The great outdoors of education: A classroom environment…in the environment!

Guest Writer: Lauren Henderson (’26); English education and biology double minor

Over the last few years, there has been a rise in alternative forms of education such as project-based learning, virtual schooling and community-based education programs. One reason for this sudden surge is that as new generations of students enter education, their parents are realizing that the mainstream education that they received no longer meets the mark. Recently, ADHD, autism and other learning disorder diagnoses have increased (Diament 2023). COVID-19 may be a reason for this increase, as students were often withdrawn and unfocused, causing them to lose critical years of information and socialization, and drawing them into social media at younger ages. As a result, many parents opted to put their children into private and alternative schools instead of keeping them in public schools. After seeing where mainstream education has lacked in recent years, finding other forms of education that constructively meet students’ needs has been the focus for many parents. One such model is outdoor education.

Outdoor education is a new version of an old concept as people have been learning outside for thousands of years. The idea of an organized outdoor school became popularized in the United States in the 1990s, and the United States now has around 240 nature preschools. The model of outdoor education ranges from being almost 100% outside, doing a 50/50 split between outdoor and indoor classroom time and simply integrating more outdoor experiences into day-to-day lessons for students. Outdoor education has demonstrated a multitude of benefits. Students that typically act out in class have shown a reduction in negative behaviors when engaging in outdoor activities. Being outside has been associated with the calming of the amygdala in the brain, or the emotional control center, which, in turn, calms a student’s fight-or-flight response (Shuda et al. 2020). Integrating time outside exploring and interacting with the natural world can alter a student’s mental state and create positive connections with school and learning. 

Personally, I have seen outdoor education work wonders for students. Over the summer, I worked at a nature-based summer school for students struggling with literacy and math. Losing out on the summer season could have been the biggest bummer to these kids, but the organization aims to create positive, fun, and interactive experiences for its students. Every student in my class complained when they heard we would be kayaking as if it was their automatic first response. With a bit of encouragement, they all participated in the activity, and all of them expressed to me afterward that it was so much fun that they were going to go with their parents, or requested that we go again. Some of my students spent more of the summer chasing and catching frogs. They thought it was naughty because it was not the focus of our lesson plan, but with every frog caught, I could not help but think that these students were finding the things they loved to do and getting more comfortable with their environment. They learned practical skills, such as fire building and fishing, and we practiced reading and writing every day. 

One student who struggled with acting out violently towards others also made major improvements during the summer. When I worked with this student, I saw how capable and focused he was. He cared about exploring and learning new things, and he often had exciting ideas to try. I learned that he came from a difficult home life, and he spent most of his time inside playing video games, so any outdoor interaction and experience was a win in my eyes. I saw his love for nature grow and saw him learn that he was capable of doing things that took work. At the beginning of the summer, most students were afraid of being dirty and hot, but as the summer progressed, they found so much joy in playing in the mud and sun. They often asked me to take out my phone to take pictures of and identify the plants, fungi and bugs around us, which was my favorite part of the summer.

 Seeing how these connections drew students closer to each other and the world around them changed my perspective of education. I have continued working with nature-based school programs, and it is an area that I am growing in and quickly becoming more passionate about. The education system may be a mess, but introducing more students to the outdoors can create big improvements in their general well-being and learning.