Building a Bioclimatic Learning Rhythm

Education around the world follows the same cycles, which has some conveniences built in, but also comes with many challenges. One of the most significant I can think of is that many places have completely disconnected with the environment around their place of learning. In northern climates, learners go to school and come home in the dark, spending the little amount of daylight they have trapped inside climate controlled boxes. In the tropics, no regard is made for the challenges the monsoon season may bring in moving to and from school, and school breaks often coincide with times where the climate is ideal for bringing learners outside.

Currently, I am working with an environment that is known for its extremes: the desert. As a steadfast believer in getting kids outdoors as much as possible, the desert gave me a moment to pause and reflect how we could address a more suitable schedule that honors this dynamic environment.

Where to Start?

The first step was to decide how we might divide up a school year into pieces that reflect a more balanced approach. The long summer breaks made sense when there was a harvest to attend to 100 years ago, but now cause challenges, such as peak travel seasons and long periods of time where parents seek other means to supervise their children while they work.

I have seen many school models referring to 10 week terms broken by 2–4 week breaks. So let’s start with that premise… that school will operate for 10 week terms interspersed by breaks.

With a start after the first week of January, it was pretty straightforward to break the school year into 4 terms. Indeed, this is not far off of what most schools already do, with the exception of a much shorter summer break.

Place-Based Climate Modelling

Now comes a bit of bio-regional customization… For this I took the climate of a desert region and worked with the daily average high temperatures. I suppose in some respects the desert makes it a bit easier for addressing climate, as I did not have to take precipitation into account. I figured any day with a high temperature above 36 degrees Celcius should be treated with caution, while any day below 30 degrees is fairly safe. The period in between can be seen as a transition zone, an area where we are able to find a hybrid between the two pronounced seasons. From this, the model below emerged:

Now I am starting to see some relationships forming here. Our first term allows for us to exist comfortably in the green zone, the second term shifts from yellow to orange. The third term is fully in the orange zone, something to consider for later. Finally, the fourth term moves from yellow into green.

With this simple lens, I can see how our learning community will need to shift our behaviours from term to term. Some terms will allow for a lot of outdoor play, while others will be limited by the environment (within reason, we can always attempt to acclimate our learners to the most extreme zones, but since school is only a portion of a learner’s life it is a real challenge).

Defining Daily and Weekly Rhythms

Where the notion of the bioclimatic education lens really comes into play is how we use this information to inform our daily and weekly rhythms. Schools on the whole are used to setting a routine on day one and then holding onto that irrespective of the environmental cues. It is possible to do this in a climate controlled indoor environment, but just does not work if we want to maximize the outdoor time for our learners.

So what comes next? Based on the three bands described above, we can qualify how the days of the week can be planned for. While the learning community we wish to form allows for a lot of learner agency, we still recognize that the Learning Guides play a role in establishing norms, and will be facilitating activities throughout at least a part of the day.

We also recognize that as a community that embraces ‘Anywhere Learning’, we plan on having excursions on a weekly basis. Those excursions may well be in nature, but could also be to other spots such as culturally relevant spaces or experiential learning spots.

Finally, we value flexibility and time to honor both culture and family, and so are approaching this model with an optional 5th day rather than a mandatory 5 day school week. With that, we created 3 schedules for the learning guides to inform their planning:

The 5th day is actually an opportunity not only for enrolled members of the learning community to take time off (the planning of these days would be independent of the other 4 days), but could also be used as a chance to extend the learning community beyond the enrolled members. New learners could use these days as trial days, parents could be invited to open houses, all with limited disruption of the existing learning program.

As you can see with the graphic above, each term is not only defined by a period of time, but also by the capacity of learning to happen in outdoor and natural spaces. With this insight, themes and phenomena can be planned according to this. Such a model provides healthy guidelines to provide the initiative to get outdoors and active with their learners while also clearly communicating a message of care and well-being to parents and learners alike.

What About Term 3?

As you may recall, term 3 falls into a climatically challenging time. The weather simply is not conducive to immersive outdoor experiences. Here is where we can get even more creative…

What if this term was seen as a chance to really celebrate experiential education? Many of the learners will likely be on holidays through this time, so they are truly exploring the world and learning in one of the best environments possible. This could present itself as a number of different options.

One option would be to support families by acting as a form of travel agent. We could work with groups like Boundless Life and Quartier Collective to provide whole family learning all around the world, knowing with confidence the kids will come back full of experience and wonder about their planet. With some effort, the learning records could even be synchronized across many different providers, so that they accurately reflect the amazing learning that is being undertaken.

Another option is to provide a hybrid model, where learners can access materials and support from anywhere in the world. It would be like having a virtual tutor you know and care for ready to connect with you as your family explores.

For those who are not able to travel, the Learning Centre could still remain open and accessible, just staffed differently to accommodate the reduced demand. This term could explore concepts that are best done within the building, while still connecting to our natural world through short stints outside or through excursions that continue to build wonder and awe of nature.

How to Turn This Into a Reality?

At the moment, these are models in the early stages of conceptualization. There will no doubt be moments in our coming weeks and months when we can revisit the concepts around a bioclimatic learning lens and see how feasible they are. However, every raindrop needs something to enucleate around, so and I figured it would be a worthwhile challenge to start to form such nuclei.

I would love to explore how such a lens can be applied to other places on our planet, with other variables and needs. As always I am keen to connect up and share in how such ideas can be realized!