| Abstract | Experiential learning describes structured educational opportunities that allow students to physically interact with the course material. This learning style promotes critical thinking, decision making, problem solving and increases the retention of information. Experiential learning can be employed in a variety of learning spaces including labs, traditional classrooms, lecture halls, and outdoor settings. In this analysis we question whether there exists variation in students’ retention of information by learning space. Data collection in the wildlife sciences, for instance, typically takes place in outdoor spaces, yet instruction of practical field techniques often occurs in indoor spaces. We designed an experiment, using a knot-tying tutorial, to test whether wildlife students have a lower ability to retain knowledge in indoor spaces versus outdoor spaces. The first group received the tutorial in a traditional indoor classroom while the second group received the same tutorial in an applied outdoor setting. We tested the students’ ability to retain the knot tying knowledge after the initial tutorial and then retested each group after 30 days and again after 65 days. Following the initial tutorial, students in the outdoor learning space (0.94 accuracy) learned significantly better than those in the indoor classroom (0.71 accuracy). After 30 days ability to tie the knot plummeted for both groups (0.36 and 0.39 for indoor and outdoor respectively) and then tapered off after 65 days (0.30 and 0.28 for indoor and outdoor respectively). We utilized a repeated measures model to examine retention of knowledge throughout the course of the semester. The generalized estimating equation revealed that no covariates considered (classroom type, prior experience, age, sex, and GPA) significantly impacted performance. This analysis reveals that for certain tools in the wildlife sciences students perform better in an applied outdoor setting. The lack of knowledge retention, regardless of learning space, highlights the necessity of repeated opportunities to interact with course material. |
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