Tag Archives: place-based

by kapoho17 | September 27, 2023 · 9:03 pm

Place-Based Learning: using your senses and digital tools as you experience nature

Hybrid Approaches to Facilitating High-Impact Experiences

Many teachers are being challenged to teach online, face-to-face or both. Shifting practices in education over the past decade or more, causes us to wonder:

How can we virtually facilitate high-impact, place-based learning experiences with our students? What practices might be most effective and which tools can support these approaches?

In an online and outdoor workshop session facilitated by: Dr. Patrick Robertson, Teresa Rowley & Yvonne Dawydiak as part of the Classroom to Communities (C2C) conference on October 23, 2020, we connected with nearby places and people around us in search of a balance of practices. We hoped you enjoyed the session and thank you for your participation in our activities and for sharing your ideas.

Below are resources from our session*.

PBL-in-a-Pandemic-Field-Experience-Resource-Package.docx-1
Activities adapted from: Get Outdoors, An Educator’s Guide to Outdoor Classrooms, written & compiled by Sue Staniforth. (purchase: https://www.hctfeducation.ca/product/get-outdoors/ or View the Sample Resource: http://www.metrovancouver.org/events/school-programs/K12publications/GetOutdoors.pdf )
Jamboard (pdf and link posted following the session)
Learn about some alternative ‘digital whiteboard style‘ applications (Jamboard discontinued)
Our Collaborative Map: https://c2c2020.opened.ca/ was set up using a template developed as part of an open source apps community. IF you’re at all familiar with WordPress, you’ll find setting one up fairly intuitive. If not, I’m working on some instructions as a more ‘step by step’ set up and will post here when ready.
OpenETC Free Range Ed Tech: The FIPPA compliant interactive map we used is just one of the amazing open source technologies created by this dedicated community of volunteers made up of learning technologists, designers and educators from all levels. To access and make a copy of your own map, you will need to set up an OpenETC account and then access the ‘Clone Zone’ area of the site where you’ll find a variety of templates you can clone (including the Map – Toolset Mapping Master Template). Once there, you’ll be prompted to sign in or register for an account before cloning and setting up your own map. *Watch for some step by step instructions coming soon! A note: this is part of an open, volunteer run and under-funded project so having a plan B is valuable but also please ensure you’re respectful when asking for help or improvements.

iNaturalist: a citizen science app to support crowd sourcing ID in the field. An amazing bi-product of this application is the development of a large database of images available for research. Or try Seek by iNaturalist with your students to support ID – fairly simple interface: the Seek camera will draw from observations posted by members of the iNaturalist community to try to ID the photo. You can even scan the environment for common species of plant, birds, amphibians, insects!
LeafSnap is a free app created by the Canadian Wildlife Federation that allows you to learn to ID trees by their leaves, flowers and seeds.
Plantsnap was developed as a collaboration with several non-profits along with SnapChat that helps you ID plants by taking a photo and getting instant feedback. Their goal is to map out the world’s plants.
iPhone and iPad users can use the Visual Look Up feature to use Siri’s AI to identify plants, insects, landmarks, and more in pictures they have taken. You’ll need to update your device to the latest iOS. To start, open a picture on your camera, press the Visual Look Up button (‘i’ in a circle with stars on the left), then press Look Up and it will offer ideas based on a web comparison of images.
Using the Museum of Vancouver’s Indigenous Plant Guide, you can hear and learn the Squamish and hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ words for a variety of plants that are native to BC.

About the presenters:
Teresa Rowley
Teresa is an outdoor learning teacher with North Vancouver School District, and an adjunct teaching professor and faculty advisor working with teacher candidates in the Education for Sustainability cohort at UBC. Definitely not a techie, Teresa has been ruminating on simple ways educators can utilize technology to enhance place-based learning experiences.
Patrick Robertson
Patrick is a teacher educator and educational consultant working collaboratively with a wide range of partners in B.C. and Canada. He teaches in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia and is a director of various community organizations focused on place, sustainability, social justice, climate and the environment. Patrick is the current Chair of the Classrooms to Communities Education Network.
Yvonne Dawydiak
Originator and Editor of this blog, Yvonne is a long time teacher passionate about taking learning outside the confines of the classroom – both ‘in place’ and ‘virtually’. As a Teacher Educator and Masters of Educational Technology graduate, Yvonne is currently the Learning Design Manager in Teacher Education at UBC helping to support faculty and teacher candidates in effectively integrating 21st Century approaches including digital technology integration for face-to-face, online and remote learning contexts.

iNaturalist

A joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, iNaturalist creates an online and global network of naturalists, biologists, and plant-enthusiasts. With the goals to connect people with nature and to create a repertoire of biodiversity data, iNaturalist is a potential entry point for students (and teachers!) into the world of Citizen Science.

Seek by iNaturalist is a tool teachers might consider incorporating in their classrooms, school yard explorations, field trips or home learning opportunities. Seek by iNaturalist utilizes the database of observations from the iNaturalist community and is more geared to students (especially younger students) with a gameified approach to species identification. (No sign up is required to use Seek)

All users need is a mobile device with camera to log observations. With iNaturalist, you can share observations and instantly connect with other community members who are ready to help with species identification or you can record observations offline and upload when you have wifi. With Seek, you can instantly check you ID skills by taking a photo of the plant or insect and compare it to ‘hits’ in the database.

Some cool features of iNaturalist include:

Free of charge
Android and iOS apps available for mobile devices
Cellphone reception and wi-fi coverage are not necessary for iNaturalist observations
Powerful search functions that allow users to browse identifications based on broad classifications and specific species
Automatic identification suggestions that match an uploaded observation with the 10 most visually similar species
Crowdsourcing identification from the iNaturalist community
Available in 35+ different languages
Protection of privacy (users can choose to share an obscured/general location or no location at all); Important for teachers to help students develop their digital literacy by showing them how to turn off location services.

Why is it Relevant?

Outdoor education has been increasing highlighted in the BC curriculum (Visit the outdoor learning opportunities blog post on our site). iNaturalist encourages students to to take an active role in their learning through exploring nature at their own pace, uploading their observations, and joining an online community of citizen scientists. Given that iNatualist can be installed on individual mobile devices, students have a lot of freedom with the species they choose to observe and can even take iNaturalist into their backyards, neighborhood walks, and hiking trips.

As well, students can develop their digital citizenship skills through using iNaturalist. There are many learning opportunities within the iNaturalist platform, including but not limited to learning how to take an identifiable photo, improving academic research skills, and engaging with the online community in a safe and responsible manner.

Teacher candidates are invited to check out the teacher’s guide on iNaturalist. Specific protocols and tips address how to maximize the educational potential of the platform and how to responsibly share/store class data. At the bottom of the page, you can find an extensive list of exemples and lesson plans detailing how iNaturalist can be used in the classroom.

Getting Started

Download the iNaturalist app
Sign up for a iNaturalist account with your email address
To explore local sightings, click on the “explore” icon to access the map
To upload and share your observations, click on the “observe” icon

How to make an observation on iNaturalist

Seek by iNaturalist from iNaturalist on Vimeo.

Opportunities for Outdoor Learning: podcast resource post

The recent announcement (May 19, 2020) by the Ministry of Education, while clarifying many aspects of what schooling will look like for the balance of this school year, has also caused concern and questions for both in-service and pre-service teachers. Below, I’ve shared a few resources that might support BEd TCs as they plan for a return to some face-to-face (f2f) instruction and work to follow guidelines laid out by Rob Fleming in the announcement. It is important to note that each district will have guidelines, strategies and support for individual schools. It is vital, as it always is for a professional educator, to stay abreast of any messaging from your Principal, District and SA (or Teacher Ed Program).

One guideline, in particular, caught my eye and hopefully supports more teachers considering ways to engage their students outside the classroom.

Take students outside more often. Organize learning activities outside including snacktime, place-based-learning and unstructured time. Take activities that involve movement, including those for physical health and education, outside. Group sports activities should be organized in a thoughtful way, taking into consideration personal measures.

Outdoor education is mentioned in the BC curriculum for Grades 11 and 12 as part of the physical and health education including several learning goals as:

Development of skills (monitoring energy levels, monitoring environmental conditions, and increasing confidence)
Social responsibility (reducing impact on local environment and being aware of cultural and place-based sensitivities)
Practicing collaboration, teamwork, and outdoor leadership

More generally, outdoor spaces allow for numerous learning opportunities as it allows students to learn through a contextually relevant pedagogy, where subjects could be learned in relevant real-life settings.

For some inspiration and examples of engaging with Indigenous perspectives and knowledge through outdoor and place-based experiences and for some tips on using technology in ‘real’ & ‘virtual’ worlds, check out episode 1 of our interdisciplinary podcast series – Thinking Outside the Sandbox: Outdoor & Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching” featuring Dr. Hartley Banack, Dr. Shannon Leddy, and Dr. Sandrine Han, faculty members in the Faculty of Education at UBC.

The podcast also includes tips provided by Dr. Hartley Banack on how to create an outdoor learning inventory of useful resources around your school.
Outdoor learning allows for interdisciplinary learning. Watch this interview (part of the new interdisciplinary learning series) with Dr. Hartley Banack, lecturer at UBC’s Faculty of Education and organiser of Wild about Vancouver, where he explains how outdoor education allows for interdisciplinary learning and “de-centers the teacher”; creating a more democratic and student-centered learning environment.

Perhaps even more importantly, spending more time in nature allows for the use of more senses, and thus to be more alive. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle, examines nature-deficit disorder and how it impacts our children.

Tips for teaching outside the classroom

Megan Zeni, an educator (and UBC graduate student) who champions outdoor learning shares many practical resources on learning various disciplines in outdoor settings in her blog. She recently posted “10 tips for teaching outside” specifically for the COVID return to f2f instruction.
Dr. Banack also shares some tips on how to take the classroom outdoors in one of CBC Radio’s The Early Edition episodes.
With the need for larger spaces to allow for social distancing, dedicating a space for an outdoor classroom seems like a practical solution. Here is an example of setting an outdoor learning space (by Langley Meadows Elementary) where children are encouraged to use their imagination to use it as they wish.
Consider planning for a ‘walking curriculum’ where students have a better understanding of place and learn more deeply about the different disciplines. Read our blogpost to learn more about Gillian Judson’s “The Walking Curriculum”.
Jacob Martens SD37 shared this table on google docs, that includes many outdoor learning activity ideas and resource links, recently on Twitter

Check out some ideas of how different subjects could be taught in outdoor spaces.

Mathematics & Science Integration

By engaging in the natural world, we are also engaging in the study of ecosystem and biology. This natural pairing of maths and sciences in the outdoors is a powerful vehicle for student learning.

Dr. Susan Gerofsky, associate professor of Environmental and Mathematics Education at the University of British Columbia, explains in this interview how mathematics might be taken outside the classroom. In one of her recent Orchard Garden Workshops held at UBC in March 2020, various examples of teaching mathematics in outdoor settings were shared, including asking students to look for various patterns in the garden and measuring regular and irregular shapes in the garden using possible object(s).

Measurements (of trees for example), observations and sensory experiences (touching trees, listening to birds, smelling, seeing and tasting) all allow for deeper engagement with the natural world and thus deeper learning, as shared by Orla Kelly and Roger Cutting in the chapter “Teaching science outside the classroom” in their book Creative Teaching in Primary Science.

For more examples on teaching mathematics outside the classroom, check our blogpost.

Below are examples of outdoor activities and lesson plans for diverse science topics:

For lessons on animals, plants, birds, or food chains, check these outdoor games and activities (compiled based on the work done by Delores Franz Los and additional resources) provided by the Stewardship Pemberton Society.
For embedding connections to the natural world through various subjects based on inquiry learning in outdoor settings, check out these multidisciplinary lessons developed by Earth Rangers.
KG and Grade 1 environmental inquiry interdisciplinary unit on trees shared on TeachOntario.
Outdoor activities for teenagers on raising awareness about wildlife and on environmental conservation
Outdoor lesson on birdwatching

It is important to note that that learning outdoors can be done anywhere and doesn’t require a special set up. There is always room to flexibly find alternatives.

For example, for a lesson on biodiversity “life in a square meter”, it could be done with a hula hoop set in a garden area, grassy area or even a ‘rough’ area of a school ground.
Or for the bug hunt activity, alternatives could include using a white sheet under any bush or tree.

Social Studies

Observing and analyzing social phenomena take place best in outdoor settings. Students could analyze real-life problems. For example, students could investigate whether a park is safe for kids and then create a report to present in front of responsible officials.

Or explore the nature of various professions in a real-life setting.

Here is an example of how Grade 8 students at Seneca College (Keele Campus) reenacted the life of a fur-trader through a journey of hiking, scaling a dangel maze, and paddling canoes.

Similarly, students could be involved in community projects that bring a difference in people’s lives.

At times, when it is not possible to organize field trips to museums, virtual museums could offer a good alternative.

Passionate Learning and Outdoor Education

For more ideas on how to foster students’ passionate learning in outdoor settings through various school subjects, check our blogpost.

Guest Post: Nashwa Khedr (EDCP graduate student, project assistant 2020) and the Scarfe Sandbox team Summer 2020