Nature education is defined as “education practiced in nature and advocating the harmonious relationship between man and nature.” From its initial inception to its gradual rise and systematic research, the development of nature education in China has gone through several years of

Natural education is defined as "education practiced in nature and advocating the harmonious relationship between man and nature." From its initial inception to its gradual rise and systematic research, the development of nature education in China has gone through several years of exploration and practice.

In the context of cultural tourism upgrading, rural revitalization, and research and education development, the natural industry cultural tourism came into being based on natural education and natural experience, integrating content development and implementation operations. Combined with the current situation, it is expected that China's nature education will develop efficiently and with high quality in the future.

In order to further understand the development status of nature education in China and the practical experience of Dadizhiye in the field of nature education, Hujiao Culture and Tourism conducted an exclusive interview with Ms. Xu Jianmin, the principal of Dadizhiye Nature School.

Take natural education as our own responsibility to cultivate children who grow up "under the sky and on the earth"

The rise of the concept of natural education originated from a book "The Last Child in the Woods" written by the American writer Richard Love. In 2010, this book was translated to China, and the " nature deficiency disorder " mentioned in the book attracted special attention, which set off a wave of nature education in China. Combined with China's national conditions, nature education can also be understood as "environmental education" and "sustainable education". With the acceleration of urbanization, the fast-paced urban life has caused people to gradually ignore many natural things. Mountains, streams, forests and wilderness are getting further and further away from children's growth, creating a separation between children and nature.

The Wild Nature School located in Tianmu Mountain, Hangzhou

From the perspective of natural education, nature education is to take children into nature, rooted in real natural elements and natural environment, and to establish the relationship between man and nature, man and man in experiential activities. The relationship between people, people and self. In nature education, children can perceive a real world, use their bodies to feel the changes in natural temperature, and use their eyes to discover the colorful colors of nature. The information they acquire all comes from this natural classroom, and real natural experiences will It brings a completely different feeling than reading book knowledge. As the saying goes, a child walking out of the forest will never be "lost." Beyond the natural world, the close relationship between child development and family is always worth exploring.

At the end of 2015, Xu Jianmin conducted research in different countries and found that many developed countries have fully realized the disadvantages of "nature deficit disorder" and have opened nature schools and forest kindergartens based on national parks, and have very mature nature education models. Referring to foreign nature education cases and domestic favorable education policies, they decided to use the mountain as a school to establish a research base to provide more children and families with opportunities to receive nature education.

Located in Tianmu Mountain, Hangzhou, the Wild Nature School

has gone through a series of entrepreneurial processes, including building a teaching system and building a team from scratch. In June 2016, the Wild Natural School, a comprehensive operator of natural situation education in China, was officially established. , focusing on nature education for children aged 0-12 and parents, primary and secondary school students’ study practice, youth camp in-depth experience, nature education curriculum development and output, and camp system operation and management output. Today, Wilderness of the Earth has become one of the first-tier brands in China’s natural education industry, with seven campuses in Tianmu Mountain in Hangzhou, Fulong Mountain in Ningbo, and in downtown Hangzhou.

Tianmu Mountain·City in the Sky

Tianmu Mountain·City in the Sky

Tianmu Mountain·City in the Sky

Tianmu Mountain·City in the Sky

Tianmu Mountain·City in the Sky

Tianmu Mountain·City in the Sky

Guided by the industry mission, let more people enjoy the wilderness of the earth And loving nature

"Let more people love nature because of us" is the mission that Dadiyeye has adhered to since its inception. In terms of hardware equipment and soft content, Wilderness has always strictly implemented the industry's cutting-edge standards.

From a hard point of view, first, the Wilderness of the Earth takes into account both camp hardware services and content services. The implementation and construction of the camp matches the soft content and can meet higher hardware and software standards; secondly, the Wilderness of the Earth’s The campground is located in a national nature reserve, responsible for protecting nature and the environment. Thirdly, the Campground itself has provided a lot of camp courses, such as courses on low carbon, water cycle, and kitchen courses. The content of the course is environmentally friendly and has its own camp attributes; fourth, the hardware facilities of the Earth Camp will be better than those of ordinary camps. For example, the camps here are equipped with floor heating in winter, and the facilities are The materials used are all environmentally friendly, so the camp has also invested a lot of financial resources to implement these things.

From a soft perspective, Wilderness maintains a rigorous and scientific approach to teaching. The Wild of the Earth advocates nature education with a scientific temper. Its curriculum system is divided into natural science, natural art, natural exploration and natural humanities, and comprehensively guides the development of students from moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor perspectives. In the four major curriculum systems, schools divide teaching into different stages according to children's growth patterns. Parent-child courses are carried out for children aged 0-6, and the content is sensory integration training that is suitable for different age groups; for students in grades one to six of primary school, corresponding teaching content is arranged according to the curriculum system. On this basis, Nature School also incorporates curriculum content related to children's physical and mental health development, pays attention to children's brain development and psychological growth needs, and adds courses such as family education and subject education. According to statistics, 20% to 30% of students at the Wild Nature School have a repurchase rate of four to five times or even higher.

Under the normalized prevention and control of the epidemic, Dadiyeye has formulated corresponding countermeasures. First, focus more on the local market; second, improve the content of childcare courses for students aged 0-6 years old; third, develop adult-oriented courses and train family education instructors , natural Education trainer.

Using natural mountains and rivers as classrooms to achieve two-way empowerment with Datianmu Cultural Tourism

At the beginning of its establishment, Dadizhiye Natural School was located in the national nature reserveTianmu Mountain, and used Tianmu Mountain as a demonstration base to promote ecological civilization and nature. The organic combination of education and practice explores a characteristic path for implementing nature education in protected areas with practical significance. Tianmu Mountain, as the only "Forest and Wildlife Type" national nature reserve in Zhejiang Province that is included in the United Nations Man and the Biosphere Program, nurtures rich natural species and provides a good environmental background for the Wild of the Earth Nature School. The empowerment between Tianmu Mountain Scenic Area and Nature School is mutual. When talking about the impact of the wilderness on the local development of Tianmu Mountain, Xu Jianmin mentioned two points.

National Nature Reserve Tianmu Mountain

The Earth’s Wild Nature School located in Tianmu Mountain

First, the establishment of the Earth’s Wild Nature School has enriched the age level of tourists visiting the Tianmu Mountain Scenic Area, improved the purchasing power and consumption level of tourists, and accelerated the development of the scenic spot. The transformation from traditional tourism to spiritual cultural tourism. The original tourist group of Tianmu Mountain Scenic Area is mainly the elderly. They mostly go for vacation, leisure and summer escape. The younger audience is smaller. The Wild Nature School provides new travel scenes and content for young people and families with children.

Second, the Wilderness of the Earth is currently promoting the empowerment of Datianmu Cultural Tourism and the empowerment of traditional tourism. By implementing the connection of the Tianmu Cultural Tourism Line, we will connect the traditional crafts, traditional craftsmen, and the original traditional culture of Tianmu Mountain to complete the cultural creation for Tianmu Mountain. In addition, we will also cooperate with the surrounding B&B . Further enrich the content of Datianmu Cultural Tourism.

Taking education as the foundation, innovating the "cultural tourism + camp education " track

There are 100 educational scenes behind 1100 natural good things, and behind all consumption scenes, there is a natural educational scene. While empowering cultural and tourism content and meeting users’ one-stop needs for learning, entertainment and shopping, Wilderness of the Earth not only strengthens the deep link between people and nature, but also cultivates “cultural tourism + camp education” with “front store and back field” "Innovation model. The "front store" here includes cultural tourism experience, educational scenes and consumption scenes, and the "back store" includes fields and scenes including ecological farms, intangible cultural heritage, handicraftsmen, and cultural and creative artist-in-residence programs. The creation of Wilderness of the Earth The first exportable and linkable parent-child natural cultural creative experience brand in China.

With the development of the innovative model of “cultural tourism + camp education”, Xu Jianmin said that the future of cultural tourism must be cultural tourism with content. The development of cultural tourism is divided into three stages. The initial stage is mainly about sightseeing, the second stage is mainly about interactive experiential cultural tourism, and the third stage will enter spiritual experiential cultural tourism. In the future, the demand for content in cultural and tourism scenes will become higher and higher, and the understanding and practice of people and goods stores will also become more and more profound. For the Wilderness of the Earth, no matter how the industry situation develops, the original intention of doing a good job in nature education is always clear. On this basis, we will explore and practice the series of cultural tourism.

Finally, talking about the ever-popular topic of camping, Xu Jianmin said that camping camps account for the highest proportion among all camps this year, and it is expected that the number of camps of this type will continue to increase in the future. First of all, from a national perspective, there is no shortage of sites for camp development, including camping sites and accommodation sites, but there is a lack of excellent camp operators. Judging from this year's development, although camping camps continue to be popular, if the camp still lacks the operational ideas to upgrade and iterate to 2.0 or 3.0, then its popularity will soon fade away.

Secondly, although people have lost the novelty of traditional travel methods, they still have an unforgettable connection between people and nature. Therefore, camping rooted in nature and close to all natural creatures has become a travel method that people are keen to pursue. Although camping is popping up like mushrooms after the rain, camps still need to be carefully operated. The operation team should provide the camps with high-quality soft content to make camping a truly core activity.

author/Liu Xiaoyan

editor/Hu Xiaojiao