The Benefits of Experiential Environmental Education
The overarching outcomes and benefits for children’s environmental education, especially now
that most children have little or no real engagement with their natural environment and mainly
preoccupied with electronic devices, in endless insane amount of screen time includes:
- Environmental Literacy Development,
- Cognitive Development
- Social and Emotional Development,
- Physical Development, and Language and Literacy Development.
- Other specific outcomes comprise of children spending more time in nature; with play
and movement, in an outdoor setting, children get more physical activity, hence leading
to overall good health - Children also develop knowledge and skills in specific areas such as arts and crafts; they
can also improve in their social interaction skills - Encourages critical thinking and reflective thinking, which is very challenging for kids
nowadays, who are constantly engaged in screen time and electronic devices with less
exposure to the natural environment - More importantly, children become deeply connected to their local environment and take
interest in local environmental issues that affect their communities, thereby being
participatory citizens and environmental action takers.
Green Corp’s Learning Experiences / Program Activities in Environmental Education, is guided
by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s components of environmental
education, as well as the Ontario Environmental Education Curriculum, which includes the
following:
● Awareness and sensitivity to the environment and environmental challenges
● Knowledge and understanding of the environment and environmental challenges
● Attitudes of concern for the environment and motivation to improve or maintain
environmental quality
● Skills to identify and help resolve environmental challenges
● Participation in activities that lead to the resolution of environmental challenges
Conceptually, a transformative environmental education is grounded on the premise below:
● Increases participants awareness and knowledge of environmental issues
● Teaches critical thinking
● Enhance participant’s problem solving and decision-making skills
● Encourages multiple viewpoints – Western viewpoints, traditional viewpoints / Indigenous
knowledge perspectives