Bringing Your Elementary Tech Class Outdoors

Bringing your class outside during the warmer days can feel like a mini field trip that allows students to think about their work from a new perspective. For those who teach technology, it’s easy to feel stuck in the classroom, but there are educational benefits of bringing your class into the fresh air. Technology happens everywhere, and having students participate in a technology-centered class outdoors can literally help them think outside the box. Here are some ideas for lessons that are both plugged in and unplugged.

Outside logistics

Figuring out how to get kids to bring the devices they need and whether the Wi-Fi extends outside are important considerations.

It’s also worth thinking about the area you have available—in urban areas, students might just use the steps to the school. When weather is tricky to work around, ask families to bring extra layers or to bring blankets to sit on surfaces that might be wet.

Before outdoor lessons, have students think about device damage precautions. Ask your students if there are reasonable areas to sit where dirt and debris won’t enter the devices. You can also ask students to create blockers to help with screen glare outside. You may want to consider investing in portable charging stations in case devices lose battery life.

Fun ideas for taking technology outdoors

Take devices outside. The simplest thing to do is just to have students work at picnic tables or on the ground outside. During my technology classes, I’ll have students complete lessons such as Kodable or keyboarding lessons.

QR scavenger hunts. Consider setting up some QR code scavenger hunts. My students enjoy math scavenger hunts, where students scan the QR codes for questions or answers and complete work on clipboards. You can also pair students where one holds the device and the other holds the scratch paper.

Photo and digital media lessons. I love to take kids on “photosafaris”—going outside to take pictures of whatever we can find. The students look at bark, ants, water movement, trees, and whatever happens to be in the outdoor space at the moment. These are a great way to teach students how to take different kinds of photos from different angles and allow students to experiment with distant and close-up shots. During this lesson, students practice “feature extraction,” because they are training their eyes to recognize patterns in taking good pictures. Having students practice the “rule of thirds” or the “worm’s-eye angle” allows them to check their work for clarity before creating more complicated graphic designs.

Bring robots outside. If you have smoother areas, consider a Dash robot or other durable robot to carry a small camera to capture its viewpoint and journey. Depending on the age of your students and the location of your school, drones and water robot units may be fun as well.

Unplugged lessons

Some lessons don’t need a screen and can be moved outside when the weather is nice. For example, an unplugged lesson such as Rosie’s Runtime can work more effectively outside. Students arrange physical cards to demonstrate the movement of a robot dog named Rosie. We carry giant Twister mats to ease the setup, and students take turns to create algorithms and program the robot. During the game, Rosie must avoid mud puddles, which adds to the nature aspect of the game.

Classroom discussions. Deep conversations on digital citizenship and ethics could be great for the outdoors. Have a classroom discussion, and then ask students to do a turn-and-talk after. Instructors can even bring poster paper or sticky notes to document learning conversations. These make great anchor charts to bring back inside to display.

Safety lessons. Great conversations can also occur on general safety of equipment. Bringing picture books for a read-aloud such as A Little Respectful SPOT, by Diane Alber, can help lead chats on taking care of their technology tools. Asking students what are the outside dangers to devices while they are sitting outside allows them to use their senses to think about protecting technology in a different way. Combining the safety conversation into if/then statements can also be a valuable lesson. For example, you could ask students, “If a robot went past a muddy patch on the sidewalk, what would happen to its sensors?”

Craft computing. There are lessons where it may be a bonus to keep craft computing outside to keep the mess to a minimum. Lionel Bergeron teaches that “craft computing is an opportunity for students to gain a better understanding of what makes a computer a computer and how we interact with them through a series of unplugged activities using arts and crafts materials.” For example, the Hello Ruby site offers several ideas such as building your own devices and crafts—these can get messy, so clean-up might be easier outdoors. The site offers input/output, create-your-device, and other fine-motor cut-and-paste activities related to technology lessons.