Nowadays, the main buzz phrase you will hear in education all over the world (and the UAE which since September 2015 has joined this trend) is:
S ciences
T echnology
E ngineering
M aths
What this basically means is that the focus of schools and lessons is leaning heavily towards these main subject areas, and teachers are constantly looking for innovative ways to deliver them in fun, hands on ways that stimulate the students into new ways of learning.
“A study from the National Training Laboratories in 2000 found that only about 5 percent of the information delivered through lecture was retained. Compare that with retention rates at 50 percent for discussion group and 70 percent for practice by doing. Even higher, at 80 percent, was retention by students teaching others.” (www.hermanmiller.com)
Is it better to learn about Water Conservation from a book or go out into the field to study it in a real life environment?
Here, the national agenda is focused on training the future generations of technical leaders for Industry and Business and with major projects like the Nuclear Industry
(aiming for over 40 GWe by 2020) and the Space Race (aiming to send an Orbiter to Mars by 2021), the need for a generation of talented, technically advanced students to lead these projects is ever greater.
When I go into schools in the UAE to meet teachers and to write bespoke training programs for their students at the ADAPT Adventure Center in RAK where I work, the most common requests I am getting are for more “Evidence based activities” so they will have something to show the inspecting authorities from the Ministry of Education (MOE). In Abu Dhabi this comes in the form of an annual inspection by ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) and in Dubai it is delivered by KHDA (Knowledge and Human Development Authority).
These inspecting authorities have sets of KPI’s that are looking for specific outcomes from the schools. In particular they want to see evidence that students are learning about the culture and heritage of the country they are living in. It is vital for students spending any length of time in a country that is not their own to have opportunities to better understand the people and the traditions around them. This will help them later in life to develop a more worldly view and a better empathy for other nationalities. As John Lennon said, we are after all “A Brotherhood of Man.”
So where does Field Studies come into this? Well, if we accept that people learn better by “doing” then we can agree that the concept of “Experiential learning” is going to be a great way for young people to get real life, hands on experience of the subjects they learn about in the classroom. For example:
Geodesic dome
If you are studying Geometrical shapes in Maths in school then the majority of this will likely be on paper (drawing) and in books (reading). But if you take the class outdoors and give them a pile of old newspapers, some plastic pipes, a tape measure, scissors and roll of sticky tape and ask them to build a mathematically correct Geodesic dome – will they be able to? We hope so and especially with a bit of a briefing and a printed set of instructions. Once built, the students will then be able to actually test the properties of the dome and see for themselves that it really is a “self-supporting structure” that can actually hold a variety of weights off the ground. This of course can be tested by actually placing weights on top of it!
This type of practical activity is cross mapped straight out of a teaching textbook and into a real time exercise and the students will remember it for years afterwards!
Toxic waste – teamwork!
Another example of Field Studies is the use by teachers of “Case Studies.” If a student is learning about Environmental Science in the classroom then it is very likely that they will be introduced to “Case Studies” related to their subject area. If you come from the UK and your text books are “Key Stage” books then the majority of your case studies will be based on British locations, for example, you might, in Key Stage 4 (GCSE), be learning about “Natural Habitats”, and the case study for this is “Dawlish Warren” on the Devon coast (I know because I went there for my High School Geography field trip!).
If you live in the UAE and your only case study and point of reference for Natural Habitats is Dawlish Warren in the UK, and the chance of actually going there is very low, then your retention of information about that subject is going to be low. So I go into schools to talk to Science or Geography teachers, who give me a list of subject areas to work with. I then write them new case studies that relate specifically to the landscape the students live in and then we take them on field studies trips to those landscapes to engage them in active, hands-on learning.
Camel culture
Teachers also want their students to be able to “think outside the box”, “problem solve”, “work to deadlines under pressure” and of course, very importantly “communicate and work as a team”. Field Studies programs provide suitable environments for all these outcome requirements. Activities specifically designed to elicit these responses in young people and to test their leadership skills are both fun and educational. A great example of one activity we run is “TOXIC WASTE” in which students are briefed that:
A Chemical factory has had a major spill and it is your teams’ job to contain this by collecting the various hazardous items from inside the danger zone and depositing them in neutralisation bins. Of course you cannot enter the danger zone and you cannot physically touch the hazardous items. We will provide you with several items which may or may not be useful (a few “red herrings” – useless items to confuse them!) and you will be required to complete the task inside a time limit to ensure the hazardous items do not heat up and explode (usually we make the time limit hard to meet to give them added pressure!).
The group then gets a few minutes to discuss the task and share solutions before we ask them to proceed.
In the debrief, when the task is finished, we spend time getting the students to think about how they completed the task and if they could improve on it next time. Often the whole activity is linked to a Learning Model and in this example we often use “Kolb’s Learning Cycle”. It is useful to the students to learn about processes and models that they can then apply to their everyday lives when they have to solve their own problems:
“Field studies” usually means that the students will be going away from home for one or more nights. This in turn has hugely beneficial outcomes for the students. It teaches them about:
• Self-sufficiency
• Socialisation
• Self-confidence
• Taking responsibility for your own actions and decisions
• Respect for diversity in others
It also gives them a sense of community and teamwork or espirit de corps, which is very important for their personal development.
Organisations like World Challenge in the UAE, who are one of the main providers of “Adventure Education and Field Studies” through camps like ADAPT are leading the way in the UAE for the next generation of young people to take their STEM lessons out of the classroom and into the outdoors where there is almost unlimited potential for exciting and breakthrough teaching techniques and learning experiences.
So, whenever you see a new school advertising a “STEM Curriculum” or when your school gives a presentation on STEM and its place in modern education, be sure to raise your hand and ask the important question; “What practical field studies training are you providing in these subject areas and how will it really benefit our children?”
Words + Photos By: Dan Wright
Dan Wright is a Wilderness Expedition Guide and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). He has a degree in Environmental Science and works as the Project Manager of the ADAPT Adventure & Field Studies Center, based in RAK. Dan writes for a range of publications in Arabia and Asia on Environmental Issues and Personal Development. His wife Nirjala is the former Nepal National Mountain Bike Champion and their son Percy is an adventurer in the making! They spend all their spare time exploring the UAE.
