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https://www.quizalize.com

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https://deck.toys

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Research validating Engaging Students by moving lessons outdoors

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Research validating Engaging Students by moving lessons outdoors

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https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_surprising_benefits_of_teaching_a_class_outside

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As any teacher knows, students need to be engaged with learning to absorb lessons in any meaningful way. Otherwise they can become distracted, disrupting everyone in the classroom and taking time away from instruction.

There are many ways to foster engagement, of course. But one may surprise you: holding classes outside. Findings from a new study show that learning outdoors is not just a fun, novel experience for kids, but also helps them focus once they return to the classroom.

In this study, third-grade students from two classrooms were assigned to conduct about half of their biology lessons outside (on a nearby patch of grass) and half inside the classroom during an academic year. The lessons involved things like identifying leaves and understanding the process of decomposition, and were closely matched: The indoor lessons had natural elements (like leaves and soil), while the outdoor lessons were conducted like a regular classroom (without student interaction or free play).

After each lesson, students received a short break and then continued indoors with their regular studies, like math or reading. Their level of engagement during this time was assessed by teacher ratings, independent tallies of "redirects" (how many times teachers needed to redirect students to the task at hand), and ratings of engagement based on classroom photos analyzed by someone blind to the study's purpose.

Results showed that when the students received outdoor biology lessons, they were significantly more engaged in their next instructional period on all measures than if they'd received biology lessons indoors. This held true for different teachers, different times of day, and different times of year.

According to lead researcher Ming Kuo of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this is an important finding with practical implications.

"Kids can actually pay better attention in class after an outdoor lesson," she says. "This is nice for teachers, because you don't have to stop teaching and you still get that bump in attention."

Not only that, the bump in attention was large-much larger than Kuo had expected. In some cases, teachers only had to redirect half as often and kids paid attention one or two "standard deviations" better-research-speak for much, much better-if they'd had an outdoor lesson rather than an indoor one.

This surprised Kuo, who is used to working on highly controlled studies in a laboratory rather than field studies in a classroom.

"I thought that we would have smaller effects when we had a whole class of squirmy third graders," says Kuo. "But maybe when every kid gets a little bit better at paying attention and at controlling their impulses, and then you put them all in one classroom, there's some kind of synergy happening."

What's powerful in this study is that the children didn't spend time wandering down a forested path. The teachers simply changed the location of their lesson to a greener space-something that virtually any teacher at any school could do without taking away from instruction time.

"We could have taken these kids into capital-n Nature; but the kind of nature that we studied turns out to be pretty common-just a patch of grass with an access road," she says. "The kind of outdoor setting we used is probably available for many, many schools."

The restorative power of nature

Why would being in nature benefit kids at all? Perhaps it reduces stress, restores depleted attention, and improves immune function in children, much like it does in adults. And kids who are healthier, calmer, and less depleted may simply learn better.

"Kids are so starved for nature that...even this pretty small, pathetic dose helps them function remarkably better"

―Dr. Ming Kuo

Kuo's study adds to a growing body of research on learning in nature. Prior studies have found that teaching outdoors increases students' interest in a subject and intrinsic motivation to learn, and may help them to retain information longer than regular indoor classes. In addition, kids like learning outside, says Kuo, and they report liking their school more when lessons are held outdoors.

"Being able to pay more attention, being less stressed, and being happier and more interested in doing the work-this can have real effects on how engaged kids are," she says.

Still, Kuo's study is unique in looking at what happens after an outdoor lesson-the carryover effects. And that's important to teachers who may be reluctant to give up class time for going outside, worried their kids will lose all focus.

Kuo understands that teachers may be skeptical-even one of the teachers in her study was doubtful before the experiment started. But, if a teacher can be open-minded, she says, they should at least try it out and see what happens. Kuo argues that the current educational movement to reduce student outdoor time-or enrichment programs like music, art, and theater-is wrong-headed.

"You can add as much instructional time as you want and keep pouring, but once that cup is full, it's full," she says. "You have to find ways to give kids more capacity to take things in, before it makes sense to spend any more time with instructional teaching."

Being in nature seems to increase that capacity, suggesting yet another way kids benefit from being outside. Kuo's work implies that kids need nature, maybe more than we think. She hopes that future researchers will study whether spending more time in nature produces even greater benefits.

In the meantime, it's pretty clear that it doesn't take much nature to make a difference.

"Kids are so starved for nature that you can take them out into a not-very-natural area, give them a lesson without really engaging much with nature, and even this pretty small, pathetic dose helps them function remarkably better," says Kuo. "That feels like a big 'Wow!' to me."

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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The Surprising Benefits of Teaching a Class Outside

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As any teacher knows, students need to be engaged with learning to absorb lessons in any meaningful way. Otherwise they can become distracted, disrupting everyone in the classroom and taking time away from instruction. There are many ways to foster engagement, of course. But one may surprise you: holding classes outside.

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https://www.gimkit.comDemos https://www.desmos.com

Delta Math
https://www.deltamath.com

Phet
https://phet.colorado.edu

CK12
https://www.ck12.org/student/

Nearpod
https://nearpod.com

iCivics
https://www.icivics.org

Khan Academy
https://www.khanacademy.org

MobyMax
https://www.mobymax.com

Kahoot
https://kahoot.com/

Quizlet
https://quizlet.com

Quizziz
https://quizizz.com

Brainpop
https://www.brainpop.com

NetTrekker

ProQuest
https://about.proquest.com

Noodle Tools
https://www.noodletools.com

Flipgrid
https://info.flipgrid.com

Freckle.com

Prodigy
https://www.prodigygame.com

Stride Academy
https://www.stridelogin.com/login/

PBS Learning Media
https://tn.pbslearningmedia.org

Flippity.net

Gimkit
https://www.gimkit.com
https://www.baamboozle.com

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Games and other embedded challenges

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Trello
Seesaw

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Math & Science Engagement Resources

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Tons of resources to engage students.

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Kahoot is now working with Microsoft Teams.  Join before September 30th for gold/premium membership free.

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How are we going to build relationships?

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Our questions?
How are we going to pay for the apps when they are no longer free.

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Room 4

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Engagement Resources for Hybrid Learning: Breakout Room 6

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Engagement Resources for Hybrid Learning: Breakout Room 6

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Edulastic

Nearpod: virtual field trips, 3D diagrams

Actively Learn

“Dividing and conquering” curriculum to provide scripted lessons

Common sense media

World open school

Smithsonian virtual field trips

National parks virtual field trips

Google Meets with a few/weekly check-ins

Google site with weekly calendar for school events and resources available online to share with families

Class Dojo

Flip Grid

Talking Points (offers translation for EL)

Meeting one on one

Offering rewards for students who show up for important meetings

Virtual meetings where students can see each other helps to build community

“Calling Tree” to check in with each other, using classmates to build community/Zoom meeting “Get Together” with games, show and tell, dance party, and “fun” activities.

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How do we keep kids engaged if we start online.

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Why are some students not logging in? What can we do to help them log in and participate? What are best practices for engaging students with limited/no access to technology?

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Why are some students not logging in? What can we do to help them log in and participate? What are best practices for engaging students with limited/no access to technology?

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Why aren't kids logging in?
- connectivity issues/ competition for resources (computers)
- parents unavailable for supervision
- confused
- social emotional
- lack of devices?
- bring on interpreters to help communicate with parents and families

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What are best practices or tools for engaging English language learners and learners with IEPs in a virtual environment?

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What are best practices or tools for engaging English language learners and learners with IEPs in a virtual environment?

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How can we cultivate a maker culture in a distance learning environment? 

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How can we cultivate a maker culture in a distance learning environment? 

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How can we continue to offer hands-on authentic  learning opportunities? 

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How can we continue to offer hands-on authentic  learning opportunities? 

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How can we build community with our students virtually?

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How can we build community with our students virtually?

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What are best practices or tools  for increasing student engagement? What are best practices or tools for engaging students in subjects: with lab components (like Biology)where students are learning a new language? 

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What are best practices or tools  for increasing student engagement? What are best practices or tools for engaging students in subjects: with lab components (like Biology)where students are learning a new language? 

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Student engagement online: not seeing faces makes it hard; have blank backgrounds?

Two teachers at a time: one of them moderating student participation, making sure that students take turns, unmute and talk

Connect with families: Emailing parents once a week? Maybe even have a newsletter so that parents can check it out asynchronously?

Reducing the content-related objectives to make room for socioemotional sharing (using tools like Kahoot to make it more fun)

Use polls and other ways of getting student voice: mix it with breakout rooms (they love talking each other): use Pear deck?

Have 1/2 the number of students at tables during labs

Set up office hours for students to clarify doubts: having 1-on-1 time was helpful; maybe have a sign-up system so that students make better use of this time

Get students manage a blog/webpage/Google Sites where they put up their assignments?

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Why aren't kids logging in?
- connectivity issues/ competition for resources (computers)
- parents unavailable for supervision
- confused
- social emotional
What can we do to help them participate?
- got students chrome books
- district worked with Xfinity offered free/ discounted wifi.
What are the best tools for remote learning?
- Edpuzzle
- Flipgrid
- Jamboard/ Padlet
- Keep it simple, don't introduce too many new apps
How can we continue to offer hands-on authentic learning opportunities?
- cook off
- hyperdocs
Best practice for IEP/ ELL's?
- Breakout rooms
- synchronous/ asynchronous peardecks
- flocabulary
- choice assignments/ choice boards
- tic-tac-toe board
- flip a coin (to pick the next assignment)
- games - Kahoot and Quizlet
- Edpuzzle (what questions do you still have or are you unsure of?)
- Screencastify (google extension), Khan Academy - students can pause, rewind, rewatch
- Newsela/ Readworks/ Freckle - tiered readings
Tech Tools we like:
1) Insert Learning extension
2) Actively Learn
3) Read and Write extension
4) Flocabulary
5) Gimkit/ Quizlet/Kahoot
6) Go Formative
7) Tweentribune
8) Newsela
9) Mote extension

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Why are some students not logging in? What can we do to help them log in and participate? Some schools are not making it mandatory.  When parents where told that it was not going to be for a grade, they stopped logging in.  Some schools are providing 1:1 devices.  Are kids going to be bringing the devices back and forth? Some families are not familiar with the devices/websites and didn't know how to log in. Once families realized that we there was not new content being taught they stopped participating.  Some children were not in consistent  locations.  Some high school students needed to continue working/get a job because parents lost jobs.

What are best practices or tools  for increasing student engagement? What is student engagement? Students did not always have their camera on.  Is it ethical to make students turn on their camera?Encouraging kids to find a quiet non-distracting environment during class times. Reducing the amount of content and spending more time on social emotional learning.  Different websites: Kahoot!!  Google Classroom. ZOOM. Pear Deck.  NearPod. Jamboard. Make everything online and then support students during in person class time.

How can we build community with our students virtually? Provide office hours for students. Create a way to sign up for office hours.  Some people sent home weekly newsletters/emails.  Technology that can be used to connect: Weebly, Google Sites, Class Dojo, Class Tag, Flipgrid, Google Classroom, See Saw, Canvas

What are best practices for increasing student engagement? Can schools/districts try to have consistency across classrooms to make it easier for parents to not have to access so many different sites/apps? Ways to track what students are doing/assignments etc to keep track of what everyone is doing online and in person.  Trello bulletin board

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Lack of devices;
Parents schedule (they were working, and couldn't get students on);
Students were not engaged once they were no longer in school;
Devices and hot spots were provided;
Home visits by the principal and lots of phone calls for me;
Catholic school: participation was highly dependent on parent follow-through;
Keep up engagement: social part is important, recess time, friend time after reading lesson;
Hands on activities; Scientific Adventures;
Start reaching out early to families before the school year starts;
Do breakout rooms in Zoom;
Survey them using forms;
Teach them about phone calls and how to talk in them;
Padlet, PearDeck, NearPod, FlipGrid can let you put up questions for kids to answer to get engagement;
CharacterStrong.com has an activity for kids to describe their ideal teacher;
Eduprotocols can be helpful in setting up procedures
Sending home manipulatives, etc. so they have them at home.
Leaving out packets/supplies at food pickup.
https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/
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Organizations looking at issues around equity, who could be partners in getting tech resources for students as a priority:
http://neatoday.org/2020/06/19/nea-guidance-on-reopening-schools/
https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/

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Add your handles below and don't forget to write which platform!

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Add your handle below.