The nature study movement (alternatively, Nature Study or nature-study) was a popular education movement that originated in the United States and spread throughout the English-speaking world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[1] Nature study attempted to reconcile scientific investigation with spiritual, personal experiences gained from interaction with the natural world.[2] Led by progressive educators and naturalists such as Anna Botsford Comstock, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Louis Agassiz, William Gould Vinal, and Wilbur S. Jackman, nature study changed the way science was taught in schools by emphasizing learning from tangible objects, something that was embodied by the movement's mantra: "study nature, not books." The movement popularized scientific study outside of the classroom as well, and has proven highly influential for figures involved in the modern environmental movement, such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson.[3]
- ^ Kass, Dorothy (2018). Educational Reform and Environmental Concern: A History of School Nature Study in Australia. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-62525-6.
- ^ Jenkins, E. W. (1981). "Science, Sentimentalism, or Social Control? The Nature Study Movement in England and Wales, 1899-1914". History of Education. 10 (1): 33–43. doi:10.1080/0046760810100104.
- ^ Armitage, p. 13