and value our relationship with it.
The University of Derby (and others) have undertaken extensive research in the field of nature connectedness. They have identified five pathways that lead to adults and young people extending their sense of themselves and their connections to the world around them. You can read about this in more detail in the handbook:
The Five Pathways to Nature Connection
Through their research they have found that until a young person feels a deep sense of connection with the world around them, they are not going to feel motivated to want to take action to save it.
The taster activities are designed so that they can be integrated into early youth work sessions where the focus is on building trust and relationships, as a way for youth workers to find out more about what interests and engages young people in order to shape the experiences they offer young people later in the programme.
The activities in this resource are designed to be used in progression to deepen both relationships with young people and their connection to nature. The different stages of the project aim to compliment this journey.
This stage focuses on youth workers and young people getting to know one another and building up trust. Here you can find a number of ‘taster’ activities that can give young people the chance to get used to being outdoors and speaking about nature.
These short activities could be incorporated with your existing youth-led relationship building activities. They can be completed anywhere outdoors – you don’t have to necessarily do these in the local green space you will be working in later in the project.
They are intended as brief conversation starters with young people, so you’ll hear the direct responses to what they are experiencing. What you hear from young people during these activities will inform the experiences offered later in the programme, to help build connections with nature and the green space they have chosen. Relevant 'pathways to nature' are identified in brackets after each activity.
Once those relationships with young people have been established and they have had a chance to ‘dip their toe’ in nature, there are then a range of further explorative activities. These allow young people to start building deeper connections with nature and discover more about their greenspace.
These activities come from RSPB’s Wild Challenge Awards and can contribute to the group earning certificates. If you would like to earn Wild Challenge Awards as part of your activities, you will need to register. To do that, simply follow the online registration process here.
To gain a bronze certificate, young people must complete three activities from the selection below (Experiencing Nature) and then three from the Helping Nature activities that are detailed in the next section. You can upload your evidence, such as a photo of the group doing the activity, or of the wildlife they have found, to your online account.
You can adapt these activities to suit your group. Importantly, you don’t need any ‘expert’ knowledge to deliver these experiences – the focus is on you and the young people learning together.
Please click on the name (hyperlink) of the activity for further details and accompanying online worksheets, all of which can be accessed in the field on your phone.
We recommend that Bioblitz is saved as the final activity as this will allow for an audit of the greenspace to be carried out, prior to thinking about the actions young people wish to take to preserve and attract biodiversity.
Once young people have had the opportunity to discover what is present in their greenspace, the group can plan what actions they might like to take in order to help nature. There are some suggested activities with accompanying videos that may provide inspiration and support for these steps.
There are many national and local organisations working to protect nature and wildlife in Scotland. Some will have similar goals to your group and others may have expertise that would benefit your work. Making these connections usually comes down to research and reaching out to potential partners, but these two lists can help give you a place to start.
‘As youth workers, you need to get chatting to people and you never know what connections you will make. We got someone to come and speak to our group about bee keeping after they were selling honey in the café in our community centre.’
‘We never have money to buy resources, but you’d be surprised how much you can get for free by calling around
We’ve also used timebanking as a way of trading skills and help, without money changing hands’
As well as being able to achieve an RSPB Wild Challenge Award Certificate, activities in this programme can also qualify for a number of other awards. These can include youth-based awards as well as nature-based awards. Below you will find some suggested award programmes, some of which have been used by youth workers undertaking this programme.
Whilst awards are a great way to reward young people for what they have achieved, it is also great to track the overall progress young people have made in a very holistic way, taking into consideration their emerging skills, attitudes and knowledge. A key way to track progress is via the National Youth Work Outcomes and Skills Framework.
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
