3 Benefits of using the outside environment
Using the local outside environment will:
- help to contextualise learning, as it takes place in an authentic setting
- help your students to gain real-world, direct understanding of scientific concepts
- make learning more active rather than passive
- provide real opportunities for students to use observational skills, collect evidence and draw conclusions
- engage all the students, whatever their ability or learning needs
- provide opportunities for students to enhance their personal and social communication skills
- give students more room to move around in and to undertake ‘messier’ activities
- make learning experiences more memorable
- provide more spontaneous or unexpected learning opportunities
- promote students’ thinking skills
- develop links with the local community.
Such benefits will add greatly to your students’ understanding and will develop their empathy with the locality. As a teacher, you can cover a range of topics by taking your students out of the classroom into the school grounds or further afield so that learning is in a natural setting.
If you are in a village school you can take your students to fields, farms or ponds for a nature walk or other activities. If you teach in a city school you can take your students to places like parks, gardens, nurseries or a zoo.
The teacher in the next case study explores small habitats in the school grounds.
Case Study 3: Mrs Gita’s outdoor lesson
When Mrs Gita asked her students to describe a habitat, she noticed they referred to larger habitats and failed to give her examples of smaller ones that could be found in the local area. She decided to plan an outdoor activity so that her students would begin to identify habitats in their immediate surroundings.
A week before I planned to carry out the activity, I went round the school grounds to look for small habitats. These included a crack in the pavement, a large stone, a rotting tree branch and a patch of grass. I prepared a set of questions for each group to assist them in observing and investigating their habitat. I also checked that the area I was using was secure and free of any harmful plants or objects, and informed the Principal of what I was intending to do.
I introduced the activity in the classroom by asking my students to define what a habitat was and wrote their agreed definition on the board:
‘A habitat is a place where a collection of plants and animals live and which provides them with food and shelter.’
I have 32 students in my class so I organised them into groups of four and told my students what they were to do. I had written instructions on the board. They went out to the spots that I had numbered outside and carried out their investigation into their habitat.
First they had to decide whether the place I asked them to go to was a habitat. I allowed them time to discuss this. As I went round to each group I asked them to explain how they had reached their decision. If they were unsure, or if there were any disagreements within their group, we referred back to the agreed definition. My students agreed that the stone and the pavement were not habitats. They thought that the grass patch and tree branch were, however.
The task I set my students was:
What evidence would you look for, and what kinds of data would you collect, to prove it was a habitat?
They collected data about what was growing or living in their area. They could do this by making drawings or listing the living things they found. They could also bring other evidence but only if it did not harm the place, or the plant or animal.
Once they were outside, some groups of students quickly identified the habitats in each area, while other groups needed support to find them. Some students drew sketches of the small organisms that they found, while others added labels and notes.
The students collected samples of the soil and plant matter that were found at their habitat. Some were surprised when they lifted up a stone to find small spiders and woodlice. They noted how moist the soil was under the stone and took samples of rotten vegetation.
One group carefully observed the small plants that were growing out of the cracks in the pavement. They used their magnifying glasses and observed ants apparently eating small aphids that were clinging to the underside of the plants’ leaves.
I blew my whistle and asked my students to sit on the grass in their groups. I then asked them to present any evidence they had found that supported their claim that it was a habitat.
My students agreed that their understanding of habitats had changed and they now realised that areas such as under a stone could provide a small habitat.
Providing my students with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience had a direct impact on their learning. I could have simply told them in the classroom about the habitats I had identified in the school grounds, but I felt that giving them the opportunity to explore the habitats for themselves was far more motivating for them and deepened their understanding.
This enthusiasm continued into the lessons that followed, where we identified the living organisms we found and made a chart of our finds for each habitat.
 Video: Using groupwork |
2 Being resourceful