At outdoor school students are outside of their normal schooling environment, existing in a new place with no sense of where they will be exploring and learning. This can be disorienting and even nerve-wracking for some learners. One way to make students feel more confident and connected to the place where they will be learning is to utilize maps. By having students carry maps and engage with these tools in different ways, they can start to understand and connect their surroundings. This practice not only gets students thinking about how and where they are existing within a new place, but also helps with dual-coding, in which educators are able to reinforce ideas related to the trails and locations they are exploring together with physical navigational tools. There are many different ways to incorporate these dynamic and flexible tools into outdoor teaching practices including the following.
1. Empower students through wayfinding using maps.
In this era of technology with maps easily accessible on mobile devices, students benefit from the opportunity to navigate using physical maps now more than ever. Outdoor school is the perfect place to dive into these skills with students, as they are already disconnected from their mobile devices and have to rely on their own problem solving abilities to move around. When students learn to problem solve their way through navigation by holding a physical map in their hands and directing their classmates through unfamiliar territory, their confidence and excitement around exploration increases.
By fostering wayfinding ability in students, we can help support their development of close observation skills and critical thinking strategies that are key to many different disciplines, including science. In using maps, students must pay close attention to a key, directionality, and main landmarks that will help them figure out where they are and where to go. Additionally, using a map in an outdoor setting where they can connect what they are seeing on the map with what they are seeing in the physical space in front of them allows students to more deeply understand the components of the map itself. This way of wayfinding encourages students to pay close attention to the environment around them and think critically about how their environment is showing up on the physical paper in front of them.
2. Document memories on a map to highlight connections to place.
Maps can also serve as a vehicle for connecting student memories to place. During a week of outdoor school, students will have many new exciting experiences, but since they are in a new place the memories may become fuzzy. When given the chance to connect the memories they are creating to place, by using a map of the place they have been exploring, students are able to engrain those memories deeper. One way that I do this with students is by creating a map on butcher paper that they can use throughout the week to document the paths we take and the memories we make along the way. At the end of the week, this map serves as an artifact of all the things the group has accomplished and as a reminder of the place we have built a strong connection with. This map creation as a team helps highlight the connection and relationship that the students have built with place over the course of one week. Using maps as a way to remind students of their place in an environment and of how they are connected to that environment is a great way to build a student sense of belonging and accomplishment in outdoor school.
3. Give students choice around a shared experience using maps.
In outdoor school, students may come in with some background knowledge about what they might experience or they may have no context for what and where they will be learning. Maps serve as a great tool for familiarizing students with what outdoor school has to offer and for providing students choice around their exploration and curiosities of a place. At the beginning of a teaching week with a new group of students, one strategy that I utilize is providing students with a map with key locations that they may want to visit. In order to provide student choice in their week of outdoor learning, I provide each student a sticker that they can use to indicate where on the map they might like to visit during their week of learning outside. These stickers then act as a guide through which I plan our week to follow the excitement expressed by students. By providing students the opportunity to gain an overview of the place they will be exploring and to express their desires for exploring that place, educators can help students feel included in group decisions and in the decisions that impact the direction of their learning.
4. Teach history using maps.
Maps can be used not only to show students where they are and where they are headed, but also to show how people and other organisms have interacted with the world over time. Maps help tell the historical and ecological history of the land we are exploring together. This can be made possible through the use of historical or ecological maps or through the co-creation of historical maps with students. When we show students different maps of a place over time, we can begin to tell the story of that place and figure out where we fit into that story.
One way that I teach history using maps is by having students create a map of different immigration journeys to the place where they are completing outdoor school, Bainbridge Island. In this activity called Histories and Mysteries, students learn about different people who have had a relationship with the land they are exploring and about their different paths to arriving in relationship with that land. While students are learning about these people, they are asked to map the connection to where they originated and the path they took to get to Bainbridge. This use of maps allows students to explore the journeys of immigrants and to appreciate the contributions of these folks to the history of the island. The map serves as a physical visualization of the human experience and helps students think about the history of the place they are exploring in connection to others over time.
5. Connect new experiences to students’ wider life experiences using maps.
Outdoor school is a temporary experience. It comes in a short moment where students have the chance to learn in a new setting removed from their typical school environments. Maps can serve as a vehicle for transferring the experiences that students have at outdoor school to their everyday lives. When using maps at outdoor school, whether it be to document memories, learn navigation, or learn about history, students are gaining essential skills in being able to connect with the world around them. This is a skill that will serve them not only in outdoor school but in their time beyond. One way to help students connect their time at outdoor school with their time beyond is by creating something called a pathmap. A pathmap helps students recount their experiences during outdoor school and what they have learned, and helps them start to think about how they will carry these experiences with them in the future. By challenging students to map out their thinking and experiences, we can encourage students to find connections between their experiences at outdoor school and their wider lives.
Teaching students navigational skills and providing them the opportunities to interact with maps in different ways increases their confidence, independence, and connections with people and places. When we teach them how to use a tool that allows them independence and problem solving opportunities, we help students build their confidence in their decision making and wayfinding abilities. Additionally, when students practice navigation using maps, they are also practicing their observation skills and that are key to building science habits of mind and finding more appreciation in humans’ connection within the natural world. Despite the age of maps on phones and GPS, physical maps still provide great benefits to people, especially young students connecting with the outdoor world.
At outdoor school students are outside of their normal schooling environment, existing in a new place with no sense of where they will be exploring and learning. This can be disorienting and even nerve-wracking for some learners. One way to make students feel more confident and connected to the place where they will be learning is to utilize maps. By having students carry maps and engage with these tools in different ways, they can start to understand and connect their surroundings. This practice not only gets students thinking about how and where they are existing within a new place, but also helps with dual-coding, in which educators are able to reinforce ideas related to the trails and locations they are exploring together with physical navigational tools. There are many different ways to incorporate these dynamic and flexible tools into outdoor teaching practices including the following.
1. Empower students through wayfinding using maps.
In this era of technology with maps easily accessible on mobile devices, students benefit from the opportunity to navigate using physical maps now more than ever. Outdoor school is the perfect place to dive into these skills with students, as they are already disconnected from their mobile devices and have to rely on their own problem solving abilities to move around. When students learn to problem solve their way through navigation by holding a physical map in their hands and directing their classmates through unfamiliar territory, their confidence and excitement around exploration increases.
By fostering wayfinding ability in students, we can help support their development of close observation skills and critical thinking strategies that are key to many different disciplines, including science. In using maps, students must pay close attention to a key, directionality, and main landmarks that will help them figure out where they are and where to go. Additionally, using a map in an outdoor setting where they can connect what they are seeing on the map with what they are seeing in the physical space in front of them allows students to more deeply understand the components of the map itself. This way of wayfinding encourages students to pay close attention to the environment around them and think critically about how their environment is showing up on the physical paper in front of them.
2. Document memories on a map to highlight connections to place.
Maps can also serve as a vehicle for connecting student memories to place. During a week of outdoor school, students will have many new exciting experiences, but since they are in a new place the memories may become fuzzy. When given the chance to connect the memories they are creating to place, by using a map of the place they have been exploring, students are able to engrain those memories deeper. One way that I do this with students is by creating a map on butcher paper that they can use throughout the week to document the paths we take and the memories we make along the way. At the end of the week, this map serves as an artifact of all the things the group has accomplished and as a reminder of the place we have built a strong connection with. This map creation as a team helps highlight the connection and relationship that the students have built with place over the course of one week. Using maps as a way to remind students of their place in an environment and of how they are connected to that environment is a great way to build a student sense of belonging and accomplishment in outdoor school.
3. Give students choice around a shared experience using maps.
In outdoor school, students may come in with some background knowledge about what they might experience or they may have no context for what and where they will be learning. Maps serve as a great tool for familiarizing students with what outdoor school has to offer and for providing students choice around their exploration and curiosities of a place. At the beginning of a teaching week with a new group of students, one strategy that I utilize is providing students with a map with key locations that they may want to visit. In order to provide student choice in their week of outdoor learning, I provide each student a sticker that they can use to indicate where on the map they might like to visit during their week of learning outside. These stickers then act as a guide through which I plan our week to follow the excitement expressed by students. By providing students the opportunity to gain an overview of the place they will be exploring and to express their desires for exploring that place, educators can help students feel included in group decisions and in the decisions that impact the direction of their learning.
4. Teach history using maps.
Maps can be used not only to show students where they are and where they are headed, but also to show how people and other organisms have interacted with the world over time. Maps help tell the historical and ecological history of the land we are exploring together. This can be made possible through the use of historical or ecological maps or through the co-creation of historical maps with students. When we show students different maps of a place over time, we can begin to tell the story of that place and figure out where we fit into that story.
One way that I teach history using maps is by having students create a map of different immigration journeys to the place where they are completing outdoor school, Bainbridge Island. In this activity called Histories and Mysteries, students learn about different people who have had a relationship with the land they are exploring and about their different paths to arriving in relationship with that land. While students are learning about these people, they are asked to map the connection to where they originated and the path they took to get to Bainbridge. This use of maps allows students to explore the journeys of immigrants and to appreciate the contributions of these folks to the history of the island. The map serves as a physical visualization of the human experience and helps students think about the history of the place they are exploring in connection to others over time.
5. Connect new experiences to students’ wider life experiences using maps.
Outdoor school is a temporary experience. It comes in a short moment where students have the chance to learn in a new setting removed from their typical school environments. Maps can serve as a vehicle for transferring the experiences that students have at outdoor school to their everyday lives. When using maps at outdoor school, whether it be to document memories, learn navigation, or learn about history, students are gaining essential skills in being able to connect with the world around them. This is a skill that will serve them not only in outdoor school but in their time beyond. One way to help students connect their time at outdoor school with their time beyond is by creating something called a pathmap. A pathmap helps students recount their experiences during outdoor school and what they have learned, and helps them start to think about how they will carry these experiences with them in the future. By challenging students to map out their thinking and experiences, we can encourage students to find connections between their experiences at outdoor school and their wider lives.
Teaching students navigational skills and providing them the opportunities to interact with maps in different ways increases their confidence, independence, and connections with people and places. When we teach them how to use a tool that allows them independence and problem solving opportunities, we help students build their confidence in their decision making and wayfinding abilities. Additionally, when students practice navigation using maps, they are also practicing their observation skills and that are key to building science habits of mind and finding more appreciation in humans’ connection within the natural world. Despite the age of maps on phones and GPS, physical maps still provide great benefits to people, especially young students connecting with the outdoor world.
