OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Outdoor environmental education is a thematic and interdisciplinary field of education in the natural and cultural landscape. Through thematic studies and activities in the landscape, outdoor environmental education tries to animate the often abstract concepts of the subject disciplines, and thereby create a local, ecological, historic, physical and social sense of place among children, students and teachers ( Dahlgren and Szczepanski, 1997).

The classroom walls constitute "a third layer of skin" that separates us from nature, culture, and society – the systems of the real world for which the classroom try to prepare us. Outdoor education tries to shift the perspective and the division to the playground/schoolyard and the surrounding landscape as learning environments. Dewey ( 1859-1952 ) argued that we develop through practical experiences by doing things "under the skin". The pragmatic (action-centered) educational philosophy, of which Dewey was an advocate viewed education as a continuous reconstruction of experiences. In this concept of "learning by doing", reasoning is connected to action.

In outdoor education, feeling ( heart ), action ( hand ) and thought ( head) are united.

At school, learning still relies heavily on texts ( literary knowledge), an increased amount of digital texts and virtual reality, and less and less on first-hand experiences. The fundamental idea is to create more opportunities for concrete experiences in the outdoor classroom. Ingvar (1997), expresses the significance of our senses: "It is necessary to spend time outdoors for brains to be stimulated by the flow of sounds, light, shapes and colors that nature offers. We need the outdoor stimuli for our hearing, our vision and our skin, e.g. singing birds, whispering winds, sunlight reflections and shadows, moisture and fog, and the colors of flowers and insects. The growth of our brain cells depends on this special stimulus nature offers".

Outdoor education and outdoor recreation can make us experience the living conditions and problem solving abilities of early Man. In nature’s learning context, members of a group become dependent on each other. This contributes to personal growth, increased self-confidence, and an ability to trust others. Perhaps the health pedagogic perspective also is one of the most important methodological tools for working with outdoor education. Recent studies point to evidence of more movable learning environments and daily physical activity promoting health and preventing disease as diabetes type II, obesity, bone-weakness ( osteoporosis ) and stress syndrome, caused by high levels of stress hormones (cortisone). The sensory education’s road to knowledge demands a bodily meeting, where the frame of reference of our sensory capability, which has evolved for millions of years in a "forest landscape", becomes stimulated. One of the main reasons for learning in, and from, reality is offers chances for experiences, and very likely also prevents learning without reflection. The advantages of learning in outdoor environments are that many senses are activated and it creates a firmer sense of social community.

Education of the student or child should follow the old axiom:

"I hear and I forget;
I see and I remember;
I do and I understand".

I want to share with you one activity that I took part in Sweden. The name of this activity is: "Travel time". We traveled in Vikings time. The activity took place in a forest on a bank/shore of a lake.At first we were introduced in that period, the year 839, and therefore, an actor who was dressed in a warrior said:

"The summer of 839 is unrestful. Vikings from Smaland and northern Skane has attacked southern Ostergotland and are at the moment plundering somewhere in southern Kinda. The signal fires have been set alight and have been seen across the lakes.

The chieftain of Rimforsa, Grimbjorn, has taken all the men he can spare, and gone to join the men of Kinda in en effort the drive the enemy out. Across the land there are hundreds of landmark posts where signal fires have been prepared. All of them have to be manned 24 hours a day and guarded by a smaller force.

The women, the elder and the children are gathering for safety at the strong points that the hill forts can proved. In the early Viking age 99% of the Swedish population was farmers. The women had a strong position in the society and the wife ruled absolutely inside the house, where the men had to behave. Brawls would have to be taken outside.

Life for the most part where centered around the farm, the field work, the animals and the wood. The Vikings were good craftsmen and often skilled in woodwork, blacksmiths and so forth. Communication took place by boat. The rivers and lake systems of Kinda were therefore the most important routes of communication. If the enemy would appear, he would come by boat.

In the early Viking age the population was grooving and many farms had young men at home with not much to do. They where often easily recruited for adventurous raids and small warfare by chieftains who needed them to burn and plunder. As long as the political system was week plunder could be got from the neighbour, in time with better organization at home the raiders would attack all over Europe.

Now the Vikings of Kinda were themselves the victims of Viking attack.

There is a lot to think about. Will the men succeed or will they fail ?

While staying there a lot of work needs to be done, most important, do scan the lake after enemy boats. In order to be able to light the signal fire in time.

Everybody man and women has to be able to defend themselves, so the first group had to be trained in weapons, bow and arrow, spear and shield.

The second group had to make vessels from clay and the third group had to prepared the meal because everybody was hungry.

What kind of outcomes do I expect from the students after this activity ?

Heart :

• * Care and concern for the environment and other living things;
• * Confidence: sense of well-being and feeling safe outdoors;
• * Creativity-development of ideas inspired by the outdoor environment;
• * Curiosity and wonder about the outdoor world
• * Physical and spiritual enjoyment of being in the outdoor environment;
• * Sense of personal responsibility towards local environment
• * Willingness to co-operate with others.

Hand :

• * Skills for life, developed in outdoor setting;
• * Safety and survival skills;
• * Technical: using a variety of tools ( for battle, for cooking, for making dishes etc) and equipment.

Head:

• Increasing knowledge about:

• * history ( the way of living in 839, in Sweden );
• * geography ( knowing plants and animals, knowing how they have influenced and been influenced by their environment, about earth's resources, about environment issues, leading to effective action to protect the environment)