Forest school educator Dr. Jean Lomino shares the benefits, key components ahead of certification course set for April 14-17 in central Pennsylvania

Students take a moment to observe nature and do some journaling at the Montour Preserve during a STEM camp partnership experience with the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, Vernal School Environmental Education Partnership and Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit.

The Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association is hosting a special Forest School Teacher Institute and Naturalist training certification program April 14-17, 2025, in central Pennsylvania, featuring institute founder Dr. Jean Lomino, of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“When I was director for the Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center (Chattanooga, Tenn.), we’d have around 15,000 public school students a year for field trips, and for many, that was the one and only time during the whole school year that they were out in wild nature,” said Lomino, who served in numerous educational roles throughout her career before co-founding Tennessee’s first official forest school (Wauhatchie) in 2015.
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“The big difference in forest school is that it is a repeated experience – ideally every day. There are many just-forest schools where children spend the whole day outside, and many of those that incorporate a variety of standards and academics into their programs, completely outside,” she said. “Some schools can’t commit to being outside every day. Some public schools and even private schools are incorporating one day a week outside – calling it Forest Fridays. Ultimately, as more and more teachers, administrators and other leaders and parents are working together and looking for ways to help kids emotionally and physically, they are seeing that it is time in nature that provides these kinds of benefits for children.”

Forest schooling, a long-standing tradition in Scandinavia and extremely popular across Europe, has been taking off in various places across the United States recently, with numbers of such schools increasing by more than 500 percent in the past decade in certain regions as more and more research shows highlights the perks.

Out of all those benefits, Lomino feels that the socio-emotional and cognitive improvements that forest schooling offers are the most critical.

“Research shows that children who spend time in nature do better when they get back in the classroom. It makes sense. It isn’t something new. We should all understand that,” she said. “If children have time to be outside in the fresh air and can move around and explore and use all their senses, when they come back into the classroom, they can be more ready to sit down and do the things they need to do inside a traditional classroom setting.”

Listen to Dr. Jean Lomino as she talks about what has inspired her love of nature, education and the combination of both into forest schooling, what that is and why it is so important for students now more than ever. She shares all of this in the most recent episode of the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Podcast:

​Which goes back to the importance of flexibility in how each school offers its version of forest schooling opportunities, so there is a mindfulness, consistency and opportunity for every student, Lomino added.

“Forest schooling is an ethos. It is a philosophy. It is not a specific program. There are schools that will do regular classroom study half the day or an hour or two, and then they take the children outside where they can do their self-exploratory learning,” she said, adding that there are a lot of STEM and STEAM and STREAM schools that see this as a real advantage because that curriculum connects so well with an outdoor setting.

“Ultimately, it is wonderful that we have this huge spectrum of ways you can incorporate forest school principles into any kind of school setting.”

Local example
The River Valley Nature School, currently in its sixth year in Lewisburg, PA, was created by a group of teachers and parents who wanted to embrace that “humans thrive and reach their greatest potential when they spend time in nature,” according to executive director Elizabeth Sterling.

“For children, this is especially important because they are hardwired to explore and change their environment, and that is how they learn. Most school programs and environments are not designed to allow children to learn in the ways they learn best and thrive due to the constraints that those programs have,” said Sterling. “We have seen many children who were not thriving in other school environments were able to thrive at River Valley Nature School. We have also seen students leave our program and go on to integrate into other programs successfully.”

Sterling reports that the children at her school benefit physically, developmentally and educationally from our intentional programming, which includes daily time in nature.  

“We know that if we pay attention to the whole child and their physical, social and emotional needs, their academic growth and development follow.  We see this through their meaningful, creative work, their problem-solving skills and their ability to interact mindfully and compassionately with nature and with each other,” Sterling said, adding that their programming is focused on “more time being child-interest led than teacher-led.”

Emergent learning 
Which is one of the key forest schooling principles Lomino is excited to delve more deeply into during the April training in Pennsylvania, inquiry-focused emergent learning.

“Nature is so rich. There is so much to discover. The teacher’s job during this time is to observe the children and intentionally see what sparks the students’ interests, what sort of things are they exploring. The teachers can then go back and find additional activities and lessons that enrich and extend the interest of the children,” said Lomino. “We sometimes call this backwards lesson planning.”

She added that this model can work even in public school sectors that need to meet a variety of standards because teachers can take their observations of what children are most fascinated during their time of nature exploration and plug that into lessons that match up with standards requirements.

“The teacher become the facilitator, the child becomes the teacher and the classroom walls become permeable, so that what they are learning outside they can bring inside and vice-versa,” said Lomino. “The children are excited because they are learning about things they are truly interested in and public school teachers and others, when they take these courses and learn about this, the joy comes back because teaching becomes fun again.”

In this model, Lomino added, teachers don’t need to be fully versed naturalists to be able to engage students in outdoor education.

“We become co-learners,” she said. “So when we are out in the natural world and a child finds this amazing insect or fascinating plant, we join in with them in their excitement and curiosity and we respond to their questions with more questions. It helps empower children to discover things without us having to give the answers.”

Importance of place 
The other key principle of forest schooling that Lomino likes to focus on is place-based education.

“The whole idea is that students learn about the place that they live in and that includes both the natural history and the human-based history. The subjects of history and science are natural elements to discover in a forest setting,” said Lomino. “The plants, the animals, the geology, and then to look at who was living here first, how they used the land and how that use changed over time.”

Through place-based education, she said that really all the major academic categories can be tackled, including language arts.

“This is how we tell the story, so using written word, spoken word, sharing what we learn about place and history through mediums like poetry, songs and stories,” Lomino said. “Math comes up naturally in so many ways, too, like measuring, graphing and mapping. We could even go as far as to bring in civics for older students, learning for this place who is in charge and how government works.”

She added that this is where an element of conservation can be woven into the learning process.

“How are we caring for this land and what is government doing about it? These are the kind of questions that naturally come up when students connect with nature and see the direct impacts and real-time effects of everything working together,” she said. “So, there are really so many ways to bring academics into a forest school setting.”

Pennsylvania training details 
The April 14-17, 2025, training opportunity is especially exciting for Lomino because her Forest School Teacher Institute hasn’t offered an in-person training opportunity in the state of Pennsylvania yet. It has been offered in numerous other places, both nationwide and globally.

“There is something about being together and observing children in a forest school setting, seeing with your own eyes what children are doing, experiencing and how it all works,” she said, referencing plans for participants to observe classes at Sterling’s River Valley Nature School in Lewisburg. “And then being able to discuss all these various components of forest school and the philosophy and strategy for reaching children.”

Lomino added that the group will definitely be talking quite a bit about emergent and place-based learning, but there also will be an opportunity to learn about and practice nature journaling.

“That’s an area that I’m especially interested in and have been teaching for a long time. We’ll look at how nature journaling can be used as a strategy for schooling as well,” she said. “There’s an emotional and therapeutic component to nature journaling – needing to sit quietly and be good observers – it’s such a good opportunity for people of all ages to make a real connection with nature.”

Sessions will include learning about history of place and using music in education from local educator, historian and musician Van Wagner. It will also include sessions on the power of partnership and elements of storytelling with Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky.

"Forest schooling offers an atmosphere that levels the learning field for all students. While some may do well in a structured, traditional classroom setting, all can find common ground in some facet of nature – at least having some portion of their school week dedicated to natural engagement and exploration," said Zaktansky, who shared more thoughts on forest schooling in this column. "It will be exciting to talk some about what that can look like for different groups and how incorporating local partnerships and engaging students through creative storytelling can enhance that process."

The programming concludes on April 17 with a full-day Forest School Teacher Institute naturalist certification experience, which will include work with the local volunteers of PA Master Naturalist.

“We will be learning more about how we can engage with kids in nature, having just enough background so that we have an understanding that we can pass on to the children,” Lomino said. “I tell a lot of people – and this is something that holds a lot of people back – you don’t need to be an expert naturalist to be able to do this. You learn with the student.

“That last day of naturalist training is exciting because we become the students, again, and we get to learn through experiential projects and activities what it means to learn about nature and what it means to be there to share that with our kids.”

Accommodations have been arranged with a large local Airbnb to be able to lodge most of the participants coming from a distance to enhance training and opportunities for forest schooling discussion and fellowship.

Watch a PBS-Chattanooga feature on forest schooling interviewing Dr. Lomino here: Greater Chattanooga | Nature's Classroom | WTCI PBS

Learn more about Dr. Lomino and the Forest School Teacher Institute.

Learn more about the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association and its Vernal School partnership of programming at the Montour Preserve. 

Learn more about the Pennsylvania in-person training, to be held at and near the Montour Preserve (374 Preserve Road, Danville, PA) from April 14-17, 2025) here:

Learn about, register for training

Have specific questions about the training? Contact Dr. Jean Lomino via email or Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky via email.