• An ancient woodland in Northern Ireland equipped with multiple cameras, sensors, data gathering tools and remote input / output devices.
• Cross-curricular resources that draw on the environment, habitats, biodiversity and natural setting to create a wide range of study and experimentation units.
• Focusing on disadvantaged children for whom education presents a particular challenge: a series of resources that capture the imaginations of reluctant learners, drawing them into the study with hands-on project based learning and live camera feeds on which they can view their own experiments live too.
• An Impact Case Study / pilot study and knowledge exchange which will see touchscreens and biometric sensing used to assess pupil wellbeing metrics and current mental health markers before and after interventions.
• Immersive, sensor analysis driven, woodland experiences
Current Activity:
A Pilot Study with the School Of Solutions in Swindon, Wiltshire is now underway
Several funding models are being considered.
Our preference is for this to be a free service for all schools and organisations to access.
A wider research project is in the planning stages, this will be in partnership with The Park Academies Trust and with Oxford Brookes University.
Resources will be made available online to provide open access. In combination with the video and data feeds from Space To Learn, we hope to empower many others to achieve beneficial outcomes which are both educational and therapeutic.
Click on the Animal / River / Woods links below for a sample of the themes that we are developing.
Outcomes:
Online: free resources for teachers and youth leaders to download which provide highly engaging STEM learning opportunities that are anchored in personal wellbeing and natural world-based therapeutics.
A new mental-health assessment tool developed in conjunction with Oxford Brookes University which provides a quick and effective insight into a young persons underlying wellness and readiness to engage.
Guidance for teachers towards the creation of their own STEM experiments, taking as a starting point experiments that are already in operation, and that can be recreated.
A set of ready-to-deploy activities which help young people to engage with the outdoors by involving remote sensing and innovative remote engagement systems.
Biometrics
We have begun delivery of the pilot project in partnership with The Park Academies Trust.
Weekly intervention visits to the School Of Solutions Alternative Provision unit are currently focused on robotics.
We are building a prototype touch screen biometric interface that quickly assesses the wellbeing metrics of pupils before and after each intervention.
These are further examples of the data feeds which are planned for 2026 or are currently under construction:
Closing Thoughts
It is my sincere hope that the beauty and tranquillity of the Mourne Mountains can inspire young people nationwide to overcome every disadvantage, and to benefit from what can be found outside.
Although the woodland of Mourne Park is the first to feature in this way, any suitable woodland could offer the same.
My friendship with the Woodland Trust, as well as local wildlife agencies, has revealed to me a growing eagerness to provide resources and equipment to schools.
This project could be a focus for that kind of outreach, with shared expertise leading to portals up and down the land, all feeding into schools. We cannot realistically transport the people who need it most, to the places that would most benefit them.
This endeavour, with the associated monitoring of wellbeing and easily-delivered resources in place, could prove to be an ideal catalyst for opening up small taster areas of woodland from across the UK. Bonds could form between schools and places of natural beauty that exist despite the geographical distances involved.
As a concept, this inside-out approach could draw on both the natural world and the world of technology to engage and bring calmness to a generation for whom that harmony is needed now more than ever.
