Lessons Learned

Practitioners, participants, evaluators, community members, funders, and additional groups across the field benefit when you share your evaluation designs, processes, methods, and lessons learned. They help all of us to consider:

  • How did I develop and strengthen community partnerships in my program and evaluation?
  • How did I use or adapt methods for my context?
  • What did I learn from previous work to apply to my program and evaluation?
  • What worked well for my program? 
  • What would I do differently?

When individual or collective evaluations are shared, they can also be aggregated to tell a broader story about the impact of environmental education. 

Evaluations can be shared in many ways, such as conferences, events, reports, infographics, blogs, and more. These examples showcase ways that organizations have shared their experiences using culturally responsive and equitable values and processes.

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Olivia Walton class of 2021 EE 30 Under 30

Colorado Parks & Wildlife Schools & Outdoor Learning Environments (SOLE) 

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s SOLE program connects elementary students across Colorado’s Front Range with hands-on, experiential learning at various State Parks, public lands, and historical spaces. Learn how they told their story using the voices of participating youth, as well as teachers.

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young girl observing sunflower

Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK)

ELK engages urban youth in outdoor and environmental education experiences throughout the school year and summer in the Mountain West. Learn how they used a mixed-methods approach to share and reflect on their experience in their own words, beyond numbers and data.

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Children kayaking

Nature Kids | Jovenes de la Naturaleza (NKJN)

Nature Kids | Jovenes de la Naturaleza (NKJN) engaged LatinX youth and families in east Boulder County, Colorado. They established a robust evaluation plan that applied best-of-fit tools to capture the lived experiences of families and youth. Learn about how they created welcoming spaces for the LatinX community.

Collective Evaluation

Evaluation can be improved in the community by planning and implementing with others who share similar missions, outcomes, and/or goals.

About Collective Evaluation