Scotland’s historic sites offer more than just a glimpse into the past; they provide an inspiring foundation for education across various subjects. From the ancient ruins to bustling cityscapes, these environments promote a dynamic approach to learning.
Throughout Scotland, the historic environment is omnipresent, linking tangible remnants of human endeavors such as structures, landscapes, and artifacts with the narratives and records depicting their evolution over time.
No matter where one resides in Scotland, local historical sites are accessible. These could be anything from a church, castle, or standing stones to transforming high streets, museum exhibits, gallery photos, library archives, and even familiar places like homes or schools.
Valuable Educational Resource
Seen as a valuable educational resource, Scotland’s historic environment supports a wide array of curriculum topics and themes, extending into areas like skills development and well-being. It serves as a vibrant medium for projects, fostering creativity and engagement.
Many heritage sites are situated within rich natural landscapes, offering chances for exploration, discovery, and outdoor play-based learning.
The historic environment allows learners to tap into shared culture and heritage. Visiting these sites lets students experience historical events firsthand, try traditional skills for practical insights into building conservation, and explore archives to comprehend historical changes in people and places.
Yet, the benefits extend beyond history. The interplay of places, objects, stories, and records offers creative stimulation, unique experiences, and multisensory settings that assist educators across various subjects, themes, and educational outcomes.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) supports educational endeavors with free learning visits to over 300 historic sites, school travel grants, and free online resources like Learn, Create and Play and Inspired by the Past.
Interactive resources are available, such as an interactive map for exploring Edinburgh Castle, and digital archives granting free access to nearly half a million records, images, film clips, and sounds related to both national and local culture. Additional materials and case studies can be found on the HES YouTube Learn playlist.
Innovative Learning Opportunities
Stirling Castle’s new castle-construction zone introduces young learners to the architecture of grand buildings through play-based learning.
Integrating heritage themes into science education, HES collaborates with Glasgow Science Centre to provide Castle CSI, an engaging activity where students act as forensic scientists investigating skeletal mysteries, soil erosion, and weathering.
Learning for sustainability is critical in Scottish education. The Defend Scotland’s Heritage resources explore threats to heritage, such as climate change, heritage crime, and sustainable tourism, while emphasizing related career paths and integrating topics like the circular economy and travel and tourism.
The new Making Sense of Scotland framework outlines our approach and key objectives for outreach and learning. The HES website offers inspiration for schools exploring historic sites. Indeed, Scotland’s historic environment is a multifaceted national educational resource.
Craig Fletcher is head of learning and inclusion at Historic Environment Scotland
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Original Story at www.tes.com