Teachers' reviews - Banchory Academy at Burn o' Vat
Prince's Trusts xl club diary
Muir of Dinnet Xl Club Trip, Tuesday 22nd June 2010
A note about the project from Mrs Gillespie
I am part of a project called Teaching in Nature. The project is funded by Scottish Natural Heritage. A number of primary and secondary schools across Scotland are also taking part in the project. The research is being carried out by the University of Stirling.
Dr Greg Mannion is the Lead Researcher. This is a picture of Greg.
The teachers involved in the project have to take a class out to a Nature Reserve to experience nature as part of a lesson or course.
Dr Greg Mannion or one of his staff joins the teacher and the class on the visit to the nature reserve. Greg joined our group on our trip.
I decide to take the Prince's Trust xl club because they had recently formed and felt a trip to the nature reserve would help them to bond as a group.
I prepared a booklet of activities and questions for the pupils to complete. We did not manage to complete the whole booklets. I prepared far too much and during the trip it became clear that the pupils were gaining a huge amount from simply being at the reserve together.
Gill Ross, the Prince's Trusts Programme Co-ordinator also came along. At the end of the day Gill split the groups into pairs and set them a challenge to build a tower form spaghetti and marshmallows.
This is Greg Mannion talking to the xl club by the winning tower. You will see from the picture that the pupils made the towers by the edge of a burn. Prior to this trip I had only seen this type of challenge completed inside on tables. Being outside added to the challenge and I felt it also made it more interesting. Some groups chose to build the towers on the gravel and others on the grass verge. 'Spaghetti towers' is essential a team building activity. Building the towers outside added a more realistic dimension – in real life if you were building a tower you would have to take the foundations into consideration.
The club advisors, Simone, Pam and I, were able to find out how the group behaved, worked together and how they responded to being away from the school.
I was amazed at how the group behaved outside compared to how they are in the classroom. Individually they came across as being much more genuine, I imagine as I would see them away from school. They seemed freer and more relaxed. This did not detract from the completing activities and listening to our instructions. I felt it was a very successful trip and it is only on writing up this note that I can now see many other benefits of taking pupils outside to learn.
