The Regeneration Lab

What if nature connection is less about visiting nature and more about building a relationship over time? In this conversation, Miles Holmes explores deep nature connection through sit spots, sensory awareness, mentoring and Indigenous perspectives. We discuss how repeated encounters with place can grow from familiarity into kinship, how nature can support wellbeing and meaning-making, and why connection is more than recreation. Miles also reflects on bringing these practices into health and higher education, and on the importance of mentoring the next generation to keep the relationship alive.

Key themes
Nature connection · Sit spot practice · Sensory awareness · Indigenous knowledge · Mentoring

About the guest
Dr. Miles Holmes is an anthropologist and Director of NatureFix, whose work brings together deep nature connection, outdoor facilitation, Indigenous collaboration and nature-based approaches to health and wellbeing. Drawing on more than two decades of nature connection practice and work with Warlpiri communities in Central Australia, Miles explores how repeated attention to place, sensory awareness and mentoring can help people move from simply encountering nature towards developing meaningful relationships with the living world.

Explore Miles’s work:
NatureFix - https://www.naturefix.life
The Connective - https://www.theconnective.co

What changes when students are invited not only to learn about nature, but to notice, question and relate to it? In this conversation, Alette Los, Jetske de Boer and Sandra van der Wielen explore nature-inclusive teacher education through place-based observation, sensory experience, dialogue and experimentation. From adopting a place and hunting for species to the damselfly as a metaphor for transformation, we discuss how curiosity can reshape the way students see their surroundings. They also reflect on resistance, real-world learning and what it might mean to treat nature as a stakeholder in education and decision-making.

Key themes
Nature-inclusive education · Nature connectedness · Teacher education · Experiential learning · Nature as stakeholder

About the guests
Alette Los, Jetske de Boer and Sandra van der Wielen are educators and researchers at Aeres University of Applied Sciences in Wageningen, whose work spans nature-inclusive learning, biodiversity, ecology and teacher education. Through the LENS research group — Learning for a Nature-Inclusive Society, they explore how future educators and practitioners can learn with and from the living world through observation, experience, reflection and dialogue, while developing more relational ways of understanding their place within nature.

Explore their work and resources:
LENS — Learning for a Nature-Inclusive Society
Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)
De Boer, J. G., Beukenkamp, M., Los, A., Ven, S. & Wielen, S. (2025). Bugs in the system. Aeres Hogeschool.

What if connecting with nature became a normal part of how we learn and care for ourselves? In this conversation, Waminda Parker explores nature connection as an embodied practice for wellbeing, self-regulation and meaningful learning. From moving beyond cognitive knowledge to noticing, relating and reflecting, we discuss NatureFix’s approach to helping people engage more deeply with everyday green spaces. Waminda also reflects on student wellbeing, nature as a co-facilitator, translating research into practice, and her hope that nature connection becomes embedded across disciplines rather than remaining something educators have to fight for.

Key themes
Nature connectedness · Embodied learning · Wellbeing · Noticing · Nature-based interventions

About the guest
Waminda Parker is co-founder and Director of NatureFix, where she works at the intersection of nature connection, health, education and wellbeing. With a background in biology and conservation genetics, her work focuses on translating growing research on human–nature relationships into accessible practices and learning environments that support self-regulation, deeper noticing and meaningful connection with the natural world.

Explore Waminda’s work:
Naturefix - www.naturefix.life

What if nature-based pedagogy could change not only what students know, but how they relate to the world? In this conversation, Katinka Quintelier and Karen Verduijn explore forest bathing, EcoWalks and nature-based learning in business education. From sensory practices and post-anthropocentric entrepreneurship to student resistance, collective experimentation and Plato’s Garden, we discuss how embodied encounters can challenge the idea of students as “heads on sticks.” Katinka and Karen also reflect on creating fertile ground for transformation and helping small educational sprouts grow into a wider ecosystem.

Key themes
Nature-based pedagogy · Embodied learning · Eco-justice · Post-anthropocentric entrepreneurship · Educational transformation

About the guests
Dr. Katinka Quintelier and Dr. Karen Verduijn are researchers and educators at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam whose work brings nature-based pedagogy into questions of sustainability, ethics, entrepreneurship and socio-ecological transformation. Katinka explores ethical value creation for people and nature and experiments with practices such as forest bathing. Karen works to reimagine entrepreneurship education beyond anthropocentric assumptions, bringing eco-justice and critical posthuman perspectives more centrally into the field. Together, they contribute to Plato’s Garden, a growing VU community around nature-based pedagogy.

Explore their work and resources:
Transforming Enterprise Education (TrEE) - www.transformingee.eu
Plato’s Garden - https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/research-institutes/amsterdam-sustainability-institute/more-about/asi-research-cluster-nature-based-pedagogy
Verduijn, K., Hytti, U. & Arias, S. L. (2026). Reimagining entrepreneurship education in the Anthropocene: A critical posthuman practice approach. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 26, e00653.
Quintelier, K. J. P. (2024). Approaching Wicked Issues in Practice, in Theory, and in the Wild. In Sustainability Stories.

What if nature-based learning could help students feel more connected, to place, to one another, and to themselves? In this conversation, Nicole Kras, Tara Bahl, Karen Williams and Samuel Finesurrey share how an interdisciplinary community at Guttman Community College is bringing learning beyond the classroom and into New York City’s green spaces. From mindfulness, urban farming and beekeeping to history, identity and critical reflection, we explore how embodied experiences can foster belonging, well-being and curiosity. The group also reflects on student voice, interdisciplinary collaboration, institutional support and the radical possibilities of nature-based learning in higher education.

Key themes
Nature-based learning · Belonging · Embodied learning · Interdisciplinary collaboration · Student voice

About the guests
Nicole Kras, Tara Bahl, Karen Williams and Samuel Finesurrey are educators at Guttman Community College, City University of New York (CUNY), where they contribute to an interdisciplinary community exploring nature-based learning in urban higher education. Their work brings perspectives from human services, mindfulness, history, identity and critical pedagogy into shared experiments that connect classroom learning with New York City’s green spaces, while exploring implications for student well-being, belonging, critical thinking and community.

Explore their work and resources:
Guttman Resources - https://greenguttman.commons.gc.cuny.edu/research/
Kras, N., Finesurrey, S., Williams, K. G. & Bahl, T. (2026). Uprooting traditional classroom: Belonging, wellness and critical learning through community college nature-based education. New Directions for Community Colleges.
Kras, N., Martin, T. & Bahl, T. (2025). Learning beyond words: Initial findings on non-discursive learning in nature-based education. Community College Journal of Research and Practice.
Kras, N., Martin, T., Bahl, T. & Tesser, D. (2025). Incorporating nature-based learning experiences across disciplines: Inspirations from urban community college faculty. Change, 57(1), 20–27.
Kras, N. (2024). A model for embedding nature-based learning across disciplines: A pilot study at an urban community college. The Community College Enterprise, 30(1), 9.