Denise Yassine, Middle School teacher at Congressional School, Virginia, shares how a game of Pokemon Go inspired her to capture the enthusiasm for the outdoor game into a customised version for her school children called Congressional Colts Go. 

Where the idea started

My October Outdoor Classroom Day activity had its genesis last summer when Pokémon Go was all the craze. As I watched young and old enjoy this virtual game outdoors, I wondered if I could capture the enthusiasm for that activity and integrate it into an educational map skill, outdoor activity on our beautiful 40 acre Congressional School campus.

My question was answered during our faculty pre-planning when we, the teachers, were given coordinates to use to find locations in order to complete a collaborative outdoor scavenger hunt. From those two elements of inspiration, Congressional Colts Go was born.

How to play the game

The Congressional Colts Go activity requires students work in teams to initially use their iPad compasses to find latitude and longitude coordinates pinpointing ten locations on our campus. (Thankfully, my school values the power of outdoor learning and has installed wifi access at key locations on our campus including our outdoor classroom structure. This enables us to use the compass feature on the iPads throughout the property).

Then, after painting rocks with team colours and adding numbers, the students place them at their ten selected locations. Each team is provided with one coordinate code at a time and works together to use their map skills to locate the other team’s rocks. Once a rock is located, the students run back to a central location to answer a multiple choice geography question. Another code is provided and this is repeated until all ten rocks are found. The activity is timed and correct answers are tallied to determine the winning team.

What children learn

The activity challenges the students to communicate with each other, to collaborate, and to think critically and creatively. All the while, they are running, laughing, and breathing fresh air. It is a highlight experience, and what is most impressive, is that it is only one of many incredible outdoor activities taking place on our campus during this special day.

Our teachers from Primary to 8th grade plan innovative and fun outdoor activities for their students. This year, Thursday, 12 October, was our second iteration of Congressional Colts Go. We, along with teachers and students around the world revelled in the beauty of connecting learning to the great outdoors. I look forward to our next international Outdoor Classroom Day on May 17 where we will use our campus once again, but this time as the backdrop for meaningful migration activities.

Denise Yassine| Fifth Grade American History; Sixth Grade Global Perspectives Social Studies Team Lead

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GET INVOLVED!

If you would like to participate in Outdoor Classroom Day, register your class or whole school, and share your day’s activities on social media using #OutdoorClassroomDay.