Curriculum Standards
Outdoor Classroom offers a customized curriculum that aligns with national Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and state standards.
At Outdoor Classroom, our role is to enhance the work teachers do in their classrooms and provide students with different exciting learning opportunities! We know that not every student is the same—some struggle in a traditional classroom or lab setting—so we go out of our way to provide learning environments that excite, delight, and teach in a whole new way. What’s more, we are always striving to find ways to align our curriculum with that of our visiting schools. This ensures that the lessons students are learning are relevant and build upon what they’ve already learned in the classroom.
Science Standards
National and state science standards are at the heart of our curriculum. We evaluate these standards to determine the learning objectives for each and every lesson, and plan hands-on activities to achieve them! Our curriculum encompasses earth and space science, life science, physical science, and engineering. Some lessons are cross-curricular, meeting science, history, art, physical education, or social-emotional learning standards.
Learning Beyond The Classroom
We know there are some components of state and national standards that are challenging for teachers to fulfill within the four walls of a classroom. Thankfully, our outdoor education programming can provide that missing piece! With our programs, students can dive into scientific content headfirst through thoughtful and thrilling experiments. Students can go down to a lake, river, or ocean to collect and analyze pH and other data to determine the health of a water system. They can create small boats out of classroom materials and learn about buoyancy, mass, and density. They can get up-close and personal with real scientific tools by creating their own field guides, then learning to use them to identify different forest critters—the opportunities for learning beyond the classroom are endless.
Developing Critical Skills
Our lessons also build critical skills that span academic branches from science to math to English and beyond, such as constructing arguments from evidence, building and using models to describe phenomena, and evaluating cause and effect relationships.
Additional critical skills include:
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Inquiry
- Problem-solving
- Flexibility
Ready to Get Started?
When you choose to partner with Outdoor Classroom, you’re adding another dimension—the natural world—to your students’ education. Learn more about this class and all of our other hands-on experiential outdoor education programs by requesting a quote or contacting us today!