Connectedness to nature and place-based education

The author posits that an environmentally focused place-based pedagogy will lead to increased nature relatedness, inclusion of nature in self, and overall love and care for a regional park that borders a Northern Californian university. This study represents a basic tool kit to get the seeds of connection to germinate in a particular place. Despite being literally just on the other side of the levee that separates the campus and the 23-mile park and river corridor, a considerable number of the university's students do not seem to know that a regional park exists. College level outdoor recreation courses and science-based experiments that lead students to the regional park are often times students' first ever, and maybe only, contact with it. Connecting the university's students with the park more intentionally has the potential to foster environmental stewardship in a generation of young people who would then be equipped to handle the socio-political, socio-cultural, and environmental pressures that impact the park. Even if students do not engage in park policy matters in the future, they may spend their lives living near it and still can become perpetually responsible users and protectors of the cultural, environmental and recreational resources of the regional park. Not to mention that the river supplies a generous portion of the region's water supply. This study is designed to gain an understanding of students' connectedness to nature levels, and to get a sense of what they know about the regional park that borders their campus. The knowledge gained from the study will help guide the formulation of place-based curriculum to be offered to higher education students in the Sacramento, CA region.