Outdoor Learning and STEM

Simon Watson

"We need to recognise children's own aspirations for play, not what adults think they should be doing, and to recognise that play takes many forms, not just play parks."

"There is a feeling that, in recent times, there has been too much focus on eliminating all risk to children rather than understanding risk. We must reverse this trend and equip children with the skills to manage risk and make positive choices based on assessing the situation facing them."

Early Years Framework (Scottish Government)

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the need to provide play opportunities for children which allow for exploration and 'experimental' play in environments which are not risk averse.

The recent 'Forest Schools' movement' allows exactly the kind of play opportunities that young children need to develop into fully rounded adults equipped not only with an education provided through 'formal schooling' but with skills and attributes borne out of the experiences of self-directed learning outdoors.

Although 'Forest Schools' may seem like a relatively new concept, it is, in fact, a return to what came before....

"Forest School in the UK may seem a fairly new movement. In reality it is based on a rich heritage of outdoor learning going back at least to the 19th century. Philosophers, naturalists and educators in Europe and the UK such as Wordsworth, Ruskin, Baden Powell, Leslie Paul (who founded the Woodcraft Folk in 1925), Kurt Hahn (who founded Gordonstone and was the inspiration for our first outdoor education centres), Susan Isaacs and the Macmillan sisters all laid the foundations for what is known as Forest School today. During the 1970s and 80s our education system moved toward a more teacher/outcome-centred approach in an attempt to improve numeracy and literacy, in particular, and we had the introduction of the national curriculum. Somewhat in response to this, there was a growth of ‘alternative’ educational models in the 1990s and it is in this context that Forest School emerged." (https://forestschoolassociation.org/history-of-forest-school/)

This year you will participate in a number of outdoor learning activities which can be adapted for working with children. In doing so, you will learn about session planning and risk assessment, so that, should you be given an opportunity to plan and facilitate an outdoor learning session, you have an understanding of what is required to do so safely, how to do so in a manner which meets the organisational requirements of many early learning and childcare settings, and, hopefully, you may have some ideas in your 'tool-box' ready to adapt to suit the age group with whom you are working.

In addition to simply 'doing' the activities, however, we will also use S.T.E.M. to further improve the knowledge and understanding of the children.

The STEM Approach

The STEM approach is all about promoting learning through exploration and discovery. It is about allowing the child the freedom to ask questions, to 'try things', and to work out how things work. It is our job to facilitate this kind of 'learning through curiosity.' It is not about 'passive' learning ... it is about the children learning through 'real life' experiences.

Children are inherently inquisitive creatures ... they want to find out what happens to A if they do something to B. They want to find out how things mix together, how things balance of top of one-another, how things move, how things grow, and how things change through time.

Children are curious learners, and it is our responsibility, as practitioners, to provide opportunities where that never-ending curiosity can be nurtured. If we can encourage children to play, explore and to ask questions, and if we can answer those questions in a way that leads to MORE questions, then we can help that child to develop a curiosity about the world in which they live, and to start to apply 'higher order' thinking skills to things. (To find out more about this, read the section on Bloom's Taxonomy in the resources section of this website)

This is the STEM approach ... when working with children, we should encourage exploration in play, and promote curiosity in the world around them. The video below is part of an online learning unit you will work through. It explains the importance of the language we use when working with children in any capacity, and is central to the ethos of STEM.