BEETLES Guide for Outdoor Science Program and Organization Leaders

This Guide is a planning tool to support leaders to successfully implement change in their organizations and programs. Change can be challenging, and it’s useful to know which approaches other leaders have found success or difficulty with. This guide offers recommendations and experiences from many other leaders, combined with research about effective approaches. We cover a lot of territory in this Guide. Its primary focus is on the specific use and implementation of BEETLES resources. And, it is also about achieving your particular goals for your outdoor science program, whether you use BEETLES resources or not.

We know from experience and research that an isolated workshop now and then or a few new student activities won’t lead to deep and durable change. We have also learned from our partners that diving too quickly into big changes can lead to frustrating results. Thoughtfully planned approaches that take the long view work best. Much of this document comes from professional relationships with leaders like you. (And by the way, in this Guide, we use the term organization leaders to include all leaders within an organization, such as program leaders, lead instructors, executive directors, etc. In other words, we think any employee can be an organizational leader.)

The original Guide, titled The Guide for Program Leaders in Outdoor Science, was published in 2017. Over several years, the BEETLES team worked to improve, revise, and update the guide to make it what it is today! The new and improved version, launched in summer of 2022 and titled BEETLES Guide for Outdoor Science Program and Organizational Leaders is available as an interactive site. If the virtual format isn’t your cup of tea, you can download PDF versions at the end of each chapter instead.