NLI | Natural Learning Initiative

Nature play and learning every day!

Creating environments for healthy human development and a healthy biosphere for generations to come.

what we do

Increasing numbers of children are growing up with insufficient contact with the natural world. To counteract this trend, the Natural Learning Initiative offers evidence-based design assistance, professional development, and information resources to advance experience of the natural environment in the daily lives of all children.

Projects

PROJECTS are typically concentrated, short duration efforts that focus on specific design issues or involve a single aspect of a program (e.g., design assistance, evaluation, professional development or policy initiative).

Programs

PROGRAMS integrate design assistance, evaluation, professional development, and policy initiatives, with the aim of achieving higher levels of sustained quality. These activities are often tied to a multi-year project, which may include much more.

Resources

RESOURCES are created, often in collaboration with NLI’s interdisciplinary partners, to support technical assistance, professional development, and generally to promote the importance of the natural environment in the daily experience of all children. Please use and share.

Professional Development

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT and training includes theory, principles, and techniques that guide the design of play and learning environments with an emphasis on the design and management of natural environments to support healthy child development.

Find out more

News and Upcoming Events

Designing School Grounds to Integrate Nature, Learning, and Health Promotion (People and Planet) Webinar

Children and youth have a legal obligation to attend school. School environments, especially public schools, should be designed and managed for this special population as high-quality environmental equalizers for students from a range of socio-economic backgrounds,...

Oakland Declaration

The Nature-Based Learning Network (NBLN) gathering at the Children & Nature Network International Leadership Summit, Oakland, California, May 2018, provided an opportunity to capture the advocacy power of this unique gathering of diverse disciplines and professions, to create an international declaration on nature-based learning.

Virtual Field Trip

Virtual field trip of childcare outdoor learning environments. POD considers the design of outdoor environments in early childhood as a preventative health intervention.