Letter 3, Part 5: Nature Diet

Nature-based learning should be our "daily bread" (err...veggies!)

Today I’m bringing you another metaphor: the Food Pyramid-inspired Nature Pyramid. 

If you recycled my other letters, these metaphors (iceberg, mountain) relate to “The Pyramid of Nature-connected Learning.” 

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) brought to you by ChatGPT and me!

Tanya Denckla-Cobb and Tim Beatley’s Nature Pyramid is a food-pyramid-style framework exploring levels of nature exposure for human and planetary wellbeing. In my corollary Pyramid of Nature-Connected Learning, nature-based learning is at the bottom indicating it should be consumed regularly like daily bread and grains (or vegetables if we’re being honest). We should embed nature-based learning practices as a routine part of teaching-and-learning in schools, rather than solely “special treat” top-of-the-pyramid nature experiences that can make nature less accessible. Next steps include professional development for educators, making it part of teacher certification programs, investing in equipment for nature-based learning, ensuring high-quality nearby nature spaces for outdoor learning, and retooling school systems to lower barriers to nature-based learning.

The Nature Pyramid

For decades, the USDA’s food pyramid made up the bread and butter 😜 of nutritional advice in the U.S.. Given our Nation’s obesity epidemic and nutrition-related chronic diseases, it and its derivatives (“MyPlate”) should probably be regarded with a fair degree of skepticism.. 

Still, the pyramid is attractive for its digestibility. 🤣 

Boiled down, it says: we should eat heaps of certain foods (grains, fruits, veg) and scant quantities of others (cake, oils). There have even been all-out wars about if ketchup and pizza count as vegetables in school menus. (Relatedly: are tomatoes fruits or veggies? The answer: Yes!). 

Umm…why are you talking about the food pyramid?

Ok. So two rad researchers and thinkers, Tanya Denckla-Cobb & Tim Beatley leveraged the food pyramid’s relatability and developed this corollary for nature exposure:

Their Nature Pyramid is the starting point for a sweeping research agenda interrogating nature exposure and human wellbeing (and, importantly, planetary wellbeing). What kinds of nature exposure should we access daily (views of nature, sitting under a tree for lunch) and what might be consumed as a special treat (a visit to remote reaches of our planet)? How much time in nature constitutes a “serving?” What are the values of different levels of nature immersion? How might we mimic and create the full pyramid close to home, especially in cities¹ where 4.4 billion and counting peeps live². 

Tim wrote about the Nature Pyramid here back in 2012. There has been progress on answering some of those questions. In a study published in 2019, researchers found even 120 minutes of “recreational nature contact” per week, even chunked into bite-sized 😯 pieces, shows positive health and wellbeing effects³. 

How does this relate to nature-based learning? 

Right. Remember The Nature-Connected Learning Pyramid?

In the OG Food Pyramid, nature-based learning shares the status of daily bread and grains (and MyPlate’s veggies). In Tim & Tanya’s “Nature Pyramid,” nature connections facilitated by nature-based learning are something to be consumed regularly (hourly!). They’re located in your neighborhood - aka “nearby nature.” 

Meanwhile, the sugary-fatty deliciousness at the top of the Nature Pyramid includes escapes where you might galavant to far-off places like Patagonia and spend days or more in Nature. I wrote about being a nature-junkie who over-consumed at the sugary-fatty peak (including a 75-day expedition in…Patagonia. How very cliche of me!)

Anyhow, I like the food-nature-pyramid because it’s helping me get closer to what I’m trying to say. Eventually, I really want to create a photo graphic like Tim’s Nature Pyramid or even a cartoon graphic like the Food Pyramid with examples of the types of nature-connected learning that happen at different strata. (Speaking of which, 🔍 are you a graphic designer who can help me? If so, please reach out in the comments!) 

For now, here’s where I’ve landed in my next iteration of the Pyramid of Nature-Connected Learning. 

The risks of too many special treats

The top of the Pyramid of Nature-connected Learning is where those days-and-nights-under-skies-capital-N-Nature learning experiences live. As someone who has spent decades facilitating these experiences and witnessed their transformational impacts on students, I wholeheartedly support top-of-the-pyramid nature-connected learning opportunities for all students.

It’s just…I believe, 

students and educators should have in-school opportunities at all levels of the Pyramid of Nature-connected Learning.

And I worry that our over-emphasis on special treats has these consequences:

🌱 We perpetuate a damaging perception that nature is “out there” and not right here.

🏞️ We reinforce narratives of what “counts” as valid ways to connect with nature. Worse still, we send implicit messages about what doesn’t count.

🌼  These 👆 things mean we make being in nature less accessible. And probably less relevant.

🪴 We ignore the foundational role and fundamental benefits of daily, routine nature connection for students and educators in school.

🌈 We expend all of our energy and time “pulling off” special treat Nature experience and neglect routine nature-connections

🌿 We direct resources (time, money, logistics, political) to top-of-the-pyramid experiences and we neglect the foundation. 

🍎 We miss out on nature’s life-sustaining apple-a-day benefits 

🐿️ We turn a blind eye to the vast majority of students and educators who don’t have top-of-the-pyramid opportunities and we let this mean they have NO nature connection opportunities in school.

🌍 We lose abundant opportunities to foster strong emotional connections to nature.

OK. Let’s stop the hand wringing!

I’ve gotta channel my worry into actions. As an overarching goal, we need to embed nature-based learning practices as a routine part of teaching-and-learning in schools everywhere. 

A rainbow of next right steps:

🔴 Conduct nature-based learning professional development for all educators. 

🟠 Make nature-based learning part of all teacher certification programs.

🟡 Invest in equipment for nature-based learning (clipboards, wagons, simple biophilic classroom design features, tree stumps, trees, shade structures…).

🟢 Ensure all schools have high-quality nearby nature spaces for outdoor nature-based learning (Support the Living Schoolyards Act now!) 

🔵 Retool school systems to lower the barriers to nature-based learning

🟣 Advocate for the mainstreaming of nature-based learning 

🌈 Bonus action:

Ok. I’ll be in touch again soon. Thanks for reading.

Becca

1.  https://www.biophiliccities.org/

2. Currently, 80% of the U.S. population & 55% of the world’s population – some 4.4 billion people – live in urban areas#. The global urban population is expected to reach 68% by 2050 (https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/urban-rural-populations.html, https://www.un.org/sw/desa/68-world-population-projected-live-urban-areas-2050-says-un)

3. White, M.P., Alcock, I., Grellier, J. et al. Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Sci Rep 9, 7730 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3