Greenland students utilize outside space
Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008
(Editor’s note: This is the second story in a two-part series about recent outdoor classroom projects in area schools. The story in the Saturday edition of the Times focused on a new outdoor classroom at Washington Elementary School in Fayetteville.)
With projects such as studying native species, environmental cleanups and monitoring water, students in the Greenland High School Environmental and Spatial Technologies lab spend a fair share of their time outside.
Perhaps it is appropriate then that the group is able to use an outdoor classroom.
The EAST Lab now has an outdoor learning classroom. They use a six-sided gazebo structure built behind the school where a set of woods by Ward’s Slough, a tributary of the White River, begins.
The outdoor classroom is also open to other classes at the school.
“If it’s not cold, a lot of people would like to go out there,” James Chaparro, student, said.
“It just helps students get in touch with nature,” Justin Collins, another student, said.
The school received funds for the project by way of a $5,000 grant from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which funded the cost of the materials.
Nearly all of the work to prepare the site, design the structure and build the outdoor classroom was done by students. The EAST Lab developed the plans to build the structure without assistance from a professional architect.
“Did it all ourselves,” John Diesel, EAST Lab instructor, said. “Architects cost money.”
Students used a computer program to develop the hexagon design and plan the layout of the support boards underneath that hold up the gazebo floor. The structure also includes some built-in benches for classes that visit the outdoor classroom.
“I just like it. It’s a different experience (than being inside), ” Caty Zinke, student, said.
The students also did the work to clear and prepare the site for the construction project. One student, Elijah Wolfe, said he brought in four goats from home so they could chew down weeds.
Most of the construction work on the structure was done by students in the school’s construction technology program. The construction technology students have been involved with other renovation and construction projects at Greenland in recent years. They helped renovate a former stone house into the district’s administration office, and construction technology students also renovated the standalone building that houses the program’s classroom.
The EAST Lab has a variety of long-term plans for some of the land near the main school building and the outdoor classroom. The students hope to eventually install a butterfly garden and a rain garden to collect water runoff.
None of the vegetation for the future gardens has been installed, but students have marked off the areas with outlines on the ground. Students have also been actively studying the environment around the classroom by studying species and plants.
Besides the $5,000 grant to build the outdoor classroom, the Game and Fish Commission has awarded the EAST program other small grants to study the environment. The program received a $1,700 Stream Team grant from the commission to study water at Ward’s Slough.
Diesel said he hopes to install a new gate at some point in the fencing that separates the main school building from the outdoor classroom area. He said it would cut down on the walking time from the indoor classrooms to the one outside.
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