Learning Geography in Nature - a Field Trip Guide
How outdoor explorations can bring geography to life
Nature walks and field trips are excellent ways to observe geographic features in the real world. You’ll be surprised at the opportunities for a geography field trip in your area. A walk around a nearby local park or neighborhood, a field trip to a nearby nature preserve, and city walks can offer a host of geographic features for students to observe, even on a small scale. Geography comes alive for children and becomes a truly “living” subject when they can explore landscapes in nature first hand.
In this article, we’ll look at three ways you can create a geography field trip for your students: at your local park, on a countryside walk and in urban environments.
A trip to a local pond can teach children about weathering and erosion and the water cycle
Pioneering British educator, Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) wrote about the importance of outdoor practical education for children, famously popularizing the idea of the “nature walk” as an important part of a child’s overall education. She introduced the idea that a child can observe landforms in “miniature” very readily within a city park or neighborhood, and use their imagination to scale these up to larger landscapes that they may not have the opportunity to visit in person.
“We believe in outdoor practical education of [the child’s] own immediate neighborhood. We learn by the puddles and ponds to understand river and oceans and by the smallest hills the soils and rocks and the crumpling of the strata of mountains.”
Geography at your local park
Observing small-scale or miniature landforms within local parks or nature preserves can help children grasp larger geographical ideas in a concrete, hands-on way. On your walk, try a game of “seek and find” and challenge children to find examples of landforms in miniature. They can take pictures with an camera or tablet, draw a sketch, or mark on a map what they find.
A tree hollow at your local park can become a small scale “cave” for children to explore.
Here's an inspiration list designed for use in a city park or nature preserve, with each item connecting the small to the big:
Small Hills – like tiny mountains rising gently from the ground
Dips or Hollows – little valleys where rainwater may gather
Puddles or Shallow Ponds – mini lakes where ducks paddle or frogs hide
Winding Paths or Water Channels – like rivers carving through the land
Exposed Tree Roots – resembling canyons or cliffs when seen up close
Sand Dunes in a Sandbox or Sandy Trail – mimicking desert landscapes
Mounds of Dirt or Mulch – like mesas or plateaus in miniature
Rock Clusters or Boulders – small-scale examples of mountain ranges or outcrops
Drainage Swales or Ditches – mini river valleys showing erosion and flow
Ant Hills or Animal Burrows – like tiny hills, caves, and tunnel systems
Slopes on a Playground Hill – showing incline, erosion, and runoff
Stepping Stones or Stump Paths – forming a “ridge” to walk along
Manmade Terraces or Garden Beds – demonstrating how land can be shaped for use
“The first ideas of geography … should be gained, as we have seen, out of doors, and should prepare him for a certain amount of generalisation — that is, he should be able to discover definitions of river, island, lake, and so on, and should make these for himself in a tray of sand, or draw them on the blackboard. ”
Geography in Urban Environments
If your live in a town or city, this is an ideal location to discover examples of human geography. Take a few different city-based field trips or urban walks throughout the year to discover and observe the built environment and settlement types, such as:
Types of land use (residential, commercial, industrial, recreational)
Transportation networks (roads, railways, bus routes, bike lanes)
Public services and infrastructure (schools, hospitals, fire stations, water towers)
Patterns of settlement and building density
Architectural styles and historical landmarks
Evidence of urban planning (zoning, green spaces, street layouts)
Economic activity (shops, markets, office buildings)
Cultural features (places of worship, murals, statues, signage in different languages)
“But, how to begin? In the first place, the child gets his rudimentary notions of geography as he gets his first notions of natural science, in those long hours out of doors… A pool fed… will explain the nature of a lake… a hillock grows into a mountain … till the child knows by name and nature the great rivers and mountains, deserts and plains…”
Geography on a Countryside Walk
Exploring a shallow, winding river on a countryside walk gives children real-life experiences of rivers and how they shape the landscape through erosion and deposition.
If you are able to take a field trip to the countryside, or an area of outstanding natural beauty, there are abundant opportunities for students to observe landscapes in wild spaces. Depending on where you are, you will be able to have students observe:
Hills – gentle rises in the land, big or small
Valleys – low areas between hills where rivers often flow
Streams and Rivers – water that moves across the land, sometimes fast, sometimes slow
Ponds and Lakes – still water collected in low places
Meadows and Fields – wide open spaces filled with grass, flowers, or crops
Woodlands and Forests – places where many trees grow close together
Cliffs or Rocky Outcrops – steep, rocky edges rising above the land
Marshes or Wetlands – soft, soggy ground where water sits and special plants grow
Sandbanks or Pebble Beds – areas where sand or stones gather near water
Caves or Hollow Trees – hidden places to discover formed by nature
Animal Trails – paths made by animals moving through the grass or forest
Windbreaks – lines of trees or shrubs planted to stop strong wind
Fences or Stone Walls – manmade lines that mark land or hold animals in
Skyline and Horizon – where the land meets the sky in the distance
Creative ideas for study: Have students take pictures, draw sketches or create imaginative “documentary” style videos showing the landscape. They can also bring along a detailed topographic map and find the landscape features.
Mapmaking on your field trip
Field trips can also be an excellent time to ask children to draw their own maps of an area. This will cultivate skills of observation and give them opportunities to connect first hand with geography concepts. By charting the path of a river or stream and taking note of animals and plants along it’s banks, or noticing the shape of a mountain range and wondering how it was formed, they will come to know and understand geography first-hand.
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