Following are ten SmartStrategies™ from my Multiple Intelligence Toolbox. I've included these to give you some instant ways to incorporate NatureSmart into the mentoring, coaching, and training you provide.

The basic process for doing this is . . .

1. Name the content or information you want to teach. Get very clear on the specific concepts, ideas, processes, skills, etc. that you want to get across in your mentoring, coaching, or training session.

2. Write down the learning objective(s) you have for the mentoring, coaching, or training session. What do you want your participants to be crystal clear on at the end of the mentoring, coaching, or training session?

3. Look over the SmartStrategies™ below and select a couple of strategies you believe can help participants understand what you're teaching more fully in an NatureSmart way. Basically you'll be asking them to in some way create "visual representations" of the content you're teaching.

4. Outline your teaching plan, incorporating the SmartStrategies™ you've chosen into your mentoring, coaching, or training. You'll likely be teaching something you've taught before, but this time in a new way – accessing your and your participants NatureSmart.

[NOTE: The descriptions I've provided of the various tools are merely to help you get started working with this intelligence in your mentoring, coaching, or training. Feel free to redefine any of the tools I've provided and to add additional strategies to the toolbox!]

• Archetypal pattern recognition–discover the universal, repeating patterns of nature

• Caring for animals–get involved in projects that involve caring for or training animals

• Conservation practices–get involved in projects which care for and preserve the natural environment

• Environmental feedback–tune into the natural feedback coming from the environment

• Hands-on labs–perform experiments or activities using objects from the natural world

• Nature encounter/field trips–participate firsthand experiences outside in nature

• Nature observation–get involved in activities such as bird-watching, geological explorations, or keeping a “nature journal”

• Natural world simulations–recreate or represent nature in such forms as montages, dioramas, photographs, or drawings)

• Species classification–use classification matrices to understand characteristic of natural objects

• Sensory stimulation exerices–expose the senses to nature’s sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and sights

• Growing/caring for plants–initiate projects involving planting and caring for plants and flowers

• Nature logs/journals–go to a natural setting and record the full impact of the setting on your five senses and your inner world

• Natural linkages–reflect on all the places your life and your job are linked to nature

• Nature recordings–record key nature experiences via photography, audio-tapes, poetry, writings

• Everyday nature impacts–keep a daily log of every way nature impacts your life

Return to NatureSmart Home Page