Ken Gilbertson Author

Ken Gilbertson, PhD, is an associate professor of outdoor education in the department of health, physical education, and recreation, at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), where he is also director of the Center for Environmental Education. He has 30 years of experience teaching outdoor and environmental education at the college level and has taught at nature centers, conducted wilderness education, taught at Outward Bound Schools, and educated a wide range of audiences through the UMD Outdoor Program. Gilbertson's specialty is in understanding how people learn and applying the methods that will best help them learn about the outdoors. He has designed and constructed a wilderness education curriculum, including a state-of-the-art kit applying several learning theories. Gilbertson has received two outstanding faculty awards, has a UMD leadership scholarship in his name, and is a board member of numerous outdoor education and environmental committees. He also serves as reviewer for the Journal of Experiential Education and of abstracts for the Symposium on Experiential Education Research.

Tim Bates, MEd, is the associate director of the Recreational Sports Outdoor Program, an adjunct faculty member, the coordinator of environmental education, and assistant director of the Center for Environmental Education at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He is certified by the American Canoe Association as an instructor trainer educator of coastal kayaking and is a wilderness first responder from Wilderness Medical Associates. Bates has more than 20 years of experience teaching outdoor, environmental, and science education to people of all ages. In addition to developing curricula for schools and other organizations, he has been involved with the creation of an elementary school focused on environmental education and serves on numerous boards and committees related to the outdoors. His specialty is working with preservice students to help them understand the natural environment; those students then teach this knowledge to others.

Terry McLaughlin, MS, is a freelance environmental educator working in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. With more than 20 years of experience, she has worked in nature centers, with school districts, and in residential outdoor education programs. McLaughlin's specialty is training outdoor educators to teach. She has taught her creative and innovative methods to graduate students in environmental education. Her methods involve many of the strategies employed in this book. McLaughlin has served on state and local environmental education boards and has served in an advisory capacity for environmental education centers.

Alan Ewert, PhD, is a distinguished and titled professor at Indiana University. He holds the Patricia and Joel Meier Endowed Chair in Outdoor Leadership and serves as the editor of the Journal of Experiential Education. He was the 1996 recipient of the Reynold E. Carlson Award for Distinction in Outdoor Environmental Education; the 2002 recipient of the J.B. Nash Scholar Award through the American Association for Leisure and Recreation; and the 2005 recipient of the Julian W. Smith Award through the Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. A prolific scholar, Ewert has published articles in a variety of journals and books related to outdoor leadership and recreation. He continues his professional service through numerous venues, including his status as a fellow and past president of the Academy of Leisure Sciences and one of the founding editors of the International Journal of Wilderness. Dr. Ewert also serves as a course director and instructor for Outward Bound and the Wilderness Education Association.