Section 4

Specific Issues

Learning beyond the classroom

Learning about the environment takes place both inside and outside the school. An important aspect of learning in environmental studies is the use of the environment in its widest sense, to enrich learning. The world beyond the classroom has many rich contexts for learning and teaching that allow teachers and pupils to draw upon a wide range of evidence and a variety of first-hand experiences. The development of informed attitudes to contemporary and future environmental issues can be enhanced when pupils gain direct access to the world outside school. Learning beyond the classroom offers pupils the opportunity to confront the real world and gather real evidence, allowing them to enjoy, sample and interact with their environment in a controlled way. Providing pupils with genuine personal experiences of natural habitats as well as opportunities to engage in activities or pursuits in an outdoor environment results in highly motivating and often memorable learning experiences. These experiences should form the basis of best practice in the science component of environmental studies.

Main areas for developing learning beyond the classroom

There are four main areas of potential.

Within the school or school grounds

This is relatively easy to organise and might avoid some of the organisational and safety issues associated with travelling further afield. Some examples of studies that can be pursued within the schools and its grounds include characteristics of site and location; materials used in construction; walls, fences and gates; weather observations; studies of birds and other animals; habitats. There may also be opportunities to extend these studies into projects such as the improvement of school grounds through tree and bulb planting, setting up a bird table or laying out a school garden.

Within the vicinity of the school

This will require more careful planning and might include activities such as walking a neighbourhood trail, carrying out a survey in the community, investigations of land and building use, gap sites, shops and houses, industries, occupations, street furniture, essential services, traffic patterns, problems of litter and vandalism and examples of community use or aid.

Within a day's reach

This will require transport but will provide a wider range of opportunities such as visiting a museum, an interactive science centre, a historical site, a farm, a river or stream, beach or coastline, a hill, a woodland, a zoo, a village for urban pupils; a town or city for country or village pupils.