Powassan students hold classes outdoors with unique activities to enhance learning

Powassan students learn in outdoor classroom Students at St. Gregory Catholic School in Powassan are taking part in an educational program to learn subjects in an outdoor setting.

Grade 7/8 students at St. Gregory Catholic Elementary School in Powassan have been taking time out of their day for outdoor learning sessions.

The sessions are run by the Canadian Ecology Centre, part of a program called ‘Outdoor Ways of Learning and Sharing,’ or OWLS for short.

“Outdoor experiential learning in general has been shown to be incredibly effective,” said Canadian Ecology Centre Outdoor educator Ian Byerley.

Tuesday afternoon, students had to work as a team to pull different strings to balance a small orange ball in the middle of it. It was meant to symbolize the ball as a resource and how stakeholders have to work together to keep the resource thriving in society for everyone to benefit.

"I think it's good to be outside a lot in the fresh air and not sitting inside the classroom all day," said Grade 8 Student Noah Green.

Noah said it’s a lot easier for him to learn in a hands-on way.

Being outdoors is not just a way for students to learn science or math. During the morning session, students were learning about the historical battles in the Seven Years’ War through a scavenger hunt using handheld GPS systems.

"It's been a lot of fun and a lot better than sitting inside a classroom,” said Grade 8 Student Kohen Aro.

“We did an outdoor scavenger hunt and learned a lot about history in the 1700s. We’ve learned the timeline and the expulsion of Acadia.”

The concept started at the school in the middle of October. The OWLS program launched as a pilot project before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

It's currently being run in more than a dozen schools in North Bay and surrounding area. Byerley said this model of teaching keeps students engaged, while helping them learn more efficiently.

"Just getting a hands-on experience and hands-on learning instead of more theoretical way really gives a different aspect to the education material," he said.

“Plus being outside, as we all know, has an immense benefit for our mental health.”

The program at the school alternates between regular in-class schedule and outdoor learning every two weeks.

“The teachers can do their own outdoor programming with the students and then they can communicate with us as to what they’ve done,” said Byerley.

“Then I come back after two weeks and then run another two sessions.”

Grade 7/8 Teacher Shanna Nodwell said her students have been very engaged and is very happy she can have the program running in her class.

"I'll take advantage of it for as long as the ecology centre is offering it,” Nodwell said.

“It's been extremely rewarding to have this opportunity where we could take part in this kind of learning."

The Canadian Ecology Centre’s OWLS program can also be taught in French. The centre is looking at expanding it to other willing schools in hopes of enhancing the way students learn.