By Susanne Williams, STEAM Teacher at Newington College, Lindfield Preparatory School
Taking prep students outside to learn Science and Technology actually takes them inside a completely different kind of classroom. And it links seamlessly with the NSW primary Science and Technology syllabus.
Newington’s beautiful Lindfield Prep campus is replete with opportunities for children to experience learning in a different way. The living world, for instance, becomes an engaging classroom when students collect and classify leaves or embark on a minibeast safari to observe invertebrates in their natural habitats.
These activities help early stage students explore the characteristics and needs of living things, while older students can explore life cycles, plant growth, and biodiversity surveys.
Planting vegetables not only teaches them about the use of plants for food and fibre but also fosters a deeper understanding of agricultural processes and sustainability.
In the physical world, outdoor experiments can make abstract concepts tangible. Young students can observe how objects move through push and pull forces by playing with floating and sinking objects in water tubs. As they progress, they can explore sound energy by recording sounds around the school or investigate light and shadows through outdoor experiments.
Older students can learn about energy transformations and the effects of varying force strengths by creating balloon-powered cars or participating in a tug-of-war to study the impact of different variables.
The material world also lends itself well to outdoor learning. Students can hunt for materials with different properties around the school, examining items made of plastic, wood, metal, and more. They can engage in hands-on activities like making damper to understand how materials change when combined, or design shelters to test material properties such as heat conduction and waterproofing.
Experiments with solar ovens or insulation can demonstrate how materials respond to heat, linking these observations to real-world applications like designing chocolate wrappers or kites.
Outdoor learning in earth and space sciences provides a dynamic way to observe environmental changes and geological events. Students can track weather patterns with homemade weather stations, study soil and erosion through hands-on experiments, or create scale models of the solar system using chalk and measuring tape on the playground. Observing seasonal changes and their impact on living things, or investigating the effects of erosion on different surfaces, helps students connect theoretical knowledge with observable phenomena in their surroundings.
Integrating design and technology into outdoor learning allows students to apply scientific principles creatively. They can build bee hotels, design sustainable products using natural materials, or engineer solutions to minimise the impacts of natural disasters. These activities not only enhance their understanding of science and technology but also develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Outdoor learning fosters curiosity, creativity and environmental stewardship. It offers a refreshing change from the traditional classroom setting, making science and technology more accessible and enjoyable.
Students benefit from the hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that outdoor environments provide, leading to a deeper and more meaningful understanding of scientific concepts. Whether through field trips to local environmental education centres or simple activities in the playground, teaching Science and Technology outdoors is a powerful way to inspire the next generation of scientists and innovators.
Originally published: SEN (Science Education News), Vol 73, No 2 2024
