Taking education outdoors has its advantages and challenges. In our part of the nation, we have significant obstacles. Wisconsin’s winters are among the toughest in the country. Just as we’ve discovered how to thrive and enjoy our climate, we can learn how to educate our students in the natural environment.
Outdoor classrooms were first created as a tool to teach students about science and the environment. In recent years, a shift has been made to a mindset of “open air classrooms”, a much broader concept allowing any subject to be examined outdoors. Incidentally, this concept was used in New England in the early 1900s as a way to reduce the cases of tuberculosis that were rampant among children at the time.
As long as proper supporting infrastructure is provided, many general education courses can occur outdoors. For example, collaboration, presentations and research about about geography, science, agriculture, and history could all be done outdoors just as well as indoors…if we prepare for it.