This article describes a modified importance-performance framework for use in evaluation of recreation-based experiential learning programs. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) provides an effective and readily applicable means of evaluating many programs, but the near universal satisfaction associated with recreation inhibits the use of IPA in…

Passport in Time (PIT), a volunteer program of the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, is an excellent recreational learning experience. Families work side-by-side with professional archaeologists and historians to excavate, record, and restore historic and prehistoric sites across the United States. In addition, families…

Experiential learning programs which are conducted outdoors are termed outdoor education. Four categories of outdoor education programing are discussed: (1) personal growth programs; (2) interdisciplinary studies; (3) socializing agencies; and (4) recreation education. (JN)

This book describes a 5-day program of imaginative activities designed to help elementary school children learn how their world functions through seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and hearing. The book is designed to help children understand energy flow, the cycles of basic materials, the diversity of life, natural communities, change,…

This book describes how schools of higher education can implement practices that promote educationally purposeful out-of-class activities within the context of their campus communities. The practices are intended to help develop faculty and student creativity and initiative. Chapter 1 examines the contributions of out-of-class experiences to…

The New York Office of Parks and Recreation (OPR) is committed to upgrading and expanding its interpretive programs in the state park system with a major goal being to enrich, vitalize, and complement content areas of the school curriculum by providing first-hand observation and experience outside the classroom. The legislative mandate of the OPR…

In Dallas in 1970, high school outdoor education began as a cocurricular woods and waters boys' club sponsored by a community sportsman. Within one year, it grew into a fully accredited, coeducational, academic course with a curriculum devoted to the study of wildlife in Texas, ecology, conservation, hunting, firearm safety, fishing, boating and…