Welcome to the Space To Learn page

An investigation into outdoor learning

Where there is breathing space

An interactive project where teachers, researchers and technologists work together to create an outdoor educational space reachable from anywhere.

Sited in the Mourne Mountains, on the coast, within 500 acres of ancient woodland

Linked to the educational community of Swindon, Wilts through Phillip Anley, Director Flickerent Ltd.

Phillip grew up on the estate before embarking on a 16 year teaching career in England. Dividing his time between Mourne and the Cotswolds, Phillip is now able to offer the corner of the estate as a shared resource for educators and technologists.

Primary and Secondary pupils learn from real-world applications of physical technology.

Neurodivergent children experience live links to calming woodland, whilst engaging with live online links to STEM based experiments

Visits to the site incorporate Micro:Bit and Raspberry Pi based coding missions in which the natural environment is analysed through multiple novel inputs

Dividing his time between Mourne and the Cotswolds, Phillip is two years into this project, having begun it during a sabbatical year in 2022 ,

Live data feeds directly into classrooms to provide STEM subjects with concrete examples of how technology can make a meaningful difference in an environmentally sensitive setting.

Live video feeds from deep within the ancient woodland of Mourne Park, NI.

Pupils given agency in the ongoing montoring station: collaborative design teams in Swindon and South West schools

Teachers invited to develop resources or deploy on-site experients for inclusion.

Colleagues far and wide are welcome to explore with us the potential of this space, on behalf of everyone to improve learning outcomes for children.

There is a corner of an ancient woodland in Northern Ireland in which:

Technologies such as remote sensing, remote immersion and remote STEM experientation are being tested and explored

Teachers and children are learning

History is being shared

Disadvantage is being overcome

The Schoolhouse, Mourne Park

The new project to put the wellbeing and mental health of young people first.

Building on the Space To Learn infrastructure, with a plan to inspire the creation of many more remote sensing woods nationwide

In 2025 a free booth visit will be on offer schools and organisations who are seeking to engage their young people afresh.

This entirely new approach to learning is educational and therapeutic at the same time.

Existing Infrastructure

Connectivity outdoors: subterranean cat 5, Draytek access points -> feeding fibre (FTTP)

Automatic electric gate access

Outdoor path lighting, power points (20A), security

Transmission Zone: the area in which STEM experiments can be live monitored

Existing Sensing

Camera feeds: remotely monitored / some offline habitat specific / night view

– examples: ( nesting areas in trees, red squirrel dray, badger route)

Temperature
Light (Lux)
Humidity (outdoor as %)
Pressure (hPa)

Particles (link): pm1, pm25, pm10, nh3, oxid

Archive conditions (interior humidity and shelving temperature)

Upcoming Sensing

All Raspberry Pi powered:

Moisture (soil), pH
Gas (LPG / Propane / Hydrogen link) CO2
Starfield (shooting star detection)
Wind: turbine
Radio frequency analysis (link)
River and stream current: water turbines (link)

Acoustic monitoring, eg (link1) (link2)

Plus:

Micro:Bit field trials in September 2024 / Spring 2025 for biodiversity detection and animal habitat monitoring

To see the current particulate readings click here: Live Data Feed Page