Outdoor school - a school that expands boundaries

Learning at home – getting to know and cultivating local nature and culture

Since 2014, Lichterfelde elementary school has been running an outdoor school to complement its regular lessons. This means that pupils in grades 1 to 4 regularly go outside the school and explore the surrounding area as a place of learning. The aim is to teach content relevant to the lessons. Subjects such as German, math, sport, science, art and music are taught in the outdoor school. The focus is on interdisciplinary and team-oriented learning.

Enable self-efficacy and authentic learning experiences

During outdoor school, the children often learn as a team. They engage with their home environment in a very concrete way. For example, the paddock can become a place to learn math by practising the drawing sequence. There are numerous other examples that the Lichterfelde elementary school has been documenting in its online diary since 2014. Learning outside of school creates new spaces for self-awareness in which the children’s self-efficacy is strengthened. In the outdoor school, the children are clearly encouraged and challenged in their joy of movement. The urge for physical experience is given sufficient space, content is formed through experience, children’s curiosity can be satisfied and the home is recognized as a place of learning and explored from the very beginning. Outdoor school is not only about being in nature, but also generally refers to the place of learning outside the school. For example, the local museum can be explored, a visit can be made to a local company or an aunt can be visited with her hobby. The outdoor school sees itself as an open learning concept that is filled with content by the teachers and pupils.

Background to the outdoor school

The Global Action Program on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was launched by UNESCO for the period 2015 – 2019. ESD focuses learning concepts on specific skills. The focus is also on social and personal skills that make young people fit for a global, complex world. The new framework guidelines, which are to be implemented in schools in the coming years, are based on the principles of ESD. The outdoor school learning concept can complement and transform this new development in schools. In 2015, the German UNESCO Commission recognized the outdoor school project at Lichterfelde Primary School as an “excellent project of the UN Decade on Biodiversity”.

Previous project partners of the Draußenschule Lichterfelde

German Hiking Association, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Unabhängiges Institut für Umweltfragen e.V., Förderverein der Grundschule, Bäckerei Wiese, Märkisch Edel, Kulturlandschaftverein Uckermark e. V., Zooschule Eberswalde, Zahnarztpraxis Jannick, Naturpark Barnim, Forstausstatter Grube Eberswalde, Stadtförsterei Eberswalde, Bauernverband Uckermark e.V.