3 Reasons You Should Hold Class Outdoors

Most students desire to move. Holding classes indoors usually feels like a limitation to this desired movement. Students must move around within a limited space or sit in the same position for hours during indoor classes. This redundancy can potentially reduce the concentration span. Morale for learning also decreases after a few hours in an indoor class.

When teaching young children, they need to be outdoors to understand better. The outdoors expands their thoughts as the children can see some of the things you teach them. For example, if you are talking about plants or trees, they can view them as you explain. It even becomes easier to remember things when you illustrate them through nature.

Holding classes outdoors presents an excellent opportunity for growth, creativity, appreciation of nature, and improved physical and mental health. Here are three reasons you should hold class outdoors.

1. Enhances Physical and Mental Health

Outdoor classes can potentially enhance students' physical and mental health. Indoor classes mean sticking to conventional ways of teaching. The conventional ways include long hours of lecturing and limited engagements with the students. Growth becomes stagnant in basic and monotonous spaces and activities.

Students are more active outdoors than indoors because you can utilize unconventional approaches. Outdoor classes allow students to move around after a time of little movement. The activities are good for physical health or fitness. Students don't need to wait for breaks to rest or breathe because outdoor classes are comfortable.

Additionally, students have an opportunity to enjoy fresh air during outdoor classes. Standard classes tend to get hot, stuffy, and uncomfortable after an extended period inside. Uncomfortable environments make it hard for students to grasp a lesson's content and increase the chances of side effects such as headaches, fatigue, and anxiety.

The availability of ample fresh air during outdoor classes reduces the side effects. The sun rays also provide Vitamin D that enhances coordination and balance. The free space and movement make students more at ease and more likely to listen. This can also help boost and enhance the mental health of students.

2. New Appreciation and Understanding of Nature

Students hardly take the time to learn and appreciate nature during breaks or playtime. Most students usually try to rest or do something before the next class session. However, there is calm that comes with outdoor classes.

During an outdoor class, the students can note plants and other living things within the environment they're surrounded by. As you illustrate some of the things you're teaching, students get to understand nature in-depth. Nature is beautiful and requires appreciation, which only comes when one learns how everything works.

When students understand and love nature, they may also get the desire to conserve and preserve living things. The need to conserve nature is only present among people who love and constantly interact with nature. You can help your students understand this passion if they physically get in touch with the lesson. In turn, you'll help raise a generation of individuals who care about future generations.

3. Improves Academic Performance

The opportunities in outdoor classes make the students grasp concepts quickly. For example, in math class, you can use various techniques of object lessons to help the students understand better. Stones and sticks can be visual representations of values. The ground can be a great canvas when doing graphs or illustrating formulas. Statistical and data representation becomes easier due to the availability of items to use in nature. Such activities make the learning process exciting and memorable.

In English lessons, students have enough space to act out various scenes in a book. They can utilize leaves or flowers to make costumes while learning the classics of literature like Shakespeare. Students can also create poems using nature as a great motivation. Ideas flow when students are free and in full concentration mode.

Art lessons will no longer be the same because students can get inspiration from the things around them. Art and music require spaces that allow creative thinking. Enclosed spaces limit thought processes and creativity.

Think Outside the Box

If you're still stuck in the conventional ways of teaching, try and embrace outdoor classes. You'll realize a difference in your interactions with the students and their overall performance. Explore the environment and use anything as a tool to help the student grasp necessary concepts. You may struggle less to explain concepts as nature gives you many options to us

Written by Steve Ndar
Education World Contributor
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