December 14, 2012 – Outdoor Learning Labs

Online Science Activities for Grade Four

As students progress in grade levels, science lessons become more intense and often more difficult. To keep students from falling behind, you need to engage them in an array of activities. Providing opportunities for online learning reaches out to the population of students, including fourth-graders, who benefit from such tactics.

Research Projects
At the fourth-grade level, students have most likely not engaged in too many research projects before. Teach them how to use the Internet for research, how to limit searches to websites with .edu or .gov endings and how to cite their sources in their papers. Assign them a grade-appropriate topic such as parts of an animal cell, the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, the phases of the moon or weather instruments.

Online Labs
If you do not have the time, space or resources to allow students to do actual labs in the classroom, have them watch some labs online. Available topics are wide and varied and include animal behavior, virtual DNA labs, solar system simulators, graphing labs and so forth. After the class has watched the lab online, give the fourth-graders a series of questions to respond to, ensuring they have understood what they just watched.

What is Outdoor Learning

Outdoor education can be simply defined as experiential learning in, for, or about the outdoors. The term ‘outdoor education’, however, is used broadly to refer to a range of organized activities that take place in a variety of ways in predominantly outdoor environments. Common definitions of outdoor education are difficult to achieve because interpretations vary according to culture, philosophy, and local conditions.

Outdoor education is often referred to as synonymous with adventure education, adventure programming, and outdoor learning, outdoor school, adventure therapy, adventure recreation, adventure tourism, expeditionary learning, challenge education, experiential education, environmental education, Forest schools and wilderness education.

Consensus about the meaning of these terms is also difficult to achieve. However, outdoor education often uses or draws upon these related elements and/or informs these areas. The hallmark of outdoor education is its focus on the “outdoor” side of this education; whereas adventure education would focus on the adventure side and environmental education would focus on environmental. Wilderness education involves expeditions into wilderness “where man is but a visitor.” For more information, see Outdoor education definitions.

About Outdoor Learning Labs

Outdoor Learning Labs encourages outdoor learning by developing quality, safety and opportunity to experience outdoor activity provision and by supporting the good practice of outdoor professionals. By representing and lobbying we can help ensure the development and progression of outdoor learning.

For more on outdoor learning activities you may follow ScienceMadeSimple.com