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How outdoor learning can raise the profile of Geography in your school


I've been reading an interesting series of posts by Ollie Bray about outdoor learning and technology. I respect Ollie's work very much, especially as he uses what he learns to enhance, not replace, his existing knowledge and experiences.

In a similar vein, this post highlights a number of ways in which outdoor learning can raise the profile of Geography across a school. There are well documented arguments about the importance of fieldwork in geography, but the effects are far more wide reaching than curriculum development.

Individual stories, personal geographies and being a real person.

The photograph above was taken on Bristly Ridge, an interesting scrambling route that links Tryfan and Glyder Fach. My foot is in the bottom right of the image, and the guy on the left is a university friend who is now a regular climbing / mountain biking / mad challenge partner. I often share my experiences (and those of others such as Ollie, Mark Kalch, Mark Beaumont and Joe Simpson) in class. It explains why I love geography - it lets me make sense of the world when I'm out exploring in it. This raises the profile of geography as pupils can relate to personal experiences. I don't think that they want a robot at the front of the class.

How does this raise the profile of geography? Sharing travel and outdoor experiences, and their effects such as lifelong friendships, raising the aspirations of young people as well as demonstrating the power of the subject to explain amazing landscapes. It still doesn't beat getting young people outside though!

Using technology to share outdoor learning.

Ollie's series of posts covers a wide range of ways in which technology can enhance field trips. What I want to do here is provide a real example of why the story mustn't stop when the trip finishes. The video below has been put together to promote the residential experience that is available for Year 8 students each year, but also to promote the subject. This will be rolled out at parents evenings (playing silently in the background), open evenings and on the big screens at school. The video has also been used during tourism lessons - played silently so that pupils can create an advert or design / select a soundtrack that matches. I still haven't worked out how to get widescreen videos into the Blogger theme yet, so I recommend viewing it on YouTube.


In order to promote Geography and raise Key Stage 4 numbers, it's important to spread the word.

Video music link here: Passed on to me by the friend in the photograph at the top of the post.
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Comments

  1. Juliet Robertson26 July 2010 at 08:39

    Hi

    Have you worked out how to embed the videos and change their size yet?

    If not - when you click on the embed code below the YouTube video you get a selection of sizes - they are all too large.

    Scroll below the sizes offered and there's a wee box that you put the number of (pixels?) you want. Stick in 400 to the top box. The box below changes automatically.

    Hey presto, you'll have the right size.

    ReplyDelete

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