Learning outside the
classroom helps children broaden their learning and helps to develop their
knowledge and skills in a relevant environment. A relevant environment means
children are able to learn through experiences of actually taking part in the
chosen topic. Experience and doing are an important part of the Foundation
Phase Documents (2008).
At University, we have
studies learning outside the classroom in relation to the development of
children’s scientific and creative skills. The link below to a podcast is based
on this. As a group, together, we decided that Plantasia was where we wanted to
research and visit to reflect on. Plantasia is a large hothouse open to the
public and home to many different species of plants, animals and mini-beasts. Children
are able to walk round and discover all the different species and find out
everything about them from habitats, materials, food and life cycles.
Before going to Plantasia, as
a group, we researched together what subjects they cover there and each took
two subjects each and went away to further research so we would have more
knowledge upon our visit. Angharad took habitats and materials, Natalie took
weather and climate, and myself, I took plants and seed germination.
On our visit we shared our
research of the different areas. Angharad and Natalie took their nieces and
daughter so we could observe them taking part in some of the activities
Plantasia offers and we could then gather a child’s perspective on what skills
they felt they had learnt. As we got to view their perspective we were each
then able to take away different skills that the girls felt they’d learnt as
well as skills we felt they had learnt through our observations. We then discussed
these and took away four each to research further with references before our
next meeting. My chosen four were innovation, team, measuring and experimenting.
We each took it in turn to video record what we felt would be important in our podcast and so we were all able
to be in shot and have a chance to use the camera, meaning everybody had equal
participation.
After our visit we then met
up to put our video together and record all our voiceovers to go on top of our
footage. Together we decided which speaking part would fit best with what
footage we had and we then developed our final running order and produced our
final edited podcast.
It is important during group
work to ensure you work together efficiently.
Building skills of teamwork is important to
continue as a life-long skill that you will need in the workplace. (Markkanen & Ponta, 2001)
I believe that working with Angharad and
Natalie as a team worked very well. We created a supportive working environment
where everyone’s ideas were counted and valued, we discussed everything clearly
in our meetings and everybody knew and understood what the main goal was.
I enjoyed working alongside
the girls, sharing ideas and motivating one another to get the task done.
Research has shown that using group and
project-based activities are ways to effectively provide students with a more
active approach to learning. (Harper & Hedberg,
2001)
References:
Foundation Phase Documents (2008) Physical Development. Welsh Assembly
Government, Crown Copyright.
Markkanen, H., &
Ponta, D. (2001). Web Tools for Collaborative Project Learning. In Montgomerie,
C. &
Viteli, J. (Eds.),
Proceedings of Ed-Media 2001: World
Conference on Educational Multimedia and
Hypermedia, Norfolk, USA: AACE, 1236-1238.
Markkanen, H., &
Ponta, D. (2001). Web Tools for Collaborative Project Learning. In Montgomerie,
C. &
Viteli, J. (Eds.),
Proceedings of Ed-Media 2001: World
Conference on Educational Multimedia and
Hypermedia, Norfolk, USA: AACE, 1236-1238.
Picture Reference:
https://media.ents24network.com/image/000/024/387/8112921a579e3f59aeb92ad5a5ab88fe0264085b.jpg
