landscapes as educational interfaces
Outdoor elementary school environments can greatly enhance a students' mental and physical health as well as their educational experience by connecting the classroom curricula to the schools outdoor environment, yet they rarely do. Instead our children are expected to perform and engage while spending most of their day inside poorly lit and uninspiring building structures. This is evident by the simultaneous rise in childhood obesity (Ebbeling et al, 2002; Mary et al, 2006; Fox et al, 2009; Story et al, 2009) and diagnosed developmental and learning disability among urban populations (Boyle et al, 2011). This data provides an impetus for designers to develop diverse and engaging outdoor environments as part of elementary school campuses. Today we can find isolated interventions beginning to appear in some campuses fighting the under-utilization of their landscapes while promoting fun and safe learning; some of these interventions include: outdoor classrooms, food-scapes, nature trails, and alternative playgrounds such as anarchy zones. I argue that we should take this a step further and think of these environments as cohesive structures that are tightly linked to their indoor environments. These landscapes can provide opportunities for children with diverse learning styles, personalities, intelligence types, cognitive abilities and physical capacities, to grow under fun and nurturing conditions while developing empathy for the natural environment and each other.
Principal Mary Grover from Caroline Elementary in Slaterville, NY (once a persistently dangerous elementary school in Upstate NY) would like to set a precedent among elementary schools by becoming a destination to the rest of the Ithaca City School District elementary schools with their 10 acre outdoor campus. The vision for this semester is to with her help and that of her staff and students, write design guidelines for this new outdoor educational environment (that can also serve as a manual for the design of public elementary school outdoor environments for fun learning), design a cohesive yet phasable plan, and implement one aspect of it at the end of the semester.
First we will study what is available out there (scour print, the web, etc.) in relation to this, then we will write guidelines specifying a holistic yet phasable design approach to these educational outdoor environments. The design interventions specified shall address the curriculum goals of the school, the eight intelligence types outlined in Gardner (1999), Checkley (1997), and Armstrong (2000), and the principles of Universal Design while considering safety issues, and considering a diversity of cognitive and physical abilities.
Part I Research begins March 21
Study, break down and classify the following (readings will be provided):
SPRING BREAK (March 12-20)
Site Workshop . Friday, March 25
Part II Design Melding - DUE March 30
Analyze the CENY site, and the following projects to develop further: Sarah DeGray (Play the highest form of research), Paglinco+Jackson (A playful approach), Hannah Marshman & Kimberly Case (Naturescape Intelligence), Eric + Rodrigo (title here), Willivan Silva (Explo-Perception), Emma Oakes • Rachel Scudder • Jacob Von Mechow • Mark Warfel Jr. (EDGE-UCATE), Marshall Secord and (Teaching Layers of the Living World Through Space and Direction), Kate Chesebrough (transitional spaces, transformative systems), Hannah Knowles (changing perspective).
**We may invite/Skype with available students so that they can tell us more about their work and aid us in the design selection process.
Meld aspects of the aforementioned plans, improving upon them to develop a cohesive master plan for the entire site that is yours.
Scale 1"=40'
This project will require on the field research and design work. Most Fridays we will travel to Caroline and work on site.
Part III Design Implementation
Based on the work developed with the students and teachers at Caroline we will install with the kids, staff and volunteers one area of the project during the week of May - May 7 (ribbon cutting).
Outdoor elementary school environments can greatly enhance a students' mental and physical health as well as their educational experience by connecting the classroom curricula to the schools outdoor environment, yet they rarely do. Instead our children are expected to perform and engage while spending most of their day inside poorly lit and uninspiring building structures. This is evident by the simultaneous rise in childhood obesity (Ebbeling et al, 2002; Mary et al, 2006; Fox et al, 2009; Story et al, 2009) and diagnosed developmental and learning disability among urban populations (Boyle et al, 2011). This data provides an impetus for designers to develop diverse and engaging outdoor environments as part of elementary school campuses. Today we can find isolated interventions beginning to appear in some campuses fighting the under-utilization of their landscapes while promoting fun and safe learning; some of these interventions include: outdoor classrooms, food-scapes, nature trails, and alternative playgrounds such as anarchy zones. I argue that we should take this a step further and think of these environments as cohesive structures that are tightly linked to their indoor environments. These landscapes can provide opportunities for children with diverse learning styles, personalities, intelligence types, cognitive abilities and physical capacities, to grow under fun and nurturing conditions while developing empathy for the natural environment and each other.
Principal Mary Grover from Caroline Elementary in Slaterville, NY (once a persistently dangerous elementary school in Upstate NY) would like to set a precedent among elementary schools by becoming a destination to the rest of the Ithaca City School District elementary schools with their 10 acre outdoor campus. The vision for this semester is to with her help and that of her staff and students, write design guidelines for this new outdoor educational environment (that can also serve as a manual for the design of public elementary school outdoor environments for fun learning), design a cohesive yet phasable plan, and implement one aspect of it at the end of the semester.
First we will study what is available out there (scour print, the web, etc.) in relation to this, then we will write guidelines specifying a holistic yet phasable design approach to these educational outdoor environments. The design interventions specified shall address the curriculum goals of the school, the eight intelligence types outlined in Gardner (1999), Checkley (1997), and Armstrong (2000), and the principles of Universal Design while considering safety issues, and considering a diversity of cognitive and physical abilities.
Part I Research begins March 21
Study, break down and classify the following (readings will be provided):
- All outdoor school environment design guidelines available
- All pertinent aspects of Universal Design
- Safety issues/laws in children play environments
- How cognitive and physical abilities can limit outdoor play/learning
- The different intelligence types (Billy + Emma + Rose = lecture)
- Examples of alternative outdoor elementary school educational environments
- All curriculum goals of the school (classify them in relation to potential outdoor play features)
- What do children of different elementary school age groups find engaging in their outdoor school environment? (work w Mehrane PhD student) Analyze the urban, suburban and rural landscape (scale) of elementary schools in the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) (BJM, Belle Sherman and Caroline Elementary)
- What is fun? How can landscape and its design attributes bring us joy?
SPRING BREAK (March 12-20)
Site Workshop . Friday, March 25
Part II Design Melding - DUE March 30
Analyze the CENY site, and the following projects to develop further: Sarah DeGray (Play the highest form of research), Paglinco+Jackson (A playful approach), Hannah Marshman & Kimberly Case (Naturescape Intelligence), Eric + Rodrigo (title here), Willivan Silva (Explo-Perception), Emma Oakes • Rachel Scudder • Jacob Von Mechow • Mark Warfel Jr. (EDGE-UCATE), Marshall Secord and (Teaching Layers of the Living World Through Space and Direction), Kate Chesebrough (transitional spaces, transformative systems), Hannah Knowles (changing perspective).
**We may invite/Skype with available students so that they can tell us more about their work and aid us in the design selection process.
Meld aspects of the aforementioned plans, improving upon them to develop a cohesive master plan for the entire site that is yours.
Scale 1"=40'
This project will require on the field research and design work. Most Fridays we will travel to Caroline and work on site.
Part III Design Implementation
Based on the work developed with the students and teachers at Caroline we will install with the kids, staff and volunteers one area of the project during the week of May - May 7 (ribbon cutting).