45 Outdoor Thunks

In 2017 I was sitting with the late Juliet Robertson in a school hall in Hong Kong waiting for something to happen.

She'd spent the day with staff and children outside in the local park and, in between lessons, playing Pokémon GO on her phone.

To pass the time she challenged me to come up with Thunks that were relevant for her pioneering work in outdoor education.

We started with 'If you are in a cave, is that outdoor learning?' and went from there.

See what you think.

1. Is a mediocre outside lesson better for us than a great indoor lesson? 
2. Can any activity be made unadventurous? 
3. Can you make a hazard go away?
4. If it’s dangerous but nothing bad happens was it dangerous?
5. If one child does not want to go outside, should the whole class be kept inside?
6. Is it still the same class if one child stays inside while the rest are outside?
7. Should there be fewer rules outside rather than more?
8. Is stopping a child playing a bigger punishment than making them work?
9. Is it better to wear out one piece of woodland site rather than impact the wider environment?
10. Should a child be made to get wet if they have forgotten to bring a jacket? 
11. Should the adults be punished for what the child forgets?
12. If one week in a residential centre has the same impact as one term in a school, should we just send children on a residential experience for a month every year instead of going to school?
13. Can you have a Forest School without trees?
14. Can learning not happen outdoors?
15. Is more of the learning accidental when you are outside?
16. Is it up to the teacher to decide if a class goes outside to learn?
17. Is the classroom bigger when the door is open?
18. Is the outdoors smaller when the door is open?
19. Are humans man-made, more than they are natural?
20. Are you really outside when you are in a tent?
21. Are you really outside when you are wearing a hat?
22. Is the school building simply the changing rooms for the outside classroom?
23. Are the rugby players playing outside if the roof is on the stadium?
24. Does Wimbledon’s Centre Court become a room when the roof goes on?
25. Are small animals the last to know when it stops raining?
26. If I break a stick into three, do I still have a stick?
27. Is a ploughed field more maths than art?
28. Is there less sky on a cloudy day?
29. Are wild animals taught?
30. Are birds simply speaking?
31. Do you need to know what it’s called to say you’ve seen it?
32. Is life more real outside?
33. Can you say where the outside starts?
34. Can you touch the wind?
35. Can you touch a rainbow?
36. Can we really know if every snowflake is different?
37. If every snowflake is different, is every snow angel?
38. Can you measure the coast?
39. Are there more islands when the tide comes in?
40. Does the horizon get higher when the tide goes out?
41. Does a butterfly know where it’s going?
42. Can a fly see a skyscraper?
43. Are birds’ nests designed?
44. Is outdoor learning a subject?
45. Is anything not natural?
46. And, of course, if you are in a cave, is that outdoor learning?

You can see Juliet's original post here on her amazing Creative Star website.

It's a treasure trove of amazing ideas, advice and inspiration for taking your teaching outside.

Juliet in her garden when I visited her in 2024