Learning Without Wall -Field Trip to Omberg

Hej! Hej!

I will share my experience had a field trip together with the Master of Outdoor and Sustainability Education to several places around Linkoping. As we started to learn about outdoor education and how we apply it in the school, we as educators need to have direct experience. So, we went to Omberg, an eco-park not far from Linköping. It takes around 1 hour from Linköping University. We stayed for one night there, visit several interesting places, hiking, and of course build our camp near the lake. But first, I will share what interesting about Omberg.

Omberg is located in Östergötland and near the second largest lake in Sweden (Lake Vattern)
You can find limestones in some areas around Omberg
The name of Omberg means “mountain of fog” because most of the time it surrounded by fog (They also have a folk story about Omberg)

On the first day, we visited the famous Swedish author, her name is Ellen Key. She is a feminist writer who focuses on education and inspired many influential figures in the education field such as Maria Montessori.

Then we went to Alvastra Monestry ruin, it belonged to Cistercian monks from French. Alvastra Monestry is part of the cultural landscape and important for the history of the Swedish Kingdom. I remembered when we were there our lecture asked for us to imagine the old monastery when the monks still using it and how it feels if we part of the history.

After that we explored Naturum Tåkern to spend time learning about a variety of birds around Omberg, they have interactive areas for children to learn natural science. We also can see with big binoculars to observe the birds and how they interact in their natural habitat.

We explored the lake and learned how the ice age impacts today’s landscape in Omberg. From this field trip, we learned how to conduct interesting field trips for the children. We should consider several aspects of the place such as safety and the way to create various engaging activities such as learn about “The ice sheet” through group activity. This field trip definitely something that I can apply for my future work in the outdoor education field. Even though we had very bad weather on the first day, but we really enjoyed the moment together!