Schools using outdoor environmental-based learning techniques see positive behavioral changes in their students. Almost three-quarters of those schools produce improved standardized test scores, and nearly every educator surveyed by a national group saw a positive change in their learning environment because of the outdoor educational experiences.
Those are findings of a study conducted nationally by the State Education and Environment Roundtable, a California-based organization. And those numbers, along with support from district employees and local environmentalists, might factor into an Indian River School Board decision expected next month to possibly introduce wetlands to area schools.
Indian River’s board will vote next month on a proposal introduced by the Center for the Inland Bays’ Sally Boswell late this summer to build wetlands at Phillip C. Showell Elementary in Selbyville and at Long Neck Elementary.
Instead of having to leave school property to study the environment, the students in all elementary grade levels could use what some call an unmatched on-site educational tool. If approved, students would be involved in designing, building, studying and maintaining the wetlands.
“Children have a natural curiosity,” for the environment, said Boswell, the center’s education and outreach coordinator. “If you reach them when they’re young enough, they are very enchanted by the outdoors. It seems really important to take advantage of the fact that these kids have this natural affinity.”
If approved, Environmental Concern, the Maryland-based organization that helped Boswell attain the $5,000 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grant to be used at two Delaware schools, would be intimately involved in the program’s implementation. (Boswell also has additional funds from the CIB and others raised through donations.)
With students and staff, one official said, they would walk the ground to devise a design that suits the students’ wants and needs, and the needs of the grounds. The wetland would be fed by stormwater, helping take care of the adjacent environment by catching the runoff before it reaches Delaware’s waters.
After deciding on the types of plants — all native varieties designed to attract different species, such as amphibians with one plant or butterflies with another — and the spot for each wetland, Environmental Concern would draw up the project.
Between design and construction time, students would study the plants, officials said. And when the project is completed, students and school staff, along with environmentalists, would devote one day to planting the wildlife in and around the wetland, continuing the educational process.
“When you combine students to their schoolyard, the learning is just multiplied,” said Bronwyn Mitchell, Environmental Concern’s director of education who has worked with numerous Maryland schools to promote these schoolyard wetland habitats – all of which are different and different-looking. “Academic achievement goes up, behavioral problems go down. Schools aren’t able to get out and do as many field trips as they used to,” she noted.
And to make it easier for teachers in all grade levels and all subjects to use the resource, Environmental Concern developed a national curriculum guide in the mid-1990’s that now promotes activities on the wetlands that correlates with state standards — including Delaware’s.
The Wonders of Wetlands (WOW!) curriculum guide is provided to teachers, who are trained to teach using the new environmental educational tool, making for a smooth adaptation. Visit Environmental Concern’s Web site at www.wetland.org for more information.
Dr. Susan Bunting, Indian River School District superintendent, who will not have a vote either way later this month, supports the proposal.
“I am an advocate of that kind of thing,” Bunting said in an earlier interview. “If we don’t value the environment, then we aren’t conscious of how our actions and mis-actions impact the future of the environment.”
Steve Cardano, Indian River School District’s science coalition specialist, who would be involved in implementing the programs, is also optimistic.
“We’ve got to work with the administration. We’ve got to get teachers to buy into this idea,” he said. “It involves getting kids outside to look at the life. It’s a great concept.”
CORRECTION
In last week’s story dealing with the proposals to bring outdoor learning to the schools, we reported that the proposal was to build “watersheds” at two local schools. The proposal is to build what are more properly termed “wetlands” — the size and type of which are not yet determined. The term watershed is used to describe the land that feeds into bodies of water. Wetland refers to “exactly that,” one official said, “where land is wet.”