The environment itself could be defined according to Kemp, D (2004) as the surrounding area and everything within it, although it is most commonly thought of in terms of nature. Our interest in environment stems from an early age from our want to become aware of and then to start exploring our surroundings. Spatial awareness plays a big part in this. As when a child is first born it depends on taste and touch to engage with its surroundings but as it develops it begin to be able to focus on and see objects with in its environment and then as of about the age of ten months the child is capable of crawling and hence able to begin to explore its environment for itself. The environment itself could be defined according to Kemp, D (2004) as the surrounding area and everything within it, although it is most commonly thought of in terms of nature.

With regards to the environment Scoffham (2010) claims that “Our sense of identity, it seems, derives in some part from the social and physical environment in which we spend our childhood.” This means that our environment plays a part in how we learn to interact with others and how we feel towards certain tasks. In interacting with their environments children gain essential survival skills, life skills and learn to accept the consequences of their actions. This prepares them well for developments in later life however it can now be suggested that current generations of children are not fully engaging with the outside world and although schools cannot hope to take the place of the child’s own self-discovery it is important that we take the steps to encourage a child’s interest in nature and their environment through data collecting activities, field work or even school trips. This in turn allows us to encourage children to be more active learners and discover things in their environment for themselves rather than simply being passive learners.

A lot of my own attitudes towards the environment probably come from growing up in the countryside and having a very large garden meaning that there was always plenty for me to explore and lots of adventure to be had. I have also been left with plenty of positive memories of the outdoors through having a family that is very keen on hill walking and cycling whilst also being a part of the scouts and duke of Edinburgh.

Fridays session allowed me to see interesting examples of how we could encourage pupils to become engaged with the natural environment. Personally I found the tree identification task the most interesting and feel it would be easiest for pupils to undertake as unlike wildlife and birds trees are less likely to wander off or remain to elusive for the pupils to survey. I found the bug survey task to be the least engaging however I can see how pupils might have more luck as they would probably be more willing to dig around the mud for beetles where as we found very few. I also like the example used in the Andrews workshop of giving the class plants to grow. This educates pupils in plants and their needs whilst teaching pupils responsibility and getting them excited and interesting in plants and the environment around them. It also helps move pupils away from being in the bubble wrap generation that Scoffham by letting get involved and become active learners so that they can experience things first hand for themselves and learn not just from the lesson itself but from their mistakes.