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Increased motivation:
Kids are naturally mobile and geared toward moving around. A 2008 study of
Hollywood kindergartners found “a significant amount” of the kids showed enhanced
enthusiasm about learning, which the researchers cited as proof kids do want to learn, just
perhaps not in the way they are usually required to do so.
Increase in outdoor skills:
Curtis in 1998, Hutchinson in 1999, long in 2003, and Wells in 2005: studies have shown
time and again that the most effective means of learning skills is by doing. Martin, Cashel, Wag
staff, and Brewing definitively stated in their 2006 study that learning outdoor activities can
only come with experience kids get through outdoor education. These skills are really only
limited to the instructor’s comfort level with risk. Gardening, using a compass, navigating by
the sun or moss on trees, building a fire, all of these are skills kids soak up in open-air
classrooms.
Improved memory:
A proven way to improve recall is to experience something new and unfamiliar, which
releases dopamine into the hippocampus where memories are created. Obviously, classrooms
where day in and day out the lighting, temperature, layout, and scenery are always the same
does not have much to offer in this area. But moving the class outside opens up a world of fresh
stimuli for the senses that have an amazing power to lock into the brain and secure whatever
information was being learned at the time along with it. (Proven Benefits of Outdoor Learning,
2018)
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