Outdoor Learning Spaces
Need for Nature: THE IMPORTANCE OF OUTDOOR PLACES FOR CHILDREN
Research Shows:
Children’s time outdoors and contact with nature are in sharp decline. Negative consequences include children’s reduced physical health, lack of knowledge about nature, and related misconceptions about human dependence on the natural world. The World Health Organization now recognizes the interdependence of human health and ecosystem health.¹ The positive, innate bond between human well-being and nature is supported by environmental health science.² Childhood engagement with nature is the key to cementing this relationship for generations to come.³ Learning in and through nature is an educational imperative that urgently calls for new ways to safely attract children into local, natural settings to re-integrate the experience of nature into childhood. Such action will help to set the stage for a new generation of healthy, active children growing up both loving nature and understanding human dependence on healthy ecosystems. (Source: National Guidelines-Nature Play and Learning Places) |
Benefits of Nature for Children:
Nature Play & Learning Places is a cultural call to
reframe childhood and nature, to create new types
of places where children can enjoy nature play.
Viewed as a genetically driven process of learning
about self and surroundings across the millennia of
human history, such experiences can be considered
a childhood right.¹⁸ Natural settings for children’s
play that previous generations took for granted
must now be deliberately created. (source: http://www.childrenandnature.org/)
Sense of Control: By working together with adults to create nature play and learning spaces, children will gain a sense
of ownership and respect. Particularly in institutions
such as childcare centers and schools that
may be subject to strict regulation, adults have a responsibility
to promote the value of nature play and
learning, to provide children with opportunities for
exercising freedom and control, and to help them
acquire a sense of environmental stewardship and
responsibility.
Benefits to Teachers & Learning:
Nature also offers educators a context for an interdisciplinary approach to multiple subject areas, including learning about nature. Educational programs conducted in nature tend to provide a greater range of options better matched to children’s varied learning styles and personalities than do programs limited to indoor classroom activity. (http://www.childrenandnature.org/) |
The outdoor Learning Lab
The Outdoor Learning Lab sits adjacent to the Plaster Creek, near the Godfrey Lee Early Childhood Center (ECC). It is currently a largely vacant site, save for some resilient species that have made their way into the damaged ecosystem. As GLPS works with community partners, students and teachers to study and repair this area, it is the hope that it will be transformed into one the few natural spaces that children in the Godfrey Lee neighborhood will have to learn and play in. This property is leased to the GLPS district through Consumers Energy.
Your turn: |
It is especially important in areas that have seen the effects of the industrial age (like the Godfrey-Lee community), to educate children about the history of their physical environments and how to repair these damaged landscapes. Learn how you can get involved and help your students and the community by following these links:
|