Reflections on the Children's Outdoor Classroom Program
By Laura Doty

"I never liked science. I never knew science could be this fun." – A second grader at the James Otis School in East Boston.

When asked what the goals of the Outdoor Classroom program are, the first thing I say is to connect children to nature. Second, to foster a love of learning. The two go hand in hand. Children have a natural curiosity about the world around them, and I have never seen children more inquisitive than when exploring the natural world. Watching children as they participate in our program, we see them making connections and wanting to know more about what they see. Even more exciting than that is seeing children take it a step further to figure out the answers on their own. As we were examining the dormant fruit trees at the Russell School a few weeks ago, a third grader exclaimed, "so that's where the new leaves come from!" as she fingered a bud. Given the right environment, children love to learn. Being outdoors seems to be the right environment for a lot of children.

For many rural and suburban children, opportunities to spend time investigating nature abound. When I think of my own childhood, I remember huge stretches of unsupervised time playing in my big backyard and the undeveloped field across the street. These opportunities just don't exist for many urban kids. For urban kids, there are many hurdles to even finding nature, let alone having the freedom to explore it. Vacant lots like I explored as a kid harbor threats to safety. Many neighborhoods of Boston lack the greenspace kids need to develop a connection to and concern for nature. I see the Outdoor Classroom Program as giving kids a chance to explore nature right in their neighborhoods. The children seize the opportunity.

Every time the EarthWorks teaching team arrives at a school, a ripple of excitement runs through the classes. Students cheer as we enter a classroom, while others come up running up to us in the halls to ask if we're coming to their class today, to share with us what they discovered on their own, or to describe how an experiment in the classroom is going. Our program teaches key concepts mandated by the Boston Public School's science curriculum, supporting the work done by classroom teachers. EarthWorks instructor Alan Amos Lanz has assessed children at the Hennigan School on program concepts both before and after the EarthWorks lessons. The high post-program scores prove the effectiveness of our program. As students learn the key concepts, they are also learning that science is fun. One of my favorite comments, which I hear quite often, is "I never knew science was so much fun."

My second favorite comment: "Our teacher showed us this inside!" I love to see children connecting what they learn in the classroom to the work we do outside. It is one thing to be able to regurgitate information, but to see something happen before one's eyes leads to understanding. When children can identify concepts they learned inside to first-hand experiences outdoors, I know that they are truly understanding the ideas involved.

This fall, the Outdoor Classroom program came to the John P. Holland School in Dorchester. The Holland School, site of a major EarthWorks planting in 1999, is taking full advantage of its schoolyard as a learning space. Every class in the third and fifth grades participated in the program, involving over 300 children. Children saved seeds and learned about seed dispersal, planted bulbs, compared trees of different species, and built compost piles. Along the way, we found salamanders, ate apples, and tasted apple cider. Spring will find us pruning trees and planting a beneficial insect garden. The fifth graders will undertake a concentrated study of the schoolyard ecosystem, while the third grade will study the life cycle of fruit trees. We are very excited to be beginning a program at this school, and thank the Holland staff for their commitment to the program.

EarthWorks started working in partnership with the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) in East Boston. NOAH has been active in schoolyard greening in East Boston for years, and arranged for EarthWorks to teach ecology at two schools--the O'Donnell and the Otis. The O'Donnell has a schoolyard garden space, and the Otis has a small planting area in the front of the school. Most importantly, the school has an enthusiastic and dedicated staff. Both schools own Grow Labs and indoor plant lights that we'll use to study the plant life cycle year round. Our work at these schools is our first non-orchard/tree oriented program. East Boston seems a natural area for our program, especially when one considers that of all the neighborhoods of Boston, only Chinatown has less greenspace.

The William E. Russell School is experiencing the benefits of a butterfly garden. With a large display of pink, purple, blue, red, orange and yellow, the garden became a hive of insect activity -- a great place to see pollination and predator/prey relationships acted out first hand. There were some unexpected benefits as well. The orchard area has long been a neighborhood dog walking spot. Before each lesson, we spent some time walking the orchard armed with shovels and plastic bags. Once the insect garden was planted and in bloom, we noticed a drop in dog debris. Apparently, once the community noticed what was going on in the schoolyard, they've taken their dogs elsewhere. Whatever the reason, we are all happy about this new and unexpected development.

This year marks the first time we are able to offer winter classes to many schools. The Russell, Agassiz, Hennigan, O'Donnell, Otis and Winthrop Schools will all have wintertime classes. Many classrooms will be starting up their own worm bins as we study soil and how living things improve soil. Some classrooms are comparing soil types and seeing which grows the better marigolds. With luck, we will be planting some of the marigolds outside in the insect gardens and harvesting compost to fertilize our orchard trees.

This program would not be a success without the efforts of the teachers at our participating schools and EarthWorks instructors. Thank you to the teachers of the Agassiz, Curley, Hennigan, Holland, Russell, and Winthrop Schools, and to EarthWorks teachers Alan Amos Lans, Christopher Muntiu, Janet Grey, Lisa Garcia, Maria Kubik and Vernon Chow.