In a world increasingly full of algorithms and AI, the need for authentic, learner‐generated evidence has never been more critical. As Pashia and Schorn describe, "Without a transparent record of how we arrive at insights, AI systems can only regurgitate conclusions without confidence or context".
One of my personal goals is to cultivate more curiosity and to ask deeper questions. In the words of nature journal keeper John Muir Laws, “Questions used to come to me, now I come to questions.” My own nature journal centres on direct observation, yet I also use it as a research tool. If I spot a bird I cannot immediately identify I’ll sketch it, note salient features, then consult field guides or photographs to learn the differences. Each drawing or diagram deepens my understanding; the focus is learning rather than art, even though the practice brings me to draw every day.
The Power of Journaling on the Land: Connecting Learners to Place, Process, and Purpose
John Muir Laws, wrote “A nature journal is a visual and written narrative of our personal experience with the natural world.” This insight speaks to the way a nature journal can transform fleeting moments into lasting understanding. When we carry a notebook into the woods, across a prairie, or along a shoreline, we create a space to witness, document, and share every nuance of our encounter with the land. In an era of polished photographs and algorithm-curated feeds, the act of careful documentation in journaling restores depth and authenticity to learning, revealing growth through struggle, curiosity through questions, and achievement through small details often overlooked.
The Roots Of Nature Journaling
Humans have long sought to capture the world around us. Naturalists such as Henry David Thoreau and Beatrix Potter elevated the personal field journal into a powerful blend of scientific record and creative expression. Their richly detailed entries - sketches of redwood grooves, watercolour studies of fungi, and reflective prose on seasonal rhythms—continue to inspire modern learners to use pen and paper as tools for both discovery and imagination. In an age when AI can generate flawless images and synthesize vast bodies of information in an instant, the tactile act of journaling on the land becomes even more essential. Journaling serves as a living map of the learner’s journey. Each entry marks where curiosity led, what questions arose, and how understanding deepened over time. By recording initial observations alongside subsequent reflections, a journal makes visible the often‐invisible work of learning: the false starts, the “aha” moments, the hypotheses tested and refined.
Looking through a journal can trace how the learner's tentative sketches and simple notes evolved into accurate diagrams and thoughtful analyses. This progression transforms the journal from a static record into a narrative of growth. For example, an early drawing of a leaf might simply capture its outline, while later entries will annotate vein patterns, seasonal color changes, and ecological relationships. Those layered insights attest not only to improved drawing skill, but to deeper botanical knowledge and systems thinking. Moreover, the act of writing questions like, “Why do juvenile bald eagles have mottled plumage?”, and then returning to answer them through research and further field observations, demonstrates the learner’s expanding agency. Each answered question becomes evidence of self-directed investigation; each new question, a signal of ongoing engagement.
In classroom settings, sharing one’s journal entries allows peers and educators to witness the arc of understanding, rather than judging solely on end products or test scores. A journal entry might begin with “I wasn’t sure what cloud type this was,” and conclude days later with a diagram labeled “Altocumulus stratiformis,” accompanied by notes on how its formation relates to incoming weather systems. That transformation - from uncertainty to clarity - is the essence of the learning journey, made both tangible and traceable through intentional, consistent documentation.
By weaving together real-time observations, reflective commentary, and iterative refinement, a nature journal becomes more than a collection of images and notes - it becomes a personalized chronicle of how a learner thinks, questions, and grows. In doing so, it not only captures what has been learned but also models how learning happens: through persistent curiosity, conscientious documentation, and the courage to revisit and rethink one’s own ideas.
Defining a Land Journal
A land journal weaves together observation, measurement, visual art, and reflection into a single narrative tapestry. On one page, a student might describe the way morning dew clings to a spider’s web, note the air temperature with a thermometer, sketch the branching pattern of an oak leaf, and pose a question about how changes in light influence insect behaviour. Each of these elements serves as evidence: evidence of the learner’s attention, their evolving skills, and their deepening relationship with place. Effective journaling is, at its essence, an act of documentation—an intentional practice of recording the raw materials of experience so that insights can emerge.
The Importance of Documentation in Journaling
Without meticulous documentation, a nature journal remains a scrapbook of impressions rather than a tool for learning. Documentation in journaling is the deliberate practice of capturing not just what is seen or felt, but how and why those observations matter. It involves time-stamping entries, noting location and conditions, labeling sketches with species names or measurement scales, and recording both successes and uncertainties. This ensures that later reflection is grounded in concrete evidence rather than vague memory. Moreover, well-documented journals build trust when shared, whether with classmates, community researchers, or conservation partners, because clear records reveal the depth of inquiry and the authenticity of the learner’s voice.
Where to Start with students:
Begin with notes. Have students open their journals and make notes. This is an intentional promise that they will return later to complete the entry. Start by writing the date, location, and observations. Note current weather conditions, (you can employing NOAA weather symbols to denote sky cover and cloud types), a shorthand that both looks compelling and prompts deeper meteorological learning. Occasionally I have students sketch a small scene. Tracking these rhythms grounds us in the passage of time and seasonality. This five-minute ritual sets intentions, and establishes a starting point for more expansive journaling.
Later, have students take a walk and allow new observations to guide further entries. The walks can sometimes be just five minutes, sometimes longer. Quick pen sketches capture moments, while pencil affords play and refinement.
I view this not as work but as play, echoing an exercise from a field-journal challenge: draw a leaf each day. That simple prompt removed pressure, focusing the task on discovery rather than perfection—even when winter’s six inches of snow intervened!
Angela Stockman describes Three Phases of Place-Based Journaling:
The process of land journaling can be understood in three interconnected phases.
First, learners journal to remember by capturing sensory details and in-the-moment reactions, creating a rich archive of raw data. These entries might include quick sketches of emerging wildflower buds or brief notes on the resonance of bird calls at dawn.
Next, they journal to reflect, reviewing past entries and discerning patterns: perhaps noticing that later bloom times coincide with cooler springs, or that certain insects only appear after heavy rains. Reflection transforms isolated observations into coherent stories of ecological change.
Finally, learners journal to act, using their documented insights to guide stewardship projects—planting native species, conducting citizen-science surveys, or advocating for habitat protection. In this phase, documentation becomes the bridge between personal learning and meaningful engagement with community and conservation efforts.
Takeaways
Begin small—ten to twenty minutes a day is achievable.
If drawing feels daunting, start with metadata: date, place, weather.
Treat your journal as play rather than work.
Through consistency and curiosity, your land journal will become both companion and catalyst for growing wonder, deeper understanding, and meaningful engagement with the world around you.
When students learn to document with rigor (timestamping their observations, labeling species precisely, annotating sketches with measurement scales), they build not only knowledge but also the confidence and agency to shape their own learning. And in doing so, they reclaim the most vital part of education: the story of how they learned.
Reference List
Dillard, A. (1974). Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Harper’s Magazine Press.
Thoreau, H. D. (1854). Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Ticknor and Fields.
Muir, J. (1911). My First Summer in the Sierra. Houghton Mifflin.
Stockman, A. (2019). The Field Guide to Documentation and Reflection. Education & Democracy Press.
Goodall Institute. (n.d.). Roots & Shoots. Retrieved from https://www.rootsandshoots.org
The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (2017) John Myer Laws
https://www.exploringoverland.com/constantapprentice/2020/3/9/book-debut-nature-journaling-for-a-wild-life-1
Hannah Hinchman’s A Trail through Leaves; The Journal as a Path to Place.
A Life in Hand Hannah Hinchman
Nature Drawing: A tool for learningClaire Walker Leslie
The Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in NatureCathy Johnson
In Season: A natural history of the New England YearNona Estrin and Charles Johnson
The Last Island: A Naturalist’s Sojourn on Triangle IslandAllison Watt
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501772634/the-nature-study-idea/#bookTabs=1
Resources:
iNaturalist. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2025, from https://www.inaturalist.org
eBird. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2025, from https://ebird.org
https://lbaldwin.sites.tru.ca/files/2019/03/Documthemoment_10.pdf
https://vickiehenderson.blogspot.com/2017/03/watercolor-nature-journaling-workshop.html
https://ostomyoutdoors.com/tag/nature-journaling/
Austin's butterfly: https://vimeo.com/38247060
https://donnallong.com/winter-nature-journal/
https://lbaldwin.sites.tru.ca/wells-gray/
http://www.kristinlink.com/scienceillustration
Nature Journal:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370222018_Empowering_Elementary_Students_through_Interactive_Nature_Journaling
file:///Users/ackatzko/Downloads/11_Cheuk_EmpoweringElementaryStudentsthroughinteractivenaturejournaling.pdf
Example of Historical Field Journals:
https://siarchives.si.edu/about/field-book-project
One of my personal goals is to cultivate more curiosity and to ask deeper questions. In the words of nature journal keeper John Muir Laws, “Questions used to come to me, now I come to questions.” My own nature journal centres on direct observation, yet I also use it as a research tool. If I spot a bird I cannot immediately identify I’ll sketch it, note salient features, then consult field guides or photographs to learn the differences. Each drawing or diagram deepens my understanding; the focus is learning rather than art, even though the practice brings me to draw every day.
The Power of Journaling on the Land: Connecting Learners to Place, Process, and Purpose
John Muir Laws, wrote “A nature journal is a visual and written narrative of our personal experience with the natural world.” This insight speaks to the way a nature journal can transform fleeting moments into lasting understanding. When we carry a notebook into the woods, across a prairie, or along a shoreline, we create a space to witness, document, and share every nuance of our encounter with the land. In an era of polished photographs and algorithm-curated feeds, the act of careful documentation in journaling restores depth and authenticity to learning, revealing growth through struggle, curiosity through questions, and achievement through small details often overlooked.
The Roots Of Nature Journaling
Humans have long sought to capture the world around us. Naturalists such as Henry David Thoreau and Beatrix Potter elevated the personal field journal into a powerful blend of scientific record and creative expression. Their richly detailed entries - sketches of redwood grooves, watercolour studies of fungi, and reflective prose on seasonal rhythms—continue to inspire modern learners to use pen and paper as tools for both discovery and imagination. In an age when AI can generate flawless images and synthesize vast bodies of information in an instant, the tactile act of journaling on the land becomes even more essential. Journaling serves as a living map of the learner’s journey. Each entry marks where curiosity led, what questions arose, and how understanding deepened over time. By recording initial observations alongside subsequent reflections, a journal makes visible the often‐invisible work of learning: the false starts, the “aha” moments, the hypotheses tested and refined.
Looking through a journal can trace how the learner's tentative sketches and simple notes evolved into accurate diagrams and thoughtful analyses. This progression transforms the journal from a static record into a narrative of growth. For example, an early drawing of a leaf might simply capture its outline, while later entries will annotate vein patterns, seasonal color changes, and ecological relationships. Those layered insights attest not only to improved drawing skill, but to deeper botanical knowledge and systems thinking. Moreover, the act of writing questions like, “Why do juvenile bald eagles have mottled plumage?”, and then returning to answer them through research and further field observations, demonstrates the learner’s expanding agency. Each answered question becomes evidence of self-directed investigation; each new question, a signal of ongoing engagement.
In classroom settings, sharing one’s journal entries allows peers and educators to witness the arc of understanding, rather than judging solely on end products or test scores. A journal entry might begin with “I wasn’t sure what cloud type this was,” and conclude days later with a diagram labeled “Altocumulus stratiformis,” accompanied by notes on how its formation relates to incoming weather systems. That transformation - from uncertainty to clarity - is the essence of the learning journey, made both tangible and traceable through intentional, consistent documentation.
By weaving together real-time observations, reflective commentary, and iterative refinement, a nature journal becomes more than a collection of images and notes - it becomes a personalized chronicle of how a learner thinks, questions, and grows. In doing so, it not only captures what has been learned but also models how learning happens: through persistent curiosity, conscientious documentation, and the courage to revisit and rethink one’s own ideas.
Defining a Land Journal
A land journal weaves together observation, measurement, visual art, and reflection into a single narrative tapestry. On one page, a student might describe the way morning dew clings to a spider’s web, note the air temperature with a thermometer, sketch the branching pattern of an oak leaf, and pose a question about how changes in light influence insect behaviour. Each of these elements serves as evidence: evidence of the learner’s attention, their evolving skills, and their deepening relationship with place. Effective journaling is, at its essence, an act of documentation—an intentional practice of recording the raw materials of experience so that insights can emerge.
The Importance of Documentation in Journaling
Without meticulous documentation, a nature journal remains a scrapbook of impressions rather than a tool for learning. Documentation in journaling is the deliberate practice of capturing not just what is seen or felt, but how and why those observations matter. It involves time-stamping entries, noting location and conditions, labeling sketches with species names or measurement scales, and recording both successes and uncertainties. This ensures that later reflection is grounded in concrete evidence rather than vague memory. Moreover, well-documented journals build trust when shared, whether with classmates, community researchers, or conservation partners, because clear records reveal the depth of inquiry and the authenticity of the learner’s voice.
Where to Start with students:
Begin with notes. Have students open their journals and make notes. This is an intentional promise that they will return later to complete the entry. Start by writing the date, location, and observations. Note current weather conditions, (you can employing NOAA weather symbols to denote sky cover and cloud types), a shorthand that both looks compelling and prompts deeper meteorological learning. Occasionally I have students sketch a small scene. Tracking these rhythms grounds us in the passage of time and seasonality. This five-minute ritual sets intentions, and establishes a starting point for more expansive journaling.
Later, have students take a walk and allow new observations to guide further entries. The walks can sometimes be just five minutes, sometimes longer. Quick pen sketches capture moments, while pencil affords play and refinement.
I view this not as work but as play, echoing an exercise from a field-journal challenge: draw a leaf each day. That simple prompt removed pressure, focusing the task on discovery rather than perfection—even when winter’s six inches of snow intervened!
Angela Stockman describes Three Phases of Place-Based Journaling:
The process of land journaling can be understood in three interconnected phases.
First, learners journal to remember by capturing sensory details and in-the-moment reactions, creating a rich archive of raw data. These entries might include quick sketches of emerging wildflower buds or brief notes on the resonance of bird calls at dawn.
Next, they journal to reflect, reviewing past entries and discerning patterns: perhaps noticing that later bloom times coincide with cooler springs, or that certain insects only appear after heavy rains. Reflection transforms isolated observations into coherent stories of ecological change.
Finally, learners journal to act, using their documented insights to guide stewardship projects—planting native species, conducting citizen-science surveys, or advocating for habitat protection. In this phase, documentation becomes the bridge between personal learning and meaningful engagement with community and conservation efforts.
Takeaways
Begin small—ten to twenty minutes a day is achievable.
If drawing feels daunting, start with metadata: date, place, weather.
Treat your journal as play rather than work.
Through consistency and curiosity, your land journal will become both companion and catalyst for growing wonder, deeper understanding, and meaningful engagement with the world around you.
When students learn to document with rigor (timestamping their observations, labeling species precisely, annotating sketches with measurement scales), they build not only knowledge but also the confidence and agency to shape their own learning. And in doing so, they reclaim the most vital part of education: the story of how they learned.
Reference List
Dillard, A. (1974). Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Harper’s Magazine Press.
Thoreau, H. D. (1854). Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Ticknor and Fields.
Muir, J. (1911). My First Summer in the Sierra. Houghton Mifflin.
Stockman, A. (2019). The Field Guide to Documentation and Reflection. Education & Democracy Press.
Goodall Institute. (n.d.). Roots & Shoots. Retrieved from https://www.rootsandshoots.org
The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (2017) John Myer Laws
https://www.exploringoverland.com/constantapprentice/2020/3/9/book-debut-nature-journaling-for-a-wild-life-1
Hannah Hinchman’s A Trail through Leaves; The Journal as a Path to Place.
A Life in Hand Hannah Hinchman
Nature Drawing: A tool for learningClaire Walker Leslie
The Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in NatureCathy Johnson
In Season: A natural history of the New England YearNona Estrin and Charles Johnson
The Last Island: A Naturalist’s Sojourn on Triangle IslandAllison Watt
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501772634/the-nature-study-idea/#bookTabs=1
Resources:
iNaturalist. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2025, from https://www.inaturalist.org
eBird. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2025, from https://ebird.org
https://lbaldwin.sites.tru.ca/files/2019/03/Documthemoment_10.pdf
https://vickiehenderson.blogspot.com/2017/03/watercolor-nature-journaling-workshop.html
https://ostomyoutdoors.com/tag/nature-journaling/
Austin's butterfly: https://vimeo.com/38247060
https://donnallong.com/winter-nature-journal/
https://lbaldwin.sites.tru.ca/wells-gray/
http://www.kristinlink.com/scienceillustration
Nature Journal:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370222018_Empowering_Elementary_Students_through_Interactive_Nature_Journaling
file:///Users/ackatzko/Downloads/11_Cheuk_EmpoweringElementaryStudentsthroughinteractivenaturejournaling.pdf
Example of Historical Field Journals:
https://siarchives.si.edu/about/field-book-project