2026-02-23 Nature-Based Learning: Classrooms Without Walls
Nature-Based Learning: Classrooms Without Walls
A group of second graders crouches beside a creek bed, counting caddisfly larvae to measure water quality while recording their observations in weatherproof journals. Across the country, a high school biology class maps the biodiversity of a restored prairie, contributing real data to a university research project. In a suburban preschool, four-year-olds build shelters from fallen branches, negotiate roles, and develop spatial reasoning without a single worksheet in sight. These scenes represent a growing movement in education that recognizes what generations of human experience have always known: children learn best when they are actively engaged with the living world around them. Nature-based learning is not a rejection of academic rigor but an expansion of where and how meaningful learning takes place, drawing on decades of research that demonstrates improved outcomes in cognition, physical health, emotional regulation, and environmental literacy. At the Rissover Foundation, we support nature-based education initiatives that open doors to outdoor classrooms for all children, recognizing that access to nature is not a luxury but a fundamental component of healthy development and effective learning.
The Nature Deficit and Its Consequences
The relationship between children and the outdoors has changed dramatically over the past several decades as structured schedules, screen-based entertainment, urbanization, and safety concerns have steadily reduced the amount of unstructured time young people spend outside. Research indicates that American children spend an average of only four to seven minutes per day in unstructured outdoor play, a figure that has declined sharply since the 1980s. This disconnection from the natural environment carries measurable consequences for physical health, mental well-being, and academic performance.
Childhood obesity rates have tripled since the 1970s, and physical inactivity is a significant contributing factor. Outdoor environments naturally encourage movement through climbing, running, balancing, and exploring terrain that challenges the body in ways that indoor spaces simply cannot replicate. Children who spend more time outdoors demonstrate better cardiovascular fitness, improved coordination, and healthier body weight compared to peers who remain primarily indoors.
Mental health challenges among young people have reached alarming levels, with rising rates of anxiety, depression, and attention difficulties. Research consistently links time in natural settings with reduced stress hormones, improved mood, and enhanced capacity for sustained attention. Nature exposure has been shown to be particularly beneficial for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, with outdoor settings reducing symptoms more effectively than equivalent indoor activities.
Academic engagement and motivation often suffer when learning is confined to artificial environments that lack sensory richness and real-world context. Students who struggle in traditional classroom settings frequently thrive when given opportunities to learn through direct experience with natural phenomena. The decline in outdoor learning opportunities disproportionately affects children in low-income communities and communities of color, where access to green spaces and outdoor programming may be limited by systemic inequities in park funding, urban planning, and school resources.
Environmental literacy has declined alongside outdoor experience, creating a generation that may lack the direct connection to nature that motivates environmental stewardship. Research suggests that childhood experiences in nature are among the strongest predictors of adult environmental concern and action, making early outdoor education essential for cultivating future conservation leaders.
Forest Schools: Learning Through the Seasons
The forest school model, which originated in Scandinavian countries during the mid-twentieth century, provides one of the most well-developed frameworks for nature-based education. Forest schools operate primarily outdoors in wooded or natural settings throughout the entire year, regardless of weather conditions, following a philosophy that emphasizes child-led exploration, risk assessment, and long-term relationship with a specific natural place.
In a forest school setting, children develop familiarity with a particular landscape over weeks, months, and years, observing seasonal changes, tracking animal behavior, and developing deep ecological understanding through sustained direct experience. This longitudinal relationship with place differs fundamentally from occasional nature field trips and produces qualitatively different learning outcomes. Students develop genuine expertise about local ecosystems while building emotional connections that foster environmental responsibility.
The pedagogical approach in forest schools emphasizes process over product, allowing children to direct their own inquiry while educators serve as facilitators who introduce tools, vocabulary, and framing questions at appropriate moments. A child who discovers fungi growing on a fallen log might spend an entire session investigating decomposition, leading naturally into conversations about nutrient cycling, forest ecology, and the role of organisms that break down organic matter. This emergent curriculum respects the child’s curiosity while connecting individual observations to broader scientific concepts.
Risk management in forest schools follows a carefully considered approach that distinguishes between hazards that should be eliminated and risks that provide valuable learning opportunities. Children learn to assess conditions, make decisions about their own capabilities, and develop confidence through graduated challenges such as climbing trees, using hand tools, and navigating uneven terrain. Research on forest school programs consistently demonstrates improvements in self-confidence, social skills, and emotional resilience among participants.
Forest school programs have expanded significantly beyond their Scandinavian origins, with thousands of programs now operating across the United Kingdom, North America, Australia, and Asia. Adaptation to different climates, ecosystems, and cultural contexts has enriched the model while maintaining core principles of outdoor immersion, child-led learning, and regular engagement with natural environments throughout the year.
Outdoor Classrooms and Schoolyard Habitats
Not every school has access to extensive forest land, but outdoor classrooms and transformed schoolyard habitats bring nature-based learning to schools in virtually any setting, from rural campuses to dense urban environments. Outdoor classroom development creates intentional learning spaces on school grounds that support curriculum-aligned instruction across all subject areas.
Schoolyard habitat projects transform underutilized outdoor spaces into functional ecosystems that serve as living laboratories for science instruction while providing habitat for local wildlife. Native plant gardens, pollinator meadows, rain gardens, bird feeding stations, and small ponds create diverse habitats that generate ongoing opportunities for observation, data collection, and ecological inquiry. Students who participate in designing, planting, and maintaining these habitats develop ownership and stewardship while gaining hands-on experience with ecological principles.
Outdoor classroom infrastructure can range from simple gathering circles made of logs to more developed spaces with weather protection, seating, whiteboards, and storage for outdoor learning materials. The most effective outdoor classroom designs balance structure with flexibility, providing enough organization to support instruction while maintaining the natural character that distinguishes outdoor learning from simply moving desks outside.
Mathematics instruction benefits from outdoor settings where measurement, geometry, estimation, and data analysis can be grounded in tangible contexts. Students measuring the circumference and diameter of trees to explore the relationship between these measurements and the constant pi engage with mathematical concepts through physical experience that deepens understanding beyond abstract formulas. Weather data collection, population surveys of schoolyard organisms, and geometric analysis of natural patterns all connect mathematical thinking to observable phenomena.
Literacy instruction in outdoor settings draws on the rich sensory experiences that nature provides for descriptive writing, poetry, storytelling, and journaling. Students who write about the texture of bark, the sound of wind through leaves, or the behavior of a bird building a nest produce more vivid and detailed writing than those working from imagination alone. Nature journals that combine scientific observation with creative expression build both scientific literacy and language arts skills simultaneously.
Social studies and history connect naturally to outdoor learning through investigation of how human communities have interacted with local landscapes over time, how geographic features have shaped settlement patterns, and how land use decisions affect communities and ecosystems. Place-based social studies instruction helps students understand their communities in deeper ways while building civic engagement and historical thinking skills.
Place-Based Education: Rooted in Community
Place-based education extends nature-based learning beyond ecological study to encompass the full cultural, historical, economic, and environmental context of local communities. This approach uses the local environment and community as the primary text for learning, connecting academic content to the places where students live while building understanding of how local and global systems intersect.
Students engaged in place-based education might study the water quality of a local river while investigating the industrial history that contributed to its pollution, the policy decisions that guide restoration efforts, and the community organizing that has advocated for cleanup. This integrated approach develops academic skills across disciplines while building civic understanding and community connection.
Agricultural education programs connect students to food systems through school gardens, farm partnerships, and food production experiences that teach science, mathematics, nutrition, and economics while building understanding of where food comes from and how agricultural practices affect environmental and community health. Students who grow food develop healthier eating habits while gaining practical skills and deeper appreciation for agricultural labor and food system complexity.
Community mapping projects engage students in documenting local ecological features, historical sites, cultural resources, and community assets while building geographic skills and community knowledge. Mapping activities can incorporate technology through GPS and geographic information systems while also valuing local knowledge held by community members, elders, and cultural practitioners.
Service learning in place-based education connects academic content to community needs through projects that produce tangible benefits while developing student skills and understanding. Students might restore eroded streambanks while studying hydrology, create interpretive trail guides while developing writing skills, or monitor air quality while learning about chemistry and public health. These projects provide authentic audiences and purposes for student work while building community partnerships.
Economic education in place-based contexts helps students understand local economies, career opportunities, and the relationship between economic development and environmental sustainability. Students might investigate sustainable business practices, explore careers in natural resource management, or develop business plans for enterprises that address community needs while protecting environmental resources.
Nature Preschools and Early Childhood Programs
The earliest years of childhood represent a particularly critical window for establishing positive relationships with the natural world, and nature preschools have emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments of nature-based education. These programs immerse young children in outdoor learning environments during the developmental period when sensory exploration, physical activity, and imaginative play are most essential for healthy growth.
Nature preschools typically spend the majority of each day outdoors, with indoor time reserved for extreme weather conditions, meals, and rest periods. The outdoor environment serves as both classroom and playground, providing endless opportunities for open-ended play and exploration that support development across all domains including physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and language development.
Sensory-rich outdoor environments support brain development in ways that manufactured indoor environments cannot fully replicate. The textures of natural materials, the sounds of wind and wildlife, the visual complexity of natural landscapes, and the changing conditions of weather and seasons provide constant stimulation that builds neural pathways and sensory processing capabilities. Children who spend significant time outdoors in early childhood demonstrate enhanced sensory integration and perceptual skills.
Social development in nature preschool settings benefits from the open-ended nature of outdoor play, which requires more negotiation, cooperation, and creative problem-solving than structured indoor activities. When children build a dam in a stream or construct a shelter from branches, they must communicate, share resources, assign roles, and manage conflicts without the predefined rules that govern most indoor activities. These experiences build social competence and emotional regulation skills that transfer to all areas of life.
Physical development accelerates in outdoor settings where varied terrain, natural climbing structures, and open spaces encourage the full range of gross motor activities that young children need. Balance, coordination, strength, and spatial awareness develop naturally through outdoor play, and research indicates that children who attend nature preschools demonstrate superior motor skills compared to peers in conventional indoor programs.
Creative and imaginative play flourishes in natural settings where loose parts such as sticks, stones, leaves, and water can become anything a child imagines. Unlike manufactured toys with predetermined functions, natural materials inspire open-ended creativity and divergent thinking that are essential for cognitive development and future academic success.
Adventure Learning and Expeditionary Education
Adventure learning takes nature-based education beyond familiar schoolyard settings into challenging outdoor environments that build resilience, leadership, and self-knowledge through carefully structured experiences that push students beyond their comfort zones while maintaining appropriate safety measures.
Expeditionary learning models organize curriculum around extended investigations that often include significant outdoor components such as field research, wilderness travel, and community-based projects. These expeditions provide authentic contexts for academic learning while building character qualities including perseverance, responsibility, craftsmanship, and compassion that are essential for personal and professional success.
Wilderness programs for adolescents use extended backcountry experiences to develop leadership skills, self-reliance, and group cooperation while providing opportunities for reflection and personal growth during a developmental period characterized by identity formation and increasing independence. Multi-day hiking, canoeing, or camping expeditions require participants to manage physical challenges, navigate group dynamics, and develop practical skills while disconnecting from technology and social pressures.
Rock climbing, kayaking, orienteering, and other outdoor pursuits provide metaphors for academic and personal challenges while building concrete skills in risk assessment, goal setting, and persistence. Students who learn to manage their fear while climbing a rock face often transfer that experience to managing anxiety about academic challenges, public speaking, or social situations.
Environmental field research programs engage students in authentic scientific investigation that contributes to real conservation knowledge while building research skills and scientific thinking. Students might participate in bird banding studies, water quality monitoring, wildlife population surveys, or vegetation analysis that produces data used by professional scientists and land managers.
Adventure education programs must balance challenge with support, providing experiences that stretch participants without causing harm or reinforcing negative self-perceptions. Effective programs use progression models that gradually increase challenge levels while building skills and confidence, ensuring that all participants experience success while continuing to grow.
Indigenous Outdoor Education and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Indigenous communities around the world have maintained educational traditions rooted in direct engagement with natural environments for thousands of years, and these traditions offer profound insights for contemporary nature-based education while deserving recognition and respect as complete educational systems in their own right.
Traditional ecological knowledge represents sophisticated understanding of ecological relationships, species behavior, seasonal patterns, and land management practices developed through centuries of careful observation and transmitted through oral traditions, ceremony, and hands-on learning. This knowledge system is increasingly recognized by Western scientists as complementary to academic ecology, providing insights about ecosystem management, species conservation, and climate adaptation that laboratory-based research alone cannot generate.
Indigenous pedagogies emphasize learning through observation, participation, and mentorship rather than through abstract instruction separated from practical application. Knowledge is embedded in relationships with specific places and transmitted through stories, songs, and guided experiences that connect learners to both ecological understanding and cultural identity. This holistic approach to education addresses intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of learning simultaneously.
Cultural revitalization programs that incorporate outdoor education help Indigenous youth reconnect with traditional practices while building academic skills and cultural pride. Programs might include traditional food gathering and preparation, ecological monitoring using both traditional and scientific methods, and seasonal ceremonies that mark ecological transitions and reinforce relationships with the natural world.
Non-Indigenous educators seeking to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge into nature-based programs must approach this work with deep respect for Indigenous intellectual property and cultural protocols while building genuine partnerships with Indigenous communities rather than extracting knowledge without appropriate attribution and benefit sharing. Meaningful collaboration requires time, trust, and willingness to follow Indigenous leadership in determining how traditional knowledge is shared and used.
Land-based education initiatives led by Indigenous communities demonstrate the power of connecting cultural learning with environmental education while building young people’s capacity to serve as stewards of ancestral lands. These programs often address contemporary environmental challenges including climate change, habitat loss, and water quality through the lens of traditional values and practices that have sustained ecosystems for millennia.
Research on the Benefits of Nature-Based Learning
A substantial and growing body of research documents the academic, physical, social-emotional, and environmental benefits of nature-based learning, providing evidence that supports expansion of outdoor education programs and investment in nature-based approaches across educational settings.
Academic outcomes improve when learning takes place in natural settings, with studies demonstrating gains in science achievement, reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, and critical thinking among students in nature-based programs compared to matched peers in conventional classrooms. The multisensory nature of outdoor learning appears to support memory formation and concept retention while providing authentic contexts that make abstract concepts concrete and meaningful.
Attention and focus improve following nature exposure, with research demonstrating that even brief periods of time in green settings restore attention capacity and improve concentration on subsequent tasks. This attention restoration effect is particularly significant for students who struggle with sustained attention in conventional classroom settings and suggests that outdoor learning breaks could improve overall academic performance.
Physical health benefits include increased physical activity, improved cardiovascular fitness, enhanced motor skills development, and reduced incidence of myopia, which has been linked to insufficient time outdoors during childhood. Outdoor learning naturally incorporates movement and physical challenge while reducing sedentary behavior that contributes to obesity and related health conditions.
Social-emotional development benefits from the collaborative, open-ended nature of outdoor learning, with studies documenting improvements in self-confidence, cooperation, communication skills, emotional regulation, and conflict resolution among students in nature-based programs. The less structured nature of outdoor environments requires students to develop social skills organically through shared challenges and collaborative problem-solving.
Environmental attitudes and behaviors are positively influenced by direct nature experiences, with childhood outdoor education being one of the strongest predictors of adult environmental concern and action. Students who learn in and about natural environments develop emotional connections to nature that motivate conservation behavior and environmental citizenship throughout their lives.
Teacher well-being also benefits from outdoor instruction, with educators reporting reduced stress, increased job satisfaction, and renewed enthusiasm for teaching when they regularly take their instruction outdoors. Nature-based teaching provides opportunities for professional creativity and relationship building with students that may be constrained in conventional classroom settings.
Accessibility and Equity Considerations
Nature-based learning must be accessible to all children regardless of ability, income, geographic location, or cultural background, and addressing equity in outdoor education requires intentional effort to overcome barriers that have historically excluded many communities from nature-based experiences.
Disability inclusion in outdoor education requires thoughtful adaptation of activities, environments, and expectations to ensure meaningful participation for students with physical, sensory, cognitive, and emotional disabilities. Accessible trail design, adaptive equipment, modified activities, and trained support staff enable students with diverse abilities to benefit from nature-based learning while contributing their unique perspectives to outdoor learning communities.
Economic barriers to outdoor education include costs for transportation, equipment, appropriate clothing, and program fees that may be prohibitive for low-income families. Equitable nature-based programs provide necessary materials, eliminate cost barriers, and locate programs in communities where they are most needed rather than only in affluent areas with existing outdoor recreation infrastructure.
Cultural relevance in nature-based education requires understanding that different communities have different relationships with outdoor spaces shaped by historical experiences including forced displacement, environmental racism, and exclusion from public lands. Programs must acknowledge these histories while creating welcoming environments that honor diverse cultural perspectives on nature and outdoor experience.
Urban nature-based education demonstrates that meaningful outdoor learning does not require pristine wilderness settings. Urban parks, community gardens, vacant lots, waterways, and even schoolyard cracks in pavement where plants emerge provide rich opportunities for ecological investigation and nature connection. Programs that help urban children discover nature in their own neighborhoods build environmental awareness while challenging the assumption that nature exists only in distant wild places.
Language accessibility ensures that nature-based programs serve multilingual communities through translated materials, bilingual educators, and program designs that leverage the universal language of direct experience with natural phenomena. Nature-based learning can be particularly effective for English language learners because the concrete, sensory nature of outdoor experiences provides context clues that support language acquisition.
Geographic equity requires extending nature-based education beyond regions with established outdoor education traditions to communities in all climate zones, ecosystems, and settlement types. Desert ecosystems, grasslands, wetlands, and coastal environments all provide rich contexts for outdoor learning that are as valuable as the forested settings most commonly associated with nature-based education.
Building Programs and Scaling Impact
Expanding nature-based learning from individual programs to systemic educational practice requires strategic approaches to professional development, policy change, community engagement, and institutional support that build capacity for outdoor education at scale.
Teacher preparation programs must incorporate nature-based pedagogy and outdoor teaching skills into pre-service education so that new teachers enter the profession equipped to take learning outside. Currently, most teacher education programs provide little or no training in outdoor instruction, leaving educators to develop these skills through voluntary professional development after they begin teaching.
Professional development for practicing teachers should include both theoretical understanding of nature-based learning and practical experience with outdoor instruction in their specific teaching contexts. Effective professional development provides ongoing mentoring and peer support rather than one-time workshops, recognizing that developing confidence and competence in outdoor teaching requires sustained practice and reflection.
Administrative support is essential for teachers who want to incorporate outdoor learning into their practice. School leaders who understand the benefits of nature-based education can remove institutional barriers, provide planning time and resources, and create school cultures that value outdoor learning as rigorous academic practice rather than recreational departure from real teaching.
Policy advocacy at district, state, and national levels can create supportive conditions for nature-based education through curriculum standards that incorporate outdoor learning, funding for outdoor classroom development, and regulatory frameworks that support appropriate outdoor activities within school settings. Policy change often begins with grassroots advocacy by parents, educators, and community members who have experienced the benefits of nature-based learning firsthand.
Community partnerships extend the reach of school-based outdoor education by connecting schools with parks, nature centers, farms, conservation organizations, and other community resources that provide expertise, facilities, and programming support. Effective partnerships are built on mutual benefit and shared goals rather than one-directional service provision.
Research and evaluation help build the evidence base for nature-based learning while providing program-level data that supports continuous improvement and funding decisions. Programs should incorporate assessment strategies that capture the full range of outdoor learning outcomes including academic achievement, physical health, social-emotional development, and environmental literacy.
The Path Forward
The movement toward nature-based learning represents a fundamental reconsideration of where and how education happens, guided by both ancient wisdom and contemporary research that confirms what children’s own instincts have always suggested: learning is deeper, more joyful, and more lasting when it takes place in connection with the living world. Expanding access to outdoor education requires commitment from educators, administrators, policymakers, families, and communities who recognize that classrooms without walls are not a departure from academic excellence but a pathway toward it.
The challenges ahead are significant but not insurmountable. Climate change, urbanization, and continued competition for children’s attention from digital media make outdoor education both more difficult and more urgent. Schools face real constraints in funding, liability concerns, scheduling, and institutional inertia that can slow adoption of nature-based approaches. Yet the evidence for outdoor learning continues to strengthen, public interest in nature-based education continues to grow, and innovative programs continue to demonstrate that nature-based learning works for children across all backgrounds and circumstances.
The Rissover Foundation supports nature-based learning initiatives that bring the classroom outdoors for every child, investing in programs that demonstrate measurable academic outcomes while building the environmental awareness and connection that our world urgently needs. We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to learn alongside a creek, under a canopy of trees, or in a garden they helped plant, and that this connection to nature is not supplementary to education but essential to it.
The second graders counting caddisfly larvae, the high school students mapping prairie biodiversity, and the preschoolers building shelters from branches are all participating in a form of education that honors children’s innate curiosity while preparing them for a future that will demand both scientific understanding and ecological responsibility. When we invest in nature-based learning, we invest in children who will grow up knowing that they belong to the natural world and that the natural world belongs to all of us to protect and sustain.
Learn More
To learn more about nature-based learning and outdoor education initiatives, visit: