Teaching GCSE Science using the core principles of Bushcraft
in an Outdoor Learning Environment
Welcome
Our philosophy
"When one tugs at a single thing in Nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the World"
- John Muir
We are living in a time where we are all increasingly disconnected from nature, our environment and our own origin and place in the world. At the same time our species has the ability to have an unprecedented influence on our surroundings as well as a greater level of understanding of the effects of these actions.
Our studies of Science are about this interconnectedness; about putting our actions in context with our surroundings in order to understand and protect them better. In studying the sciences we are acknowledging these connections.
What is Feral Science?
Science is about practical skills. This is one of the things that drew me to the subject in the first place; it has the privilege of being the most practical of the core subjects taught in school. We are familiar with the school science lab and, however difficult students find the subject, there is pleasure in a practical investigation.
However there is an aspect of science that coaches us into the incorrect assumption that it must be done in a lab. The way that the sciences are scheduled in schools misleads us into thinking that they are separate disciplines and conceals the overlapping areas, allowing students to believe that the knowledge they must acquire for each subject is separate and distinct.
I believe that science is an approach: it is the thought process that asks a question and then seeks to design a way of answering this with data. If all goes well the data will support a number of statements or conclusions which can then be compared back to the original aims. This does not need a lab, in fact it might be better applied to more ‘real world’ situations.