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Alex Moxon
- Feb 16, 2019
- 3 min
Youth Everywhere Are Protesting for Urgent Action On Climate Change!
On 23rd January 2019, 16 year old Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In contrast to the many delegates who arrived by up to 1,500 individual private jet flights, Thunberg took a 32-hour train ride to get there. She told a Davos panel “Some people, some companies, some decision makers in particular have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money
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Alex Moxon
- Jan 28, 2019
- 3 min
Let's Scrap Environmental Education & Get Ourselves Off Planet Earth!
In a recent conversation with a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) teaching colleague, who is also an avid reader of Outdoortopia, and a former engineer before turning his talents to teaching; his argument is that environmental education is now pointless as we're well beyond bringing Earth back from the brink of ecological disaster. "...we could become a Star Trek species, speeding around the Milky Way Galaxy or beyond to our heart's content and inhabiting
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Alex Moxon
- Jan 27, 2019
- 3 min
Exploring Science Outdoors Encourages a Love of Learning Like Nothing Else.
Scientific literacy is vital nowadays. In our age of "fake news" and "alternative facts", the ability to discern between credible scientific evidence and sensationalist news stories with little foundation, is more important now than ever before. "Learning, which is relevant to children's lives, authentic and observable in real-world settings has the potential to be truly transformative." Scientific Literacy is Vital to Solving 21st Century Challenges We need children who are
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Alex Moxon
- Jan 25, 2019
- 4 min
Children Are Never Safe in Outdoor Education. Here's Why.
I frequently hear outdoor education practitioners, parents and children using the words safe and safety in the context of outdoor learning. Many parents will ask the question: "If my child participates in your outdoor program, will they be kept safe?" And the short answer is "Not exactly." So today's blog post is about risk management in outdoor and experiential education (OEE) for children, and changing perceptions of the concept of safety while taking part in outdoor and ad
1,665 views0 comments

Alex Moxon
- Dec 10, 2018
- 5 min
Fear of Liability Must Not Stop Us Getting Children Outdoors!
In recent years, I've actively sought global opportunities to work in outdoor and experiential education roles for youth in various countries including in the UK, Germany, US, Canada & Thailand. Thankfully, this has given me a unique perspective in terms of the risk management culture in outdoor education within these diverse countries, with a focus on international school settings and residential outdoor education centers. In my view, risk tolerance is an urgent issue in edu
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Alex Moxon
- Nov 25, 2018
- 3 min
Is Outdoor Play Just a Big Waste of Time?
Some believe that outdoor play for children has little educational value. It's unstructured and has no obvious learning outcomes, you might hear them say. But is outdoor play a waste of time? Are children learning valuable lessons or are they just messing about in the mud? Should we lessen the amount of outdoor play to focus more on structured classroom learning instead? Well, unlike maths or literacy which can be rigorously assessed each term to determine a child's progress,
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Alex Moxon
- Nov 16, 2018
- 3 min
Smart Kids Don't Do Outdoor Education! Here's Why.
When I was in state secondary school, we had the option at age 14 to take a BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) course in Outdoor Education. The only problem was this course was lumped within the same course cluster as the main humanities subjects including GCSE Geography, History and Business Studies. This meant I could only choose two subjects from this set, which I found hugely limited my course options. In addition, there was also an underlying message from t
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Alex Moxon
- Oct 12, 2018
- 4 min
Are Leaders Born Or Created?
Outdoor and experiential education can provide excellent opportunities for youth team building and leadership development. Whether it's a simple 20-minute team activity on the sports field, a day-long collaborative biology study in nature or a week-long STEAM project focused on robotics, there are literally millions of ways to incorporate leadership training into the learning process in a natural, enjoyable and valuable way. But Are Leaders Created? While some people learn fa
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Alex Moxon
- Oct 11, 2018
- 3 min
Should Structured Outdoor Learning Form an Integral Part of Every School Day?
For thousands of years, children have learned through outdoor play and essential lessons for survival have come from both instinct and from older, more experienced family members and teachers. In a similar way to lion cubs playing to test their limits and find their place in the pride, humans need outdoor play and learning experiences for successful child development. This includes developing brain functioning, bodily coordination (e.g. balance, posture, agility etc.) and soc
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Alex Moxon
- Oct 1, 2018
- 5 min
Are Kids These Days Really 'Wrapped in Cotton Wool?'
We hear it all the time: "Kids these days just aren't the same anymore. They just stay indoors, playing non-stop computer games rather than going outside, and climbing trees, like I used to do back in my day!" - Anonymous Grandfather But is this really true? Are the next generation of children growing up 'wrapped in cotton wool?' Are kids nowadays missing out on vital early childhood lessons that can only be learned through active play outside? And are the next generation sti
264 views0 comments

Alex Moxon
- Sep 23, 2018
- 3 min
A Quick Guide to Nature Photography for Children
Taking photographs of interesting things in nature is a wonderfully mindful activity. It brings us into the moment as we use all of our senses to find interesting living things to snap. Plus it's an awesome reason to get children active outdoors, explore and to be creative! As educators, we tend to ban the use to electronic devices, such as smart phones, in outdoor learning. And rightly so most of the time! But there are times when we can use devices, like cameras and smart p
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Alex Moxon
- Sep 3, 2018
- 4 min
Worrying Trends in Health & Wellbeing Among Children
Health and wellbeing among children in many developed nations is showing some very concerning trends. In this blog post, I explore why this is and what evidence-based solutions are emerging in the research with a special lens on outdoor education. The Facts & Figures 1 in 3 10-11 year olds are obese or overweight in England according to recent research (NCMP England, 2012-13). 1 in 10 school pupils (5-16 years) suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder in England and h
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Alex Moxon
- Jul 16, 2018
- 5 min
Sustainability & the 8 Billion People Conundrum
Almost nobody actually wants to harm wildlife and fewer still want to exploit factory workers in developing nations. And I've never met anyone who willingly wants to send their plastic waste to landfill to spend the next four centuries decaying. Yet frustratingly, these things happen day in, day out around the world. And due to the complexity and challenge of these global issues, it's far too easy to feel disheartened, as if there's very little we can do as individuals to cha
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Alex Moxon
- Jul 9, 2018
- 3 min
Designing an Outdoor Classroom: 5 Simple Things to Consider
As adults, we all love to hear the joyful sound of children laughing, and the sight of children smiling and interacting with their friends. As educators, our duty is to offer inspiring places to learn, which successfully support the learning process both inside and outside the classroom. However, many of the outdoor spaces in our schools and local communities weren't built with this in mind, and so they fall short as places for learning to take place. How Do We Maximize Outdo
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Alex Moxon
- Jun 23, 2018
- 3 min
Are Children Born to Be Wild?
The word innate means hereditary or human nature and I'm a big believer that human beings are born to be outdoors as much as possible. Remember, homosapiens evolved over millions of years during an intimate struggle to survive the unforgiving forces of nature, which included big predators, climate fluctuations, disease, food shortages and countless other evolutionary pressures. Modern humans once shared the Earth with big apex land predators including the formidable saber too
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Alex Moxon
- Jun 2, 2018
- 3 min
7 Easy-to-Follow Steps for Experiential Learning: How to Structure a Lesson with Impact!
How to Structure a Experiential Lesson with Big Impact! Raising awareness and understanding of the global challenges facing humanity and our planet are perfect platforms for experiential educators to explore complex concepts, develop student knowledge and inspire positive change. One of the most incredible ways to successfully lead an experiential learning session outside or inside a classroom is based on the 7E Instructional Model developed by Dr. Arthur Eisenkraft. The 7E
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Alex Moxon
- May 16, 2018
- 2 min
What is Experiential Education? Questions Answered!
What is Experiential Education? In a nut shell, experiential education (EE) is best defined as "Challenge and Experience followed by Reflection leading to Learning and Growth" Association for Experiential Education. It's a philosophy and structured methodology of teaching used in a wide variety of disciplines and settings including both indoor and outdoor environments. Who Is It For? The tools and techniques of experiential education can be used to engage both youth and adult
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