Benefits of Outdoor Learning Schools
Outdoor learning schools are changing the educational landscape for both students and teachers. Outdoor education is totally immersive for students, and that immersion promotes focus and enhances learning for any age. It is not hard to see the many benefits of outdoor learning, including increased academic performance, enhanced mental health, encouraging healthy choices, and increasing environmental awareness.
What are Outdoor Learning Schools?
Schools that promote outdoor learning mean that there are designated spaces that teachers can use when educating students. These spaces may include woodlands and other settings where students will feel empowered to explore, experiment, and connect with lessons in new more authentic ways than indoor education allows.
Outdoor learning encourages creativity, and conversations that would not take place in a traditional indoor learning space. By teaching outdoors, educators can capitalize on the myriad of benefits that nature brings with it to any assignment: observing wildlife, gardening, or performing other outdoor pursuits that tie in with a lesson in ways that students usually cannot experience in a traditional indoor space.
More robust learning experiences can be gained through sensory elements that will have students more engaged in the content being learned. Outdoor classrooms offer a vibrant educational experience where students are encouraged to meaningfully interact with nature in ways they may never comprehend.
Benefits Of Outdoor Classrooms
In a tech-driven world it can be difficult to pull kids away from the distractions that are in front of them. When learning outdoors, these students will have opportunities to do things that do not utilize a screen.
Encourages Engagement
Learners of all ages will be meaningfully engaged in the lessons presented to them, allowing students to get dirt under their fingernails while engaged in the first stages of learning. Students will start asking more questions and be much more connected to nature. All students learn differently and students who learn by doing and using exploratory and environmental methods will become the teachers of the knowledge communicated to them.
Enhance Focus
Many kids struggle with sitting still and listening in a traditional classroom mode. Of course, this is partly due to the digital stimulation they experience. However, a hands-on learning experience will engage students in a way that they are able to pay attention and focus on the lesson while maximizing their overall learning.
Improve Motivation
Again, the digital age has caused students to become very lazy about learning because technology can do everything for them. So, outdoor learning will give students the will to be less dependent on technology and become accustomed to an experience that is more hands-on. Outdoor learning creates a stimulating environment that encourages not just motivation to learn, but an excitement to learn.
Connecting More Than One Subject
Outdoor classrooms allow teachers to connect more than one topic. For example, students can go on a nature hike (promoting health) where they can partake in a scavenger hunt for specific objects. Everything has a story attached to it, and this gives teachers opportunities to explore science and history, as well as math and biology. Taking samples of water from a creek nearby can allow students to analyze what is in the water while also determining the water’s pH level or temperature. It’s easy to see how you can intertwine different subjects throughout one lesson.
Connecting Learning With the Real World
Lessons that are taught outdoors help students understand how they will use the knowledge that is being taught to them in the real world. This means that lessons will become more relevant in their daily lives, and as a result, the students’ comprehension of the lesson will greatly improve.
Improve Health
When students engage in outdoor activities, they are moving their bodies. Teachers can allow outdoor learning to be connected to challenging a child’s physical health. When children are introduced to outdoor learning at an early age, they are more likely to connect with nature in and outside the classroom. Teaching children outdoors will promote healthy habits that will follow them through life.
Connecting Athletics to Learning
Plenty of kids enjoy participating in sports and athletics, but a great many children will never be able to experience these activities, typically for the reason that these extracurricular activities cost money, and some families cannot afford the incremental expense.
Athletics in outdoor learning schools allows all children to try certain activities that they may otherwise not have the chance to try. This can spark an interest and help students become more athletic in their own time.
Decrease Stress
Some students feel stressed out when attending classes indoors. Being enclosed all day long causes stress that we are not even aware of. By taking a classroom outdoors for a lesson, teachers see a decrease in the stress that students have during the school day.
Other Benefits Of Outdoor Learning Schools
- Improves mental health
- Allow students to connect with nature
- Improves social interaction
- Helps foster a relationship between the environment and the child
- Builds confidence
- Enhances academic performance
- Encourages collaboration
- Help students develop resilience and adaptability
- Encourages problem-solving and creativity
Now is the Time
Outdoor learning schools became popular back when tuberculosis was discovered. Teachers found a way to teach children in a safe environment and outdoor lessons became very popular in this era. Outdoor learning can help support your child’s learning journey and assist them to succeed in many areas of their life. Outdoor learning is well-suited for the technological age, in which children are slowly losing touch with society. Bringing it back to nature will help a growing child thrive in all the best possible ways.
Also Read: Outdoor Education and Emotional Wellness: The Role of Nature in Therapeutic
