Covid-19 has changed students’ and teachers’ lifestyles. Online classes have brought changes to their teaching and learning but also to their daily routines. Our school asked the target-group students to fill in a questionnaire concerning their lifestyle (food, leisure activities); it has been noticed that 70% of the students tend to be sedentary. They prefer indoor activities which do not imply a lot of movement. Outdoor education replaces such static activities with practical, hands-on experiences.Our staff has conducted research within our school at the end of the previous school year, targeting 6th and 7th graders. Approximately 35% of the students generally face emotional and social difficulties. About 20-25% of them consider that such difficulties are significant. The self-evaluation survey was completed anonymously, with parental consent (SDQ, screening survey, translated and adapted for Romanians).When reporting back, in the end, the final situation was the following: emotional difficulties for around 35-40% of the students; 6,4% of the students marked high points for behavioral issues; interaction difficulties with peers were reported for about 12% of the participants. Approximately 22.7% of the students marked low or very low points for the scale “Prosocial Behaviors”.

The target-group students are usually those who present integration issues when it comes to group activities or groupwork. The fear for failure and the anxiety of not being accepted by colleagues appear as an obstacle that is difficult to surpass through traditionally-engaging learning tasks. Outdoor activities can be a successful solution for the inclusion of such marginalised students. Outdoor activities force students out of their familiar environment by challenging them psychologically, physically, and emotionally; children discover new things about themselves, increase their potential, boost their self-confidence and adopt decision-making techniques through introspection and discovery. Outdoor tasks–seen as a combination of activities completed outside, environment (green) education and both social and personal development–are highly beneficial for children: adopting a healthy lifestyle, socializing, the rise of self-esteem, experiencing new and unique moments in nature.A careful observation of how students collect garbage at school, the conclusions of counselling classes on environmental protection,let us to conclude that about 60% of the students are not aware of the importance of selective collection and the importance of the environment. Both they and their parents will be involved in activities that will help create long-term, environmentally sustainable habits.