Design for Outdoor Education: Redefining Schooling Through Design Oriented Experimentations in Outdoor Contexts

In the redefinition of the world's equilibrium in the post-pandemic context, it has become increasingly necessary to invest in the search for alternative or improved design systems of the educational experience with respect to remote learning. In the near future, therefore, innovative pedagogical practices oriented towards sustainability and safety, such as Outdoor Education - aimed at making outdoor space an educational environment - could meet the new needs for revision and redesign of educational experiences. Starting from this premise, the contribution intends to report the results of a research project financed by the funds for the Research of the Sapienza University of Rome, and carried out in collaboration with the ""Bosco Caffarella"" outdoor kindergarten in Rome, Italy, which is currently being tested. By setting up a network of interdisciplinary cultural exchange between Design, Sociology and Pedagogy, the research project set out to undertake an action-research path for the design of design-oriented educational actions and tools aimed at children in the 3-6 year age range. The objective of this experimentation is to propose a reinterpretation of the use of educational services and to demonstrate how the hybridisation of pedagogy, storytelling and design thinking, assisted by the educating role of the natural environment itself, would make it possible to facilitate the transmission of cultural values, catalyse knowledge, foster creativity or convey messages and emotional responses. Design for Outdoor Education, precisely, for a conscious, sustainable and futuristic design of the education of tomorrow's children.