UMD adds second major for budding outdoor educators

A wooded area off West Fifth Street in Duluth has more than just trees.

Stand on top of a stump there, a preschooler in Desi Hagenbeck’s impromptu class at Wind Ridge Schoolhouse explained on Wednesday, and you might find yourself covered in honey. If you strike a cool pose there long enough – for a lifetime, even – you might turn to stone.

The student, who meandered away without answering follow-up questions from the News Tribune, is one of about a dozen enrolled at the Observation Hill neighborhood preschool, which emphasizes outdoor learning. Hagenbeck, meanwhile, has ticked several boxes required for a new major at the University of Minnesota Duluth for people who want to teach in nature.

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