Get Out of the Classroom and onto the Trail!

 

As the weather gets nicer, and students begin to feel a bit trapped being indoors, it can be nice to take a break for a day and go outside on a nature walk. 

When I taught at the Museum School in San Diego, we were fortunate to have a trail within walking distance. We also took field trips to local nature preserves. It required some extra effort but was always well worth it!

A nature walk can provide a brief pause from standards-based academics. The natural learning and unexpected discoveries that take place have value in themselves, as does the connection students can form with the natural world. This connection can plant seeds of a lifelong curiosity about ecosystems.

Some students were lucky to catch a glimpse of a gray fox!

Nature walks can also be used to highlight concepts being explored in class. Erosion, natural selection, invasive species, human impact, and biotic vs. abiotic factors are examples of topics that can be reinforced while on the trail. 

At times I used a walk as a stand-alone activity. Other times I used it as a step in guiding the class to generate a question for a field study. In both cases, I prepared students by teaching them about the plants they might see on the trail, and during the walk I asked that they complete a simple observations sheet to encourage them to closely study their surroundings.

One of the most valuable aspects of getting students outdoors and on the trail is to allow them a little unstructured time in nature. This provides us all with an opportunity to get to know one another a little better.

 

If you are interested in another opportunity for outdoor learning, follow this link to my blogpost about a citizen science project on pollinators:

Get Outdoors with Citizen Science! The Great Sunflower Project

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