Tom Beery - Being and Becoming in Nature: The Importance of Connection to Nature in Young Children

Keynotespeaker tirsdag den 2. november kl. 8.00 - 9.00

Dette oplæg vil være på engelsk.

Tom Beery will explore the meaning, development, and assessment of connection to nature (C2N) in young children. Tom will present results from an international Connection to Nature Workshop to evaluate instruments that measure C2N. One workshop outcome was a focus on defining and measuring C2N in young children. The workshop was followed by the formation of an Expert Advisory Panel on Early Childhood Nature Connection to fully address this need. Tom will present the outcomes of his work with this panel along with the latest research in children’s C2N—and will provide implications for education practitioners.

Tom Is a social science researcher and teacher living and working in Kristianstad, Sweden. Tom’s career in outdoor education started in a canoe guiding trips along the US/Canadian border, but perhaps really started as a child playing and running around the Whitewater River Valley in SE Minnesota. Tom’s research interest includes topics such as ecosystem services, green infrastructure, and biological diversity—all from a human perspective. It was Tom’s interest in “friluftsliv” and the relationship with environmental connectedness which brought him to live and work in Sweden.