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Loose Parts Alive: Exploring Nature
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
Presented by Dr. Carla Gull, Associate Professor, Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College; and Dr. Laura Wilhelm, Vice President for Professional Learning, Kaplan Early Learning Company
Moderated by Stephanie Roselli, Executive Editor, Gryphon House, Inc.
Sponsored by Gryphon House
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From bugs and plants to pets and friends, low-cost and no-cost loose parts alive enhance the quality of childhood through play. Noticing the living things in and around our environments leads to innovative ways to incorporate them into children’s playful explorations. Expand the loose parts mindset beyond static objects to respectfully and responsibly embrace more interactive play and social-emotional development with living things.
This recorded edWebinar is of interest to PreK through elementary teachers, librarians, and school leaders.
About the Presenters
Carla Gull, Ed.D. is the Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Environmental Education Program and Associate Professor at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College in northern Indiana. She has over 20 years of experience in the education field at the preschool, elementary, and college levels. Dr. Gull enjoys helping educators incorporate more nature in the everyday early childhood setting and in nature preschools. She hosts a podcast, Loose Parts Nature Play; facilitates an international group, Loose Parts Play; and presents workshops, presentations, and academic research around loose parts, tree climbing, STEM, outdoor classrooms, and nature education. She is co-author of the book Loose Parts Learning in K-3 Classrooms and the upcoming book Living Loose Parts: Creatures of Curiosity. She is the State Coordinator for Indiana Children and Nature Network. She enjoys going on adventures and traveling with her husband and four (mostly teen!) boys.
As the Vice President for Professional Learning at Kaplan, Laura Wilhelm, Ed.D. draws on decades of experience teaching young children and early childhood professionals, starting with toddlers in the 1980s, followed by PreK-third grade in urban and suburban schools, and as a university lab school director. Since earning her doctorate in ECE curriculum and instruction in 1999, she has served as a program director, full professor, national validator for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and a site visitor for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Programs (CAEP). She enjoys planning professional development, speaking at conferences, leading study tours, visiting early education programs around the world, and returning home to her family. She is the author of The Neglected Child: How to Recognize, Respond, and Prevent (2013); Treasure Baskets: Heuristic Learning for Infants and Toddlers (2017); Enticing Environments for People Under Three (2021); and Living Loose Parts: Creatures of Curiosity (coming in 2024), all from Gryphon House.
About the Moderator
Stephanie Roselli is the Executive Editor at Gryphon House, Inc., the leading publisher of educational resources for teachers and parents, where she acquires and develops the latest books from today’s top early childhood experts.
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