REA Outdoor Classroom: Let's Think Outside the School

April 20, 2017

Our outdoor classroom was built in 2012 and includes a garden (crops and native plants), a chicken coop with 6 chickens, an old hoop shed, picnic tables, a rusted out firepit, and a broken pizza oven. For it to be a better learning space and to encourage students to be outside more often, we need to upgrade the outdoor classroom. We would like to make our hoop shed into a greenhouse for students to grow their own plants all year round. This will bring more local food and educational opportunities. All of the gardening tools are in the hoop shed right now, so we would like a tool shed to make space for the students in the soon-to-be greenhouse. A fire pit will bring students together during school events, and build a better community at our school. We would like to rebuild our pizza oven and have students make pizza and bread using ingredients from the garden. Finally, we would like to plant chicken friendly plants by the chicken coop for the chickens to interact with and eat. We hope to implement these changes to make a better garden for the staff and students to congregate in and learn in.

Intended impact of project

Improved occupant health & performance
Increased environmental & sustainability literacy