In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Foreword
  • Tim O'Connell and Garrett Hutson

We're pleased to present Volume 16 of Research in Outdoor Education. We trust you'll find the four articles and one resource review of interest. The first article by Brent J. Bell and Christa Ricker explores the idioculture often evident in outdoor orientation program student staff communities. While this idioculture does have some benefits, it can also create unique challenges for administrators, especially when specific aspects of the idioculture are outside accepted cultural norms.

The three other articles result from presentations given at or before the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors (CEO) Biennial Research Symposium held in January 2018 at Bradford Woods, Indiana. First, Anderson and Ewert report on the discussion of the pre-conference session on health and outdoor education settings. Directed by the overarching question of what role structured outdoor educational experiences play in enhanced human health outcomes, this article also reports on the conversations exploring sub-queries such as the length of exposure to natural environments necessary to influence health, and what environments and activities enhance positive health changes. Gaps in research and practice are also explored. Second, King and her colleagues examine how Wisconsin summer camps support campers in meeting national dietary and physical activity guidelines. Their results suggest that camps are largely successful in both regards. The authors recommend several strategies that camps can utilize to promote healthy eating and to encourage additional physical activity. Third, Cart-wright and Mitten review 34 different psychometric research instruments examining human-nature interactions. They describe the characteristics of each measure, determine ease-of-use based on time required to complete the instrument, and provide a brief overview of the development of each survey. Researchers needing to choose an instrument should find this article helpful.

Finally, we're pleased to present our first resource review of the documentary Daughters of the Forest: Saving the Forest One Girl at a Time. This DVD explores how a boarding school deep in the jungle in Paraguay uses experiential and environmental education to help young women complete [End Page vii] high school and serve as guardians of the Mbaracayú Forest Reserve. Filmmakers follow four young women on their journey from the first day of school through graduation and beyond. This documentary is recommended as a resource for instructors and scholars from a number of academic disciplines including experiential education, environmental education, women's and gender studies, social justice, Latin American studies, and Indigenous studies.

As always, professionals, students, and academics are encouraged to present original research, practice perspectives, reviews, conceptual and theoretical papers, student papers, brief reports and research notes to Research in Outdoor Education. Articles undergo a double-blind review process through reviewers with expertise appropriate to the particular submission. The review process takes approximately six weeks. The central criteria for publication are that the material is (a) germane to the topic of outdoor education; (b) theoretically, empirically, or practically based; and (c) substantive in the sense of proposing, discovering, or replicating knowledge in the field of outdoor education. Please contact us if you'd like to submit a manuscript or for more information about any style of submission.

Best regards, [End Page viii]

Tim O'Connell and Garrett Hutson
Co-editors of Research in Outdoor Education
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