Into the wild – hands-on learning in conjunction with Mother Nature

Learning is not an activity that needs to be glued to a classroom. It can take place in nature – disjointed from the school building – and therewith offers so much more to the growing minds of children. It certainly requires effort and organizational skills from teachers, but their commitment pays off enormously: Various projects show how much students can benefit from excursions and workshops outside.

Nature offers a wide range of learning activities for children: For instance, there are workshops in the woods where children join forest rangers on their tour, learn about his/her work and its implications for men and nature, as well as about the wild flora and fauna. In some projects children are even included in afforestation and can plant trees together with the experts. Thereby the importance of the environment for our own existence becomes apparent, which is especially enriching to children living in the cities as it helps to repel growing alienation from nature.

Yet, outdoor activities are not necessarily traditional or old-school. Rather they can be further enriched by smart media. For example, children can be advised to use GPS for an exploration of meadows, fields and woods, and as a result get to know the interconnectedness of modern technology and the environment. Orienteering-style challenges like that enhance their digital skills, get them moving and cooperating as teams – all at the same time.

If it appears to be impossible to get a whole class out of the city into nature, nature can (nearly) just as much be brought into the city. Therefore, urban gardening projects are a raving success. Children enjoy the hands-on work, the digging in the earth, the planting of seeds and the continuous care for their crops. The key word here is “continuous”: The children learn to stick to a project and dedicate enduring attention to it until it finally yields and some harvest can be brought in. Witnessing this process of a seed becoming a fruit teaches children much about agriculture, they are enabled to better trace connections between humanity and nature. And eventually, they even experience the pleasure of enjoying their self-grown products in self-cooked meals. One project can thus combine lessons on biology, farming, sustainability and a healthy diet and at the same time offer an active compensation to sitting in a classroom.

All these positive aspects might seem already convincing enough, however, some others come along with external workshops: Students get the chance to independently approach new tasks, to learn to solve complex problems in their own manner and most importantly to do so as a group. Workshops and excursions are very appropriate means of practicing team work as well as other soft skills like solidarity, empathy, responsibility and tolerance, which all are highly valuable assets in our future society and working world.

Author: Andrea Ruscher