Lincoln Public Schools encouraging teachers to have classes outside

Posted By: Alden German
agerman@klkntv.com

School begins for LPS in only a week and a half which means kids will soon be inside more than out. LPS wants to change that by having their students spend less time in the classroom and more time outdoors learning.

Teachers are always looking for new ways to improve learning in their classrooms. Often times that means adding more technology. Lincoln Public Schools is encouraging their teachers to try something simpler. Go outside.

"We know there’s some amazing learning happening outside that wouldn’t happen in the classroom normally," said Brittney Albin of Lincoln Public Schools. "Whether it’s just getting to see something like a butterfly land on a flower out in the garden and talk about that and learn about something real right in front of them instead of a photo inside."

The district held a workshop on the benefits of teaching outdoors, focusing on grade school, and those teachers agree. Some educators even believe outside learning can benefit our society as a whole. The workshop challenged teachers to discover ways that they can teach math, science, art, and other subjects outdoors.

"Outdoor education is a phenomenal way to get kids to be critical thinkers, to be problem solvers, to have those skills that they are going to need in the future," said Lindsay Rogers of Nebraska Game & Parks. Game & Parks works with many school districts around the state to educate kids on ecological topics. They’ve been working with LPS and their outdoor classrooms for nearly the last decade. 

In pushing for a more interactive class environment, school teachers hope their students will realize learning can happen anywhere, and maybe they can teach someone else, too.

"They can go and do that at home or they can go and explain it to their parents. If their parents have a garden or something like that they can say ‘oh we learned about this at my classroom’ and they can do it right there at home," said Cameron Mettenbrink of Lakeview Elementary.

Not every LPS school has an outdoor learning environment like this one, but their hope is that more and more schools will build some kind of outdoor classroom.