The Outdoor Classroom




 
 
 


Since its inception in the fall of 2007, hundreds of students from Rainbow Schools have participated in the Learning Through the Trails program offered by the Rainbow Routes Association.

Students from JK to Grade 8 are enjoyed this outdoor classroom, which is complementing what's taught in school in all subject areas.

Rainbow ROUTES Association launched Learning Through Trails to help combat the negative effects of inactivity and increase children's exposure to the natural world.

This is an innovative educational program designed to enhance the ability of students to learn concepts in a variety of subject areas while exploring local hiking trails.

The program builds capacity for teachers to meet curriculum expectations, keeps the students physically active, and encourages students to embrace the role of environmental stewards through direct experience and follow-up materials in a variety of subject areas.

Learning Through Trails runs throughout the school year, in all kinds of weather.

Qualified staff visit the classroom before the trail tour to introduce themselves and the program.

Students are then taken to a local walking trail where they participate in practical and authentic curriculum-based activities and lessons which exercise the brain and the body.

A follow-up visit at the school provides a debriefing opportunity for all participants and allows staff to receive feedback from teachers and students.

During their first year of programming, the staff of Learning Through Trails worked with 605 students from 33 classes from both the elementary and secondary panel within the City of Greater Sudbury.

 Learning Through Trails continues to receive an overwhelmingly positive response from participants including students, teachers, parent volunteers, and volunteer trail guides.

Here are some examples of the many programs that students are benefiting from in the outdoor classroom.

School: MacLeod Public School
Grades: 5 and 6
Program: Biodiversity
Outcome: Biodiversity is a difficult concept for many adults to wrap their heads around, let alone 11 year olds. Students had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a variety of living things found in Greater Sudbury as they explored the Kelly Lake Trail, searching for evidence of biodiversity. Practical exercises included an investigation of the effects of bark beetles on a stand of poplars, local plant and animal identification, and a visual journey through Sudbury’s environmental history which highlighted recent successful land reclamation efforts. By learning about the past, observing the present, and asking questions about the future, students were better equipped to understand how human practices have affected the local environment, and therefore the biodiversity of the area.


School: Lansdowne Public School
Grade: 3
Program: Language
Outcome: Students in Kari Gerhard’s Grade 3 classroom were transformed into journalists during the first Learning Through Trails program. Using local trails as their muse, these savvy young writers combined their classroom instruction with their hiking experiences to create a brilliant class newsletter. A local journalist lent her expertise and advice to these eager young writers and featured the complete articles in The Sudbury Star. The class worked very hard and celebrated the publishing of the first edition of their “Big Brain Newsletter” in style.


School: Princess Anne Public School
Grade: 5
Program: Measurement
Outcome: Students had a chance to hone their measurement skills by participating in practical activities that had them prowling around an area most of them had never been to. During a Measure Hunt, students learned about local flora and fauna, natural and cultural history, and environmental issues as they eagerly sized up natural features of the area. For example, students measured the average length of red pine and white pine needles, while learning how to distinguish between the two types of trees. They also had the chance to take the temperature of the snowpack at different depths while learning about the fascinating world that exists below the surface of the snow.


School: Carl A. Nesbitt Public School
Grade: 4
Program: Habitats
Outcome: Students were able to make connections between their ‘book learning’ about habitats and the natural world as they explored the living arrangements of the flora and fauna of the Rotary Park trail. Among many blood-pumping activities, they participated in Oh Deer!, a tag game which integrates data management with a lesson on wildlife resource requirements. Students investigated habitats both big and small and learned about recent land reclamation efforts that have helped to improve habitats throughout Greater Sudbury as well.


School: Long Lake Public School
Grades: 3/4
Program: Visual Arts
Outcome: Imagine 16 students earnestly sketching Sudbury’s landscape outside in the middle of January. This was the case with Jan Hendry’s Grade 3/4 class. Prior to the outing, students studied the well-known poem The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service, which was later illustrated by Ted Harrison. It was Harrison’s artistic style that they emulated for their artwork as they took the time to study various scenes along the trail and translate them into pieces of art. While walking, students also examined the concepts of foreground, middle ground, and background, the colour wheel, and the qualities of lines through engaging activities.


School: Algonquin Public School
Grades: 7 and 8
Program: Data Management
Outcome: Students collected, organized, displayed, and interpreted data collected while hiking the trails at the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area. Students were provided with practical instruction on plant identification and then set out to measure 1m² plots at various altitudes along the trail to figure out whether or not altitude has an affect on vegetation. Once the data was organized, students displayed the data and drew conclusions about their findings. Local environmental issues were also addressed during the hike.This authentic exercise provided students with the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice.

For more information or to register, please contact Rainbow Routes at 705.674.4455 ext 2474.

For more information about Learning Through Trails, click here.