Norwood Elementary School in Warwick is going to be undergoing a classroom expansion of sorts over the next year, but it won’t have much to do with building walls and installing more chalkboards and all the other things that come along with traditional classrooms.
This expansion at the school will involve a greenhouse, edible garden, butterfly garden, log seating and a nature trail.
It’s just one of dozens of schoolyard habitats that will be constructed across Rhode Island over the next year as part of a multimillion-dollar plan to get schoolchildren out of traditional classrooms more often and into the environment for experiential learning.
In June, the R.I. Department of Education awarded $7.5 million in grants to 29 school districts and charter schools as part of its Learning Inside Out Outdoor Classroom initiative. The money will help pay for the construction of 89 schoolyard “classrooms.” An additional $500,000 will be used to support training teachers on how to give effective lessons in their new schoolyard habitats.
“Outdoor classrooms provide opportunities for experiential learning to enhance classroom instruction, promote social-emotional health and increase environmental literacy,” said Victor Morente, RIDE spokesperson. “Schoolyards that are intentionally designed to benefit both wildlife and people provide a unique opportunity to connect students to nature while restoring habitats for local wildlife.”
Morente says the idea for the grant program came about as a way to strengthen education for students throughout Rhode Island.
“A key component of 21st-century learning is connecting education to the natural environment,” he said. “Not only do the outdoors provide unique hands-on learning opportunities but studies show that students who spend more time outdoors experience better focus and better emotional and physical health.”
The application process had several criteria, including the communities’ needs, the number of students affected, planned use and completion date for the projects. Preference was given to spaces planned for use by both students and the community.
In addition, projects that could be completed before the start of the 2024-2025 school year or by Dec. 31 were given preference. All projects must be completed by Aug. 30, 2024.
Eligible projects also had to prioritize long-term sustainability by assembling detailed plans for the continued maintenance of their projects’ outdoor component, community outreach and long-term engagement with the outdoor space, ongoing professional learning opportunities for educators, as well as student engagement and curriculum alignment.
The grant program is funded by the Rhode Island School Building Authority’s capital fund, which is used to repair and improve public school facilities and their grounds throughout the state.
Two school districts that were among the grant recipients were the state’s largest, Providence and Warwick.
Providence received the largest award at $2.6 million to be used to fund the construction of 26 outdoor learning spaces at 26 schools. An estimated 13,690 students will be able to use the outdoor classrooms in Providence.
Plans for each of the outdoor learning spaces were being fine-tuned over the summer, and construction had yet to begin at that time. Jay Wegimont, spokesperson for the Providence Public School District, says school officials were trying to figure out the best ways to overcome difficulties with creating outdoor environmental classrooms at several schools.
“Some challenges are performing construction in an urban landscape,” he said. “Some school locations are entirely blacktop.”
Not only will the district face challenges during construction but Wegimont says that the Providence teachers will face challenges adjusting to working in these new areas.
“Adding green space and an alternate learning environment is a change to teaching and learning,” he said. “This program allows for professional development to maximize usage and turn these outdoor spaces into extensions of the teachers’ current classrooms.”
The Warwick Public Schools were allotted $700,000 in grant money to build seven outdoor learning spaces. In addition to Norwood, these projects will be built at E.T. Wyman, Greenwood, Cedar Hill, Hoxsie, Robertson and Oakland Beach elementary schools.
Plans for projects at each of those schools are currently in draft form.
The scope of the project at Wyman currently features nature paths, reflection gardens, as well as a collaborative work and picnic area.
Hoxsie’s learning space currently entails an outdoor classroom, an amphitheater for use by staff and students in grades K-5, and a nature/walking path within the school property for use by students, staff and the local community.
However, the process of bringing these projects to fruition will bring about some challenges, according to Warwick Public Schools Superintendent Lynn Dambruch and Jeffrey Taylor, the district’s director of technology who helped lead the district’s effort to receive the grants.
The two cite supply chain issues, inclement weather, high costs of supplies and poor planning as obstacles in getting the classrooms built on time.
But once construction is complete and the projects are up and running, Dambruch believes the outdoor learning spaces will be assets to the district.
“I think this shows students that learning doesn’t just happen within the four walls of a classroom. Learning happens everywhere,” she said. “I think learning in these outdoor spaces will have students wanting to discover, wonder and be involved in inquiry-based learning.”
