Outdoor Classrooms: Growing Enthusiasm for Learning
by Laura Doty
August 2007

Students at the O'Donnell School, the East Boston site of EarthWorks' On-Site Educator pilot program, showed large gains in MCAS science scores. At a school where 68% of students needed improvement or were failing the science test in 2006, a full 13% scored in the advanced range, up from 0% the year before. No O'Donnell students failed the test, compared to 34% failing city-wide.

The jump in scores came after EarthWorks started our popular On-Site Educator pilot program at the school. While there are many factors that affect test scores, Dr. Robert Martin, principal of the O'Donnell School credits EarthWorks for much of the improvement. "EarthWorks can take the credit for that," he says. "Science at our school is richer because of the program." The On-Site Educator program helps teachers to better use the schoolyard for teaching science or literacy through hands-on experiences.

On Arbor Day, EarthWorks' Outdoor Classrooms program received the Excellence in Environmental Education award from the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs for our work at the Agassiz School in Jamaica Plain. This is the second time EarthWorks has received the award, having won in 2000 for our program at the Hennigan School. We wish to thank Mary O'Brien, the second grade teacher who nominated EarthWorks, the Agassiz City Year Green Team corps members and the other Agassiz teachers; as well as the teachers at all of our partner schools - the Hennigan, Hurley, O'Donnell and Russell. Without their support, our program would not have such a substantial impact on student engagement in science and the natural world.

What makes the Outdoor Classroom program so special? The key factor is the opportunity it gives children to explore the natural world. This opportunity is sorely lacking for children across the country, both urban and rural kids of all socio-economic backgrounds. Parents afraid of street violence or stranger abductions keep their children close to home or inside. The lure of technology reduces children's direct experiences in nature. Accessible natural areas simply don't exist in many neighborhoods. But in EarthWorks' orchards and gardens, children do have an opportunity to explore nature, to see natural processes happening before their eyes. Children can see a bee pollinating flowers, ladybugs devouring aphids, and fruit tree blossoms transforming into fruit. Studies have shown that experience in the natural world has a direct correlation to academic achievement in science.

After school the orchards and gardens are open for the neighborhood children to use and enjoy. Recently, as I was weeding a raspberry bed in an EarthWorks' schoolyard orchard, a boy came by looking for snakes. He spent some time looking under logs and benches, finally finding a brown snake hidden in the tall grass. He told me that the orchard was one of the best places in the neighborhood to find snakes. He opened a box he was carrying to reveal about 20 small brown and garter snakes he had just found in the gardens and orchard. He took them home to show his family and then returned to the orchard to release them.

While providing snake habitat may not be the goal of the Outdoor Classrooms program, it illustrates the diverse ways EarthWorks is helping children connect to nature, building those direct experiences that lead to academic success and a lifelong stewardship for all things natural.