Learn Around Nature (LAN)

Turning backyards into classrooms for climate action.

Learn Around Nature (LAN) is a nature-immersive, curriculum-aligned program for 10–14-year-olds that turns local parks and neighborhoods into classrooms. Through mapping, surveys, and civic action, students connect academics with real-world environmental issues and become confident, climate-conscious change-makers.

bookmark_border

Bookmark

play_arrow

Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Updated April 2025

Web presence

2022

Established

30 2023

250 2024

1

Countries

Students upper

Target group

We envision an education system where children become climate change-makers by learning from their own surroundings. LAN shifts education from theory to action, empowering every student to act locally for global impact. By 2029, we aim to nurture 5 million such change-makers across cities and communities.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

Children today are increasingly disconnected from nature and often perceive climate change as a distant crisis. Learn Around Nature (LAN) responds to this by reconnecting children with their environment through hands-on learning and local problem-solving, embedding climate literacy into everyday academics—especially in fast-urbanizing cities like Bengaluru.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Learn Around Nature (LAN) begins with academic concept visualisation, where students develop foundational spatial skills—such as reading directions, latitudes, and longitudes—through hands-on mapping activities. In Phase 1: Discover, students trace Bengaluru’s transformation using topographic maps from 1973 and 2011, observing shifts in water bodies, roadways, and green spaces. They connect these observations with lessons in geography and environmental science to understand the ecological cost of urbanization. In Phase 2: Define & Imagine, students identify civic issues—such as waste management, transport access, or biodiversity loss—by conducting community research and surveys. In Phase 3: Prototype & Act, they design local solutions, consult stakeholders like RWAs, and present their work through exhibitions using posters, models, and storytelling. LAN blends science, geography, and civics into joyful, place-based learning—empowering students to become active, informed climate leaders

How has it been spreading?

Learn Around Nature (LAN) began with a biodiversity workshop for 30 students at a community center, followed by a 6-month pilot in one school. Encouraged by its success, we scaled it into a year-long program now running in 6 schools and 3 community centers, reaching 250 children in 2024–25. The curriculum, vetted by researchers and educators, is academically strong and highly engaging. With this solid foundation, we are developing teacher training modules to scale LAN. Each year, 30 educators will be trained to integrate nature-based learning into classrooms, reaching 700+ students. Over the next 2–3 years, we aim to expand to 10,000 children across 3 cities by training facilitators, collaborating with civic bodies, and adapting our low-tech, locally rooted approach.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Interested schools, educators, or organizations can reach out to Thicket Tales via our website. We offer teacher training with complete hand-holding—session plans, materials, and assessment rubrics. Educators are trained in facilitation, layered questioning, gamified learning, and designing place-based, hyper-local projects.

Media

https://www.dtnext.in/city/2019/12/15/a-walk-to-learn-about-your-backyard-wildlife

When students design their own school

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz6X__DNGAk

In conversation with Sai Devi & Mrunali Sundar from Thicket Tales | Leadership In Education

This organisation is connecting students to nature through diverse experiences

‘Climate action is not an abstract concept but something happening in your backyard’

Implementation steps

Step 1: Ignite curiosity and assess baseline understanding of nature and climate

The journey begins by sparking curiosity and assessing students’ baseline nature connectedness and climate awareness through immersive activities and reflection. Students begin forming bonds with the natural world, while assessment tools reveal starting points in their environmental behavior, stewardship, and sustainability mindset—laying the foundation for long-term transformation and values-driven learning.

Step 2: Build foundational academic concepts through experiential learning

Students dive into foundational academic concepts in geography, science, and social systems through experiential, outdoor-based learning. They explore rotation, landforms, biodiversity, and social interdependence using nature as a classroom. This phase builds strong conceptual understanding, encourages curiosity, and nurtures the ability to apply learning through observation, questioning, and making connections with the real world.

Step 3: Foster local awareness by connecting academic concepts to lived environments

Students bridge the gap between academic knowledge and their local realities by comparing their home environments with their current surroundings. They analyze changes in access, play, health, and ecology. Through structured discussions and readings, they identify real, localized civic and environmental problems, developing critical awareness of inequities, patterns of urban growth, and nature loss they experience daily.

Step 4: Guide student-led research to define neighborhood problems meaningfully

Students become researchers in their own neighborhoods. They engage in community surveys, observations, and interviews to collect primary data. They analyze patterns and insights collaboratively and frame problem statements that reflect real community challenges. This phase nurtures evidence-based thinking, systems analysis, and the ability to translate lived experience into structured inquiry and collaborative investigation.

Step 5: Analyze community feedback and design actionable, locally rooted solutions

Students ideate and design feasible solutions rooted in the community context. They interact with stakeholders like local leaders, municipal officials, and parents to validate their ideas. Through feedback and iteration, their proposals become sharper, more actionable, and more empathetic. This step cultivates design thinking, civic literacy, and collaborative creativity—helping students develop solutions that reflect both insight and impact.

Step 6: Plan and prepare for student-led civic action with real-world logistics

Students organize their civic action projects, translating ideas into plans with timelines, materials, permissions, and stakeholder coordination. They create checklists, communicate with civic bodies, and build teamwork. This phase builds project management, leadership, and planning skills, empowering students to own the process and understand what it takes to implement impactful change at the grassroots level.

Step 7: Implement civic action projects to create visible community impact

Students execute their action projects—from awareness campaigns to biodiversity walks, park improvements, or waste interventions. Their learning turns into leadership as they engage communities and make change visible. This phase transforms students into changemakers—building confidence, resilience, responsibility, and pride. They learn that age is not a barrier to action, and impact begins in their own backyard.

Step 8: Reflect, assess growth, and deepen commitment to environmental action

Students reflect on their transformation through post-assessments, discussions, and storytelling. Then review changes in nature connectedness, pro-environmental behaviors, and civic attitudes using validated tools and personal reflection. This phase solidifies inner shifts—revealing growth in mindset, empathy, and purpose. It reinforces that sustainability is not a lesson, but a way of life to be carried forward.

Step 9: Celebrate student leadership through public exhibitions and storytelling

Students showcase their projects in a public exhibition—presenting posters, models, and digital stories to peers, families, and civic leaders. They articulate their learning journey with confidence and passion. This final step transforms student voice into public advocacy, celebrates community engagement, and inspires collective action. It affirms that young people are not just learners, but powerful drivers of change.