A hands-on, whole-body, and wonder-filled way to discover and experiment with big ideas.
Nature play isn’t just great for developing physical skills — it’s also an incredible laboratory that fuels thinking, questioning, experimenting, and learning. In our nature play program, STEM happens naturally, meaningfully, and hands-on — every single time we’re out and about. It’s not just sticks and sand — it’s science in motion. When they are building dams at the beach or racing sticks down streams, children are thinking with their whole bodies. They’re developing rich understandings of force, gravity, motion, and cause and effect — long before those words ever come up in a classroom.
And research backs it up: when children are actively engaged with the natural world, their brains light up in ways that support deep, lasting learning — exactly the kind of thinking that fuels STEM growth.
Whether children are digging swimming pools in the sand, building tents with branches, or working out the fastest path for their stick to travel downstream, children are playing with big ideas. Motion, balance, spatial relationships, water flow, weight, resistance… it’s all there. These playful experiments are actually the building blocks of science and engineering.
From shifting sand to rolling logs or building bridges, children’s hands-on investigations lay the groundwork for strong empirical understandings of physics, geometry, ecology and problem-solving. Nature becomes both the playground and the lab.
And it’s not just their hands doing the work — their whole bodies and minds are involved. As they dig, climb, twist, balance, and build, they’re developing a felt sense of how the world works. Their physical experiences naturally expand their language too — especially words related to action, texture, and space — forming a rich base for STEM communication.
Best of all? We get to borrow children’s lens of wonder as we join their exploration — co-constructing knowledge in the moment. In doing so, we amplify their learning and expand our own. Together, we problem-solve, investigate, and discover. And when educators name and describe what’s happening, we help children connect their physical experiences to new vocabulary and emerging scientific ideas.
As you can see Nature is not just a wonderful playground, it also is a powerful, living laboratory where children wire their brains for very serious learning.
Here’s how nature play connects to STEM learning:
Children who play outdoors arrive at school more prepared for STEM. They bring with them physical experiences and mental models that make STEM subjects more relatable, meaningful, and engaging.
Hands-on learning sticks. Children (and adults) understand complex physical concepts like torque or conservation of mass better when they experience them physically — not just observe or hear about them.
Motor experiences deepen understanding. When kids physically engage with materials, their brains encode not just the concepts but also the bodily experience, making STEM ideas more intuitive and easier to retrieve.
Nature supports rich language and STEM vocabulary. Kids who explore the natural world tend to acquire more language related to physical properties and forces, which supports later STEM learning.
Outdoor play promotes active, self-driven experimentation. Digging in the dirt, redirecting water, building with sticks — these informal, sensory-rich experiences help kids grasp scientific principles through play.
The body and brain are partners in learning. Active engagement – like dropping seeds, lifting rocks, or balancing on logs – gives children a “felt sense” of STEM concepts like gravity, mass, and resistance.