Outdoor Leadershop and Education Certificate

The Outdoor Leadership and Education graduate certificate program will allow students to expand their knowledge and skills to facilitate meaningful, high-quality outdoor learning experiences for participants of all ages. This certificate will focus on providing the professional skills, content knowledge, and field experience needed for those who wish to lead outdoor programming for PK-12 students, post-secondary education students, or adult participants. The prospective students for this program will be those currently employed or who wish to work in the field and those - such as PK-12 educators - who wish to incorporate more experiential and outdoor programming into their existing jobs.

University of Maine Outdoor Leadership and Education graduate certificate program students will be able to… - plan and facilitate safe, meaningful, appropriate outdoor activity and outdoor learning experiences for diverse participants and in diverse settings, - use and build upon their existing professional knowledge, experience, and skills to incorporate outdoor activities and learning into their instructional practices in dynamic and innovative ways, and - thoughtfully and ethically incorporate elements of place into learning experiences.

 The OLE graduate certificate program is 15 credits. The program of study is outlined below. Note that in-person and field based courses are required. Some courses are offered through the University of Maine Machias.

Required Courses:
KPE 512 Ethics and Social Justice in Outdoor Leadership
KPE 550 Bringing the Classroom Outdoors

Pedagogy of Place Electives (students must choose two courses from the following list; courses are through UMaine unless otherwise noted):
- REM 412 Interpretation of Natural and Cultural Resources (UMM) or SFR 452
- NAS 410 Advanced Topics in Native American Studies: Teaching Wabanaki Studies
- MES 540 Maine and the Northeast Borderlands
- MES 520 Advanced Topics in Maine Studies
- EHD 590 Topics in Education: Rural and Community Leadership
- EHD 691 Education Apprenticeship - in conjunction with UMM courses REM 327 or ENV 312

 Field Experience: - EHD 657 Education Practicum: In conjunction with UMaine courses KPE 396 or KPE 280, or UMM course REM 212

For more information please visit https://umaine.edu/edhd/graduate/special-education-masters-cas/