The “school of life” is used to describe learning outside of the formal education system, involving real-world challenges that stretch capabilities and expand perspectives.
Within a formal university setting we often take students outside of conventional classrooms to experience learning about nature – a broad definition of life – in the real world. We believe that it can be far easier and more effective to learn about the natural world through experience with and within it.
Artificial intelligence can extend our capabilities, but nature intelligence is also critical for understanding and responding to the global challenges we are faced with. We develop nature intelligence through formal learning combined with experience in nature. This is field teaching, with university field courses ranging from an hour or two outdoors on the university campus, to days or weeks in far-flung destinations experiencing very different forms of nature from the perspectives of different cultures.
Field teaching is fundamental to any degree in the natural sciences – from the study of the physical world around us to microbial, plant and animal life and the interaction between people and the natural world.
As AI changes what and how we learn, real-world experiential learning and its application will only grow in value. The combination of human experiences with nature, machines and digital sensors is powerful, but experience in and with nature is not fully replaceable by machines. While in the early days of Covid university educators pivoted from in-person field courses to virtual experiences of nature, this experience underlined the deep value of real field teaching. We were quick to pivot back to include real experiences of nature within our degree courses.
There are challenges to field teaching. It can be expensive, requiring students to pay additional fees for travel and accommodation; it can involve high greenhouse gas emissions through air travel, and it requires a different approach to health, safety and inclusion compared with classroom or online teaching.
There are ways of addressing all of these challenges, which means that field teaching can be incorporated easily and sustainably into degrees. Field courses can be local, use sustainable forms of transport, and be designed to accommodate students with additional needs. Bursaries and hardship supports can be provided to enable students to experience field courses that they would otherwise not be able to afford.
We see an increasing focus on university campuses as locations for climate and biodiversity learning and action, including the incorporation of natural ecosystems into the university infrastructure. More natural areas on campuses are not just useful for field teaching, they contribute significantly to the wellbeing of staff and students and to the protection and restoration of green spaces within urban areas.
Some university campuses include important local ecosystems, an example being University of Galway which supports the initiative to have Galway recognised as a National Park City, and University College Cork which has extensive areas of natural habitats on campus. More natural areas on campus can also signal to the wider community the importance of wilder green spaces in an urban context and provide this experience to visitors and local residents, such as Trinity College’s ornamental wildflower meadows at the front entrance to the college.
Despite the costs and challenges of far-flung field courses, there is considerable value in providing experiences which take students and teachers outside of their education comfort zones, and expose them to real world experiences far beyond what is achievable close to home.
This is why, at Trinity, we offer both local field courses together with overseas field courses such as the zoology field course in tropical biology and conservation in Kenya, taught largely by local land managers and academics. Students experience at first hand the challenges faced by local communities and national park managers, such as human-wildlife conflict and tourism pressures. Students then bring this nuanced and culturally sensitive understanding of people and nature to their formal learning in zoology and ecology.
The real school of life, nature, is all around us. By connecting formal education with experience in, and with, nature we deepen and expand our nature intelligence and our understanding of our place in the world.
Professor Yvonne Buckley is codirector of the Co-Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Water and is Professor of Zoology at Trinity College Dublin.