FARMINGTON — The University of Maine at Farmington’s next public forum event, featuring Dr. Patti Bailie’s presentation on “Partnering with Nature: An Introduction to Nature Based Education,” is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15.

This event will take place in the Emery Community Arts Center on Main Street of the UMF campus, according to a news release from the university.

The UMF Public Forum is an event series sponsored by the Office of the President. Each lecture will be followed by a discussion and a reception with light refreshments. It is free and open to the public.

An associate professor of early childhood education at the University of Maine at Farmington, Bailie has worked in the field of early childhood environmental education for 30 years. Her presentation will feature a comprehensive look at nature-based education.

“There are so many benefits for children when they spend time in the natural world in all domains of development,” said Bailie. “The most obvious is physical development as they balance on logs, climb trees and pick up acorns, helping with gross and fine motor skills. But also in their social/emotional development as they build their confidence through appropriate risk taking.”

Bailie has worked at three different nature centers in the Midwest. She was the assistant director of the nature-based Early Childhood Certificate Program at Antioch University New England; founding director of the Schlitz Audubon Nature Preschool in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and co-director of the Early Childhood Outdoors Institute in Omaha, Nebraska.

For more information, contact April Mulherin, UMF associate director for media relations, at 207-778-7081 or [email protected].

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