OUTDOOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Contact Name: Mary Haque
College/Department: Horticulture
Address: Poole Ag Center, Clemson, SC 29634

Phone/email: 656-4958

Name of Program: No name; we will offer a course this fall entitled "Gardening and Youth Development"

Age Group of program participants: College students and K-12

Is this program _____ in school, or ___x__ non-formal

Brief description of program:
Please include: program purpose(s); goals and objectives; internal and external partners; intended outcomes; accomplishments; and funding source(s)

LINKING UNIVERSITIES AND K-12 THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF OUTDOOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOOLS
(PHASE ONE WAS PLANNING AND DESIGN 2000-2001)
Mary T. Haque, Principal investigator
Funded by the Sustainable Universities Initiative
SC Leadership in Public Service will be funding the publication of a booklet on Children and Landscapes this coming year.

Students and teachers from a variety of courses at K-12 schools and Clemson students from three courses worked towards advancing their knowledge and commitment to environmental stewardship. One goal of this project was to reach out to a diverse population by partnering with several institutions to design and to promote sustainable community environments for people as well as for wildlife. Another goal was to provide an opportunity for students to learn and mature through participation in a project that has a long-term visible impact. To that end, students, faculty, and administrators from partnering schools, Clemson University, volunteers, and school officials worked together in three phases.

1. Information dissemination of the research, analysis, and designs completed in phase one;
2. Fund raising and grant application;
3. Implementaion, evaluation, sharing, and recognition.

Outputs (Deliverables)
1. Posters were prepared by Clemson University college students and presented in the 2001 Gardening with Children Symposium. These included research and designs from phase one landscape designs and input from K-12 students.

2. A curriculum is being developed by Mr. Jason Ginder, a graduate student with an environmental education focus. See below for a description of his Teacher's Environmental Resource Guide for Clemson Elementary School. His Guide uses the landscape/naturescape plan reflecting state science standards.

3. Landscape plans for three schools (Daniel High School, Clemson Elementary School, and Hunt Meadows Elementary School) have been partially implemented emphasizing tree planting for energy efficiency, an outdoor classroom, interpretative signage along a school nature trail, outdoor seating arrangements, a Carolina fence garden, and a native plants courtyard for teaching and learning purposes.

4. A PowerPoint presentation on environmental stewardship and Schoolyard Projects is being expanded to share with schools, volunteers, university professors and public through the web page and at conferences.

5. College students (as well as parents and teachers) are being encouraged to become certified “Habitat Stewards” (NWF). A poster about phase two of the project is being developed for use at Earth Day Celebrations, Service-learning meetings, landscape for learning collaborative meetings, and other appropriate occasions.

6. A $100,000 USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant was submitted in February 2002. We hope to continue work on this project, and feel that SUI has provided us with a significant base from which to find outside funding support.

7. An article has been written about the project and a paper entitled “Linking Universities and K-12 Schools Through Design of Outdoor Learning Environments" has been accepted for presentation at the 13th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning to be held April 9-13, 2002 in Jacksonville, Fla. See: www.fccj.org/Teaching%26LearningConference/AcceptedPapers.html for more information on the conference and paper.

Outcomes (Impact) and Benefits to Students and to the Community
Working on real world projects can greatly influence student motivation and learning while simultaneously helping solve community problems. This project encourages creative thinking and problem solving teaches students more about community relationships, wildlife habitats, and sustainable living. Working with school administrators, landscape architects, and public service organizations gives students a feeling for how institutions and communities function. An appreciation of the need for community involvement is also learned. Perhaps the most important lesson students can learn is that a good plan grows from the site and from the needs of the people, plants, and wildlife that inhabit that site. It should not be designed in a studio to be imposed on the land; it should seem a natural outgrowth of the site and should preserve and enhance the best features of the community.

Our students are gaining an understanding of nature and natural sites by working with authentic projects. They are also gaining sensitivity to people through working with partners. One result of this interaction is the opportunity provided for students to practice oral communication skills in both formal (classroom), and informal (schoolyard) settings. As they implement a plan that is environmentally, functionally and aesthetically sound, students are learning to convey their ideas and educate others.

Teachers traditionally take the active role, gathering and compiling information, asking questions, and providing answers. Advanced learning, of an active and ongoing kind, can be stimulated by allowing and encouraging students to, first, ask important questions, and second, set about exploring new territories by finding their own answers. Once found, the depth of these answers can be measured by giving them to someone else to test and utilize. This project will enable students to ask questions, and it will stimulate curiosity, promote interest, improve reasoning, and increase student's ability to isolate,define, and solve problems.

Students versed in the art of asking questions become intellectually athletic and spring easily into the phase of seeking solutions. This project insures that they learn to discover sources, collect information, analyze data, and solve problems. When asked to communicate his or her solutions to an interested party, the student must learn to sift through the information collected, decide what data is most appropriate, and prepare a meaningful presentation for his or her audience. The presentation generally reinforces the importance of the cognitive functions, instills confidence, and generates enthusiasm in the student while imparting information to the audience. A tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction results when students follow this three-part process of asking questions, seeking solutions, and giving answers. The process takes on special significance when taken out of the classroom and placed in the community. Students become teachers, and this reversal of roles stimulates awareness and promotes intellectual maturity.

In addition, this project also addressed the following community based objectives outlined by the Landscapes for Learning Collaborative (LLC). Through participation in the 2001 Landscapes for Learning Gardening with Children Symposium, college students networked with interested parties and helped address learning landscape needs through their poster presentation. They became part of the network that helps school children, K-12, and college students to engage in hands-on, practical environmental education, environmental stewardship, public service, and nature-based enhancement in all areas of study. This also assists community members in enhancing their environments while at the same time building community relationships and providing non formal environmental education. They helped integrate teaching, research and service for K-12 and colleges.

Participating College Courses - Clemson University:

• Horticulture 208 Landscape Appreciation--taught by Professor Mary Haque-Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences; Fall 2001.
• Horticulture 308 Landscape Design --taught by Professor Mary Haque- Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences; Fall 2001.
• Landscape Architecture 490 Directed Studies--taught by Professor Francis Chamberlain with Professor Haque advising senior student Erin Jordan of the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture; Summer and Fall 2001.

Ms. Erin Jordan, a fifth year Landscape Architecture student enrolled in LA 490 Directed Studies under Mary Haque’s supervision researched the history, case studies, and safety issues associated with children and landscapes, and wrote a 100 page book entitled “Children and Landscapes: Environmental Education and Childhood Development." She graduated with honors in December of 2001, and SCLIP will be funding the publication of her book.

K-12 Schools and contacts:

• Clemson Elementary School- Dr. Paul Pritchard, Principal and Dr. Gina McLellan, President, School Improvement Council. This project (“Clemson Elementary Outdoors” with Dr. McLellan as the PI) won the 2001 service learning award presented by the SC Commission on Higher Education.
• Hunt Meadow Primary School, Anderson County, SC- Nancy Prince, Principal; Sue Tarkenton, Teacher, and Sonja Maki, Parent Volunteer and President of the School Improvement Council. The lead teacher on this project, Ms. Sue Tarkenton, won the 2001 SC Wildlife Federation Education Award for her work on this project. See her website at: http://www.anderson1.k12.sc.us/schools/hmes/Garden/courtyard%20garden.htm
• Daniel High School-Mr. Earl Gilstrap, Principal, Mr. and Mrs. Steve Sanders, Parent Volunteers

Qualified Leadership, Support, Supervision, and Evaluation:

• Mary Haque- Clemson University Professor, Department of Horticulture
• Gina McLellan-Clemson University Professor, Department of PRTM
• Stephanie Stowell- National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitats program
• Lolly Tai- Clemson University Professor, Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture
• Sara Thieben, Coordinator, Schoolyard Habitat efforts of the South Carolina Wildlife Federation.
• Tommy Gladden, State Director of Agricultural Education
  15 Agricultural Education majors enrolled in my Hort. 208 Landscape Appreciation in the Fall semester of 2001. I taught those students about sustainable landscapes and familiarized them with the NWF schoolyard habitat program. Over the course of the semester, I lectured on xeriscape (water conservation for the southeast), landscape design for energy efficiency, landscape design for wildlife habitat, and landscape design for low maintenance. Hort. 208 students joined the Hort. 308-landscape design class on October 24, 2001 to help install a native plant courtyard at Clemson Elementary School. The involvement of these university "pre-service teachers" will enable them to bring more to their classrooms after graduation. Students enrolled in Hort. 208 and 308 were also involved in applying the sustainable landscapes theory taught in the classroom to the 'Blitz Build' Habitat for Humanity site with installation on October 17, 2001.

Dr. Gina McLellan enlisted Mr. Jason Ginder, a graduate student with an environmental education focus, to develop a "Teacher's Environmental Resource Guide" for the project. Below is a description of the guide, which is still being developed.

The Teacher’s Environmental Resource Guide

In an effort to encourage use of the new outdoor classrooms and environmental settings at the new Clemson Elementary School, we will be developing resources for teachers that correlate with the established South Carolina Curriculum Standards. These resources should allow teachers to more readily utilize the unique outdoor environment around them. This project will have two parts or stages. First a resource guide will be developed that describes different ways that teachers can utilize the outdoor classrooms. The second stage of this project will be a resource that offers suggestions and activities that will assist teachers in utilizing the outdoor environments to meet individual South Carolina Curriculum Standards.

The resource guide will include examples of outdoor lessons and alternatives to traditional lessons that will allow teachers to extend classroom learning into outdoor environments. The resource guide will include information on supplementary curriculum and materials that may assist the teachers. The second stage of this project will create a resource library with each curriculum standard identified along with a short list of possible resources, activities or lessons that will allow the educators to expand their use of the environment.

The goal of this project is to stimulate educators and assist them in utilizing the unique environment at this new school. We will use many of the established environmental education and outdoor education resources and techniques throughout these projects. It is our hope that teachers will challenge themselves to find new ways of presenting the traditional educational material. Through this process students and teachers will become more familiar with and possibly develop an appreciation for the environment around them.

To stimulate more widespread use of the nature trail by teachers and students, Clemson Elementary School invited Rudy Manke to lead a teacher in-service workday in March of 2002. He spent all day at Clemson Elementary School and led teachers and CU student teachers on a nature walk to highlight the opportunities for learning that are now available on school grounds. Dr. McLellan organized a “Bug Fun Day”, and students made insects out of recycled materials.

Troop 235 Boy Scouts partnered on the Clemson Elementary Project, and Mr. Hoke Hill led his troop in the construction of an outdoor classroom on the nature trail. Mr. Tripp Mostertz led his troop in the construction and installation of interpretative signage along the trail. Both projects were completed as part of the Eagle Scout requirements, and both brought to reality design recommendations made by Clemson University students during the design phase of the SUI project.