Creating Outdoor Classrooms: Schoolyard Habitats and Gardens for the Southwest

Chapter 1: Schoolyards

Chapter 1 Schoolyards The Schoolyard as an Outdoor Classroom Schoolyards can be developed as outdoor classrooms that are spirited and interactive places for integrated and place-based learning. Children can play a major role in the design and implementation of the place. Characterized by natural, cultural, and artistic features, schoolyard outdoor classrooms can be dynamic and evolve through time as children and their leaders make design adjustments and create and re-create the place. Heidi Vasiloff (1998, 6), of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, promotes the use of a portion of the schoolyard for development of wildlife habitats , and she defines these environments as “places where young people and wildlife connect. Built and planted with native vegetation to provide a home for wildlife, they serve as outdoor classrooms where students learn about our natural environments. Schoolyard habitats are rooted in communities: in students, teachers, parents, and businesspeople.They require work and commitment, and they establish a lifelong connection with wildlife.” Through hands-on activities in schoolyard projects, students can explore and learn about the deep connections between themselves, other people, nature, and the world at large. Traditionally, school natural areas have had a botanical or wildlife focus, but they are now being used across the curriculum for active learning in all subject (far left) A schoolyard outdoor classroom can be designed as a natural area for hands-on learning and should be allowed to change over time as new users make refinements and additions. This approach will keep students interested in the place for years to come. (center and far right) This schoolyard has evolved through the years, and it always offers something new to learn. Mike Amundson, outdoor teacher at Miles Exploratory Learning Center, Tucson, Arizona, should be commended for his innovation in teaching outdoors.  creating outdoor classrooms Schoolyards areas. They often have themes that include not only wildlife areas, which recreate natural habitats, but also a variety of other garden types. Pollinator gardens and wildlife gardens are expanded upon in Chapter 6, “Ecological Principles and Wildlife,” but some of the specifically themed gardens, such as art gardens, designed to cultivate art literacy and appreciation; cultural history gardens , which explore traditions used by native cultures; ecology gardens, which aim to promote environmental protection; literacy gardens, created to stimulate avid reading; and vegetable gardens, which encourage healthful nutritional choices, are discussed in this chapter in the “Schoolyard Garden Types” section below. These garden types and others are being created within school environments as outdoor laboratories for research, learning, and student enjoyment. Overview of Schoolyard Environments Introduction Schoolyards have typically been thought of as spaces that provide students with opportunities to “let off steam” through structured physical fitness and free play. This concept has been realized through the construction of athletic fields and playgrounds, which help students develop physical, social, cognitive, and emotional skills. However, natural outdoor areas within schoolyards have historically been overlooked and even ignored as places for play and learning. “A typical pattern wherever schools and child care centers are built is to destroy the natural features—trees, grass, topsoil . . . and leave a barren, lifeless area where children are expected to play” (Frost and Wortham 1988, 24). History of Playground Design with Applications for Contemporary Playground Design During the nineteenth century, Frederick Law Olmsted promoted the transcendentalist belief that natural parks could humanize and heal ill-natured and socially distressed urban dwellers, particularly those living in crowded slums.The Olmsted and Calvert Vaux 1857 plan for what became New York City’s Central Park included active play areas for children, with boat rides on the lake and open fields for fun and frolic. Social reform movements of the late nineteenth century, responding to the Industrial Revolution, removed children from factory labor and helped to launch the American playground movement. In 1885, Boston created large wooden sandboxes, or sand gardens, based on play areas developed in Berlin, Germany. According to Aase Eriksen (1985), playground equipment was developed as earlyas 1891, and Philip Pregill and NancyVolkman (1999, 569) note that during this same period athletic programs within schools began to promote physical fitness to encourage and demonstrate the Puritan “values of hard work and self-reliance” to immigrant children. As World War I approached, school athletic programs, such as organized baseball, football, and gymnastics, prepared youth for possible military engagements. This interest in active sports and school exercise programs gained momentum under John F. Kennedy’s administration through the establishment of the National Council on Youth Fitness in 1961...