COSA’S

Best Practices Guide

COSA (California Outdoor School Administrators) is seeking submission of outstanding and exemplary outdoor lessons which can be included in a planned publication entitled, “Best Practices Guide to Teaching in the Outdoors.” The purpose of the guide will be to assemble the best lessons and trail plans that are taught at residential outdoor schools throughout California. The “Best Practices Guide” will be used to train new staff or to offer greater resources to instructors at California’s Outdoor Science Schools.

COSA is looking for lesson plans or thematic trail plans which have the following characteristics:

Ø Is a highly motivating lesson for the students

Ø Is very powerful for student learning

Ø Makes good use of the outdoor natural environment

Ø Is transferable to many outdoor school teaching environments

Ø Is fun to teach!

Some of the types of lessons and activities which may be included in the Best Practices Guide are:

v Exemplary Lesson Plans

v Thematic Trail Plans

v Teaching Techniques

v Teaching Games

v Sensory Activities

v Focusing Activities and student management techniques

v “Out-of-the-Box” ideas!

Lesson plans should be tied to California Science Standards or other appropriate California state standards. Lessons should be formatted in Microsoft Word according to the format found at http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/outdoored/cosa/best.asp. Lessons should be publishable with no copyright infringement. Credit will be given to individuals and outdoor schools which submit material that is selected for the “Best Practices Guide.”

To submit material, please go to the COSA website, http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/outdoored/cosa/ and click on “Best Practices Guide.” There you will find the format that needs to be used to submit a lesson or trail plan as well as a sample lesson plan. New submissions are to be emailed to Rick Mitchell at rickmit@tcoe.org. Submissions may include one picture preferably in a jpeg format.

We’ll look forward to getting outstanding lessons from outdoor science schools all across the state. We will announce progress of the “Best Practices Guide” on the COSA website and through articles in the AEOE newsletter. Let’s show everyone that the best outdoor education is happening in California!