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Beyond These Walls Public schools use their outdoor space to connect students with the natural world by bernard brown
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efore she started working on the green schoolyard at Henry C. Lea School in West Philadelphia, landscape architect Sara Pevaroff Schuh, principal of SALT Design Studio, encountered a group of kids who called her over after finding what they said was a spider on playground equipment. It turned out to be a half-squished worm. She picked it up and dropped it in a planted area next to the playground. “And they’re shrieking their heads off because I touched the 12 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M F EB RUA RY 20 23
worm.” A student promptly walked over and stomped on the unfortunate worm. The incident highlighted the need for building a connection between students and the natural world. “You have some fundamental learning that needs to happen about the ecological world, not to mention the emotional issues tied up in being afraid of nature, the insects, any of the biota,” Schuh says. Public schools throughout the Philadelphia area are using their schoolyards to engage students with nature in order
to reinforce learning goals and encourage them to develop deeper relationships with the world outside. On Sunday, January 15, Penn Alexander School science teacher Stephanie Kearney and Craig Johnson of design firm Interpret Green (his chosen job title is “chief habiteer”) mounted a weather station in the school garden near 43rd and Locust Streets in West Philadelphia. The weather station, consisting of an assortment of sensors set on a tripod, will collect real-time information on the conditions outside the school, all of which will be available for classroom learning as well as for researchers and advocates who can make use of a growing network of local readings from similar stations. P HOTO G RAP HY BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS