Five Outdoor Learning Ideas for Science

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Five Outdoor Learning Ideas for Science

It’s the start of a new school year, and you and your children have begun the term in earnest. Now comes the challenge of producing engaging educational lessons that entertain as well as teach. Science is a subject with plenty of scope, but the images that come to mind are often of children conducting experiments in classrooms.

However, outdoor learning, especially in the weather we’ve had this summer, can be just as educational and more fun for your children. As such, with the right learning experiences, they will achieve greater retention of your lessons.

So what are our top five outdoor learning ideas for science?

1. Fossil Hunting

Teach your children how fossils are created by having a practical demonstration outside using a bowl, water and mud. Then get your children to find some pre-made fossils in some air-dry clay.

2. Perspective

Take several pictures on a camera of two objects at various distances from the camera. Then show your students how the different images look demonstrating perspective. A classic example is taking a picture of a tree in the distance twice; one with the children next to the tree, next with the children half the distance between the camera and the tree.

3. Sandcastle Building

Building sandcastles can be a great way to teach children about forces and building materials. One option is to have different sand-water mixes and to have a ‘goldilocks’ lessons (sand is too wet; sand is too dry). See if they can find the right mixture of sand and water.

4. Water Filters

Make some ‘dirty water’ (water and mud will do), and use different materials to demonstrate how filtration works.

5. Growing

With the harvest season fast approaching, this is the perfect time to teach children about plants. Even if you haven’t got a school garden you could get planting in a raised bed or even just grow some cress. You can use gardening sessions as a chance to teach about the parts of a plant, what a plant needs to grow, etc. It’s also fun to eat the rewards.

What outdoor lessons do you run for science? What is your favourite?

Let us know in the comments.

Able Canopies Ltd. design, manufacture and install canopies and shade structures
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