This week’s sessions for the PGCE primary students is designed to inspire cross curricular use of ICT and to encourage the use of the outdoor space available in school. We often see the outdoor classroom talked about in the early years classes; it is encouraged by all. But sad to say it is much more difficult for junior teachers to integrate it into their daily routines, mainly due to the pupil staff ratio. That said there are many wonderful opportunities for Outdoor Environment to be utilised across the whole primary school.
I set challenges across a range of subject areas; maths trails collecting digital evidence, adventure story writing using mobile technology, archaeological digs combining history and ICT, weather station and weather data from a local airport with suggestions of a weather broadcast of some sort using Skype and scientific enquiry using a selection of hand held microscopes that can be used to explore the natural environment without disturbing it. All in all the sessions seem to be going well, the students came up with some excellent ideas that will be developed upun in the next session. So watch this space.
I would love to start a tweet with the #tag #smupgce11 to get students resonses about the session ideas they took part in.
Also to check out http://www.delicious.com/peacehome/ICT_outdoors my bookmarks for the session
What we did learn though, is that it is not always a good thing to buy the cheapest product, for example the metal detectors used for the archaeological digs were really children’s toys and not very robust. So it is worthwhile researching for a good product so that your children will not be disappointed and can really learn from the experiences you provide.
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