In this unit, students explore their outdoor classroom and natural environments with an opportunity for an integrated STEM approach to teaching and learning. They will apply mathematical understandings, scientific skills and a process of design and engineering to research and create a design solution (a stick cubby or small scaled stick structure) and to evaluate and review their product. Their design solution will be a structure made of sticks and natural materials. This could be a cubby large enough for a group to sit in, or it could be a smaller structure made to scale. They will incorporate an element of sustainable living into their shelter; water collection, solar energy, harnessing wind energy and insulating properties as well as developing appreciation and understanding of the social construct of community and the way a community is shaped by a greater collective.

This unit; ‘Anything but a Stick’ is based around the affordances of a stick and learning opportunities associated with natural loose parts found on your site. The opportunity presented is for educators to tune into nature and use its various elements as tools for learning.

This unit can be facilitated as an overall unit of work or used as lessons in isolation to link with other curriculum foci and programming for your class. These activities are open-ended and therefore lead to opportunities to include more complex concepts or extend existing ones.

Students will be encouraged and challenged with learning opportunities, observations and collaborations associated with natural elements.

This unit offers a starting point to begin conversations and inquiries into: the construct of an outdoor learning environment; the place of an educator in a natural setting; and the learning through, and with nature, as a pedagogical approach. It will also allow, you as an educator, to tune in and consider the child’s perception when venturing to an outdoor learning environment.