Designing Micro-Community/Habitats/Ecosystems

by Paula Huddy-Zubkowski for Outdoor Education Collective

Have you ever thought about using the outdoors to design a lesson about community, habitat, or ecosystems? Try this lesson to explore the outdoors with your students.

This loose parts play is an engaging way to have students of any age tell a story. When using loose parts it is important that students have built a relationship with the land to ensure they are respectful when gathering natural materials. I always remind students to be thoughtful and understand that everything we move could impact another species.

Nature treasures can be collected in a bag at home or students can use an egg carton to find natural materials too.

When students build their community, habitat, or ecosystem students may want to create a border to ensure they stay in their space. Ideally this can be a collaborative experience or this could be done as a hybrid in one’s backyard.

The most important goal is to have students use their imagination to connect to the land.

Remember when students complete their work they can go for a museum walk. This is where students observe and collect ideas for their design. You can use this strategy throughout the process or at the end.

Projects like these allow students to deepen their relationship with space and place.

Enjoy designing!