Outdoor Learning Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Outdoor Education Exposes West Virginia Youth To Wild and Wonderful Opportunities

Outdoor education opportunities making a difference in kids’ lives.

By Maddie Swecker

The audio above originally aired in the Jan. 2, 2024 episode of West Virginia Morning. WVPB reporter Chris Schulz spoke with student Maddie Swecker to discuss this story.

When Ali Jeney first saw a 6th grader transform from quiet and shy to the star of his class, she knew something was working. Jeney is the director of Science Adventure School (SAS), and she says she sees this happen every week.

SAS is a week-long science adventure camp at the Summit Bechtel Reserve between Fayetteville and Beckley. It is designed for West Virginia’s 6th graders, and Jeney said students come to camp introverted and lonely and leave feeling like they belong with their classmates and at home in West Virginia.

This feeling is not created solely through time in the outdoors, but through a carefully planned and executed outdoor curriculum involving learning and playing.

“People call us ‘the camp’ a lot,” Jeney said. “And although we’re outdoors, I wish people could see more than a year that went into designing up to the pilot. This is such a carefully designed program.”

SAS hits on two major areas that improve learning for children: a new environment and a feeling of belonging. Instructors guide students through various adventure activities such as mountain biking and archery, then teach them the science behind the sports. The camp is mainly funded by private donors.

These activities are lots of fun for the students, and the playful aspect of this curriculum is by no means an accident according to Jeney.

“Play is very purposeful,” she said. “You play to energize, to introduce and break down barriers. You play for a lot of reasons that are critical to experiential and outdoor education.”

Anna Herchl, environmental educator at SAS, said she has seen firsthand how kids fall in love with learning.

“One of my favorite memories from camp is when we took them out and taught them about the PH level of water.” she said. “Later on in the week, I had a little girl ask me while we were canoeing, ‘What do you think the PH level of this water is Anna?’ and honestly, hearing that just makes me so excited that they are taking away a new appreciation for science.”

Getting kids outside in the Mountain State not only is a great way to experience growth and learning, but also creates a sense of belonging and connection to the natural world that surrounds them.

Kirk Mitchell, outdoor education guide at SAS, has seen kids come to camp wishing to live somewhere else and leave being excited about their home in West Virginia.

“A lot of kids in this state feel like they want to leave when they graduate because they don’t want to do the same things as their parents,” he said. “By showing them how cool this state is through adventure sports and science, we can help them to realize that they have all that right in their backyard. They can be scientists in this state and not have to follow the blue collar work that many West Virginians have traditionally worked in.”

Two sixth graders load arrows for archery during the Science Adventure School at the WVU Outdoor Education Center near Coopers Rock State Forest on Oct. 24, 2023.

Sixth graders are transitioning from elementary school into middle school, and programs like SAS help them to process that change. But, there are plenty of schools around West Virginia that are aiming to get the same effects on younger children.

The Monongalia Forest School is an outdoor school aimed at children aged 3-7 and their families. With meetings two times a week, their goal is to get children out into nature to gain confidence and fall in love with the outdoors while learning practical skills. The sessions are never canceled due to cold weather, only dangerous weather stops these kids.

Katie Switzer teaches 3–7-year-olds at the Monongalia Forest School. She believes that getting children outdoors is not only beneficial for them but also for their parents. By getting parents involved in education, they can then have the ability to help their children to continue to grow and learn outside of the classroom in non-traditional settings, like a hiking trail.

“When I first started going outdoors with my kids, it felt overwhelming because I didn’t know where to go and I didn’t know what activities to do,” Switzer said. “I tried to incorporate that into the program by making these hikes, trail maps, giving trail maps for the hikes and getting them (the families) comfortable so that they feel like, ‘Hey we can go out here on our own and we’re able to do it.’”

Outdoor education is not a new concept in West Virginia. Outward Bound (OB) is an international organization that has offered outdoor education programs in the Dolly Sods Wilderness since 1986 through its Chesapeake Bay School. Former Outward Bound instructor Jacob Rex has seen first-hand the positive impact that can come from outdoor learning.

“Outward Bound employs a curriculum that, at its core, has remained unchanged for almost a century,” he said. “It builds character in young people that fundamentally changes their lives. I know dozens of stories of people, who are now in their 60s, recounting their OB trip as one of the best experiences they’ve had in their life. The medium the wilderness provides to the human brain is unequivocal in catalyzing growth in mind, body, and spirit.”

More and more outdoor schools are popping up around the state and nation each year. This could be attributed to promising research done on the topic.

Researchers for a 2019 article in Frontiers in Psychology conducted a meta-analysis of dozens of peer reviewed articles and studies about learning outside and concluded that nature-based learning worked better for disadvantaged students, inspired interest in students who were not engaged and provided a more open atmosphere for learning and forming social ties.

Not only is outdoor education getting kids excited about learning, but it is also combating the mental health crisis that young people have been facing.

The mental health crisis in the state of West Virginia was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 3000 kids went to WVU Medicine emergency rooms in 2022 seeking mental health care, a 62 percent increase from previous years. At SAS, Jeney said kids go from being lonely to being connected to their classmates. “They’re so happy because sometimes they don’t even know other students know their name, then they leave Science Adventure School with a cohort of 15 people who know about them and love them and care about them and they know it.”

Educators like Jeney and Switzer believe the answer to some of the problems kids today are facing, like the mental health crisis, may lie in outdoor education.

SAS puts a lot of effort into making sure that every group creates a welcoming environment that is conducive to learning and having fun. Just having this support and being in a new environment can boost the confidence of students and push them to become more curious and rediscover a love for learning.

One of the largest criticisms of outdoor education is that there is not enough research showing the long-term effects that it has on children who go through it. Jeney is a huge advocate that every 6th grader in West Virginia should get to experience outdoor education regardless.

“One of my favorites (memories) is a student who was the ‘mathlete’ if you will, one might call a ‘nerd’ and who absolutely smoked the big cool basketball team member and became a legend to his teammates. For the first time, (he was) feeling appreciated and loved and like people were looking up to him. He helped his whole team get to the top of the climbing wall,” she said. “It’s moments like that that are like, there is no question. I don’t need the research. I don’t need to see 10 years of data to see that this program is changing these kids. It’s changing them in the best ways in four days and you just would never believe it unless you could see it.”

A 6th grade student at SAS poses proudly next to the arrows he just shot into a target at the WVU Outdoor Education Center on Oct. 19, 2023. All of his fellow classmates cheered him on as he almost shot a bullseye.

Outdoor Education And Improving West Virginia Corrections, This West Virginia Morning

A WVU student looks at the effect of outdoor education on student success, and a look at improvements to the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

On this West Virginia Morning, a West Virginia University student looks at the effect outdoor education is having on student success, as well as the state’s future.

Also, reporter Rande Yohe looks at improvements that West Virginia’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have made ahead of the state legislature’s upcoming 2024 regular session.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Mountain Nature Camp: Celebrating 90 Years Of Solace, Community, Outdoor Learning

People from all over the state and region converged in Terra Alta, West Virginia, this summer to celebrate nine decades of Mountain Nature Camp. It’s a camp where adults go to study pristine Appalachian corners of the world. Many folks came to celebrate community and traditions that have been going since 1929. But also to get their nature fix – which researchers say is critical for both human health and maybe even life on the planet.

A Tradition of Outdoor Learning, Being

“As far as I know, this is the oldest running nature program for adults in the country,” camp director Mary Grey said. She started as a camper in the 1980s. “It’s a program that lets adults come and be kids again. We do nature study, we go on bird walks, we sit around the campfire and sing songs.”

The camp property is in a forested grove outside of the small, rural town of Terra Alta in Preston County. A larger wooden structure with a kitchen and mess hall stands next to some shelters and a bath house. They’re all clustered at the edge of a small lake among mixed hardwoods, ferns, and wildlife. It’s the basecamp. Most days are spent traveling to unique and protected ecological spots nearby like Blackwater Falls, Dolly Sods, or the Cranesville Swamp.

This year campers from years past rolled in and pulled up chairs and stools in front of the main building, passing around photo albums and sharing memories.

Cindy Slater (L) sits next to Helen Wylie (R) looking at photo albums and memorabilia, celebrating 90 years of Mountain Nature Camp.

The Ultimate Classroom

Don Altemus came from Cleveland for the 90th celebration. He first started coming to camp in 1947 and for many years was a lead naturalist, teaching many classes.

Don Altemus made it from Cleveland to celebrate the 90th year of Mountain Camp. He first started to come to the camp in 1947.

Altemus is retired now, but he kept a day job as a naturalist in Cleveland for years. He says he’s always found West Virginia to be an ideal place to study and teach about the natural world.

“West Virginia for natural history is one of the most fascinating in the eastern United States,” Altemus said.

He explains that since Preston County sits 2,700 feet above sea-level, the winters get really cold, while summers are still very hot – creating a lot of ecological variety. He calls Mountain Camp the ultimate classroom.

“In nature if you don’t see anything interesting, look closer,” he said.

Mountain Camp takes place every June in Preston County for two weeks. It costs $350 a week, with some scholarships available, and has operated through Oglebay Institute since it was founded in 1929. Some campers come year after year, as well as expert naturalists, and regular newcomers who rotate through each year.

“Really for the last 90 years, the teachers that come in to teach these classes whether it’s ornithology or botany — they really are the experts in their field,” explained environmental education director at Oglebay, Molly Check. “And I think that’s why Mountain Nature Camp has lasted as long as it has and also remains relevant.”

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The Hidden Lessons, Benefits

Today, one of those experts is Bill Beatty. He’s the lead naturalist here at Mountain Nature Camp. At the edge of Terra Alta Lake — a several-acre body of water nestled into the high altitudes of Preston County — Beatty easily identifies any of the plants growing, adding facts about how they can be used or roles they’ve played throughout history.

Bill Beatty, naturalist and outdoor educator, has been coming to learn, teach, and decompress at Mountain Camp since the 1970s.

Beatty’s career from college until now has been nature-related and he’s been coming to Mountain Camp since 1972. He comes to study nature, but also for peace of mind.

“We’re sitting here looking across this lake. You don’t see a single person or anything associated with people. There aren’t many places you can go and see that,” Beatty said. “I’ve had students who I taught at a university who were inner-city and they’re very uncomfortable in this situation. It’s very foreign to them. But yet we’re learning through studies that this is the kind of thing that people need to be healthier.”

Beatty is referring to any of dozens of peer-reviewed studies that have been published over the past 40 years that share findings related to the effects of viewing and experiencing natural settings — benefits like lowered blood pressure, pulse rate, and the stress hormone cortisol as well as elevated moods and higher serotonin production (aka, “the happy chemical”).

Researchers have also discovered that people today typically spend about 90 percent of their time indoors or in a car, which can be dangerous not only because of physical inactivity, which contributes to a host of life-shortening health problems, but also because of exposure to indoor air pollutants.

Fortunately, Beatty points out, going outside is often a cheap, easy remedy. He says it’s good for our health, and maybe the planet, too.

“We have to get people to understand how valuable this is,” he said. “And what I mean by value is — you can’t stay conscious any more than four minutes without the air we breathe! You think, ‘Oh my TOOTHBRUSH is really important. I gotta brush my teeth every morning’ — which is good, that’s not a bad thing — but you don’t think about the air.”

Education director Molly Check agrees.

Every night at Mountain Camp, adult campers gather around a campfire to sing songs and share stories.

“Seven billion plus people that live on Earth. And I think everyone is aware of the different environmental problems that we face as a species. Whether you’re gonna talk about climate change or conserving water resources, there are a lot of challenges that lie ahead of us.”

Check says the best way to overcome those challenges is to gather a group of people who are very passionate about the earth and motivated to solve those problems. And she says Mountain Camp produces those types.

“You’re not going to care about those problems or even know about them unless you have that firsthand experience. The campers that are here would likely lay down their lives to save this little place in West Virginia and also by extension the natural world that found all over.”

‘Wired By Experience’ — Outdoor Ed Institution Wants More Students To Experience Learning Outside

An organization called Experience Learning in Pendleton County, has been leading kids out into pristine mountain landscapes to learn about the world, themselves and each other for about 50 years. It’s one of the longer running outdoor education institutions in the West Virginia. Organizers say they’ve spent years watching kids be transformed by outdoor experiences. More than anything else, they want kids to learn to love learning and they don’t care if kids find that love on top of a mountain, or in their schoolyards.

Having Experience Learning

The organization’s base camp is at the Spruce Knob Mountain Center — a collection of yurts which sits in a 400-acre high-elevation nature preserve. Students, families and various groups visit to experience some of the darkest night skies in the Eastern U.S., as well as the surrounding northern hardwood forests, and some of the healthiest streams in the state. The largest structure at the center is an expansive wooden multi-leveled Mongolian-inspired yurt with a dining booths on top of a full kitchen, and a round library fitted with wood burning stoves on top.

It’s usually very quiet because people don’t often come here to hangout indoors.

Experience Learning was founded in the 70s. It was originally designed to be a resource for individual families.

One of the organization’s board members, Jennifer Taylor-Ide, has been involved from the start. She remembers that individual families were hard to recruit, but schools from all over the region just started calling. So they started to put programs together for kids, teaching everything from geology to interpersonal life skills.

“What I go back to over and over is the term ‘beyond the classroom education’,” Taylor-Ide said. “I think we are wired to learn by experience — plain and simple. It’s not that there’s something wrong with classroom learning, but if you don’t have the experience of the world to call on, classroom learning gets flatter and less meaningful.”

Kids who visit seem to find meaningful experiences, but mostly they report having a lot of fun. Or at least that’s what the kids who came to visit from Northfork Elementary said.

Kids Experience Learning

Northfork Elementary Students were told they could get muddy while exploring the Sinks of Gandy in Randolph County, and most were sure not to miss the opportunity.

After a day exploring nearby forests, water, and caves students from Northfork Elementary are headed up a hill in vans and busses to catch the public school bus home. They’re dirty and spent, but still full of energy.

When asked what he learned today, Cole Harper recalled making a debris fort and his experience letting his eyes adjust to the darkness of a cave.

When asked what grade they would give Experience Learning instructors who led them through caves and around lakes, collecting hawthorn berries to make jam, students were very generous.

“A thousand percent!” said Dakota Kimble.

These are fifth graders from Northfork Elementary in Pendleton County, West Virginia. Their school and homes are nestled in the mountains of Central Appalachia near Spruce Knob. At nearly 5,000 feet above sea level, Spruce Knob is is the highest point in the Allegheny Mountains, but today kids spent a good portion of their day in a cave under the mountain.

“I learned not to run and slip,” said Callie Judy who was covered in drying mud. “You get mud in places that there should not be mud.”

It’s the first trip Northfork Elementary’s new fifth grade teacher, Stacey Slaughter, has taken with students. She said she’d love to see programs like this, that teach kids life skills in combination with academic skills, more regularly built into the public school system.

“It builds a community, it builds relationships with the kids, practical living experiences that they aren’t always receiving,” Slaughter said. “It just takes learning to the next step for me.”

Learning Rooted In Community

Experience Learning Executive Director, Vicki Fenwick, explained that the mission of her organization is really to leverage the rich resource that is the natural world to develop healthy communities. She said her organization is supported by public and private donors as well as program fees for schools and organizations that can afford them — grants pay for programming for local surrounding schools.

Fenwick wants to partner with schools in deeper, more regular ways. And while she loves bringing kids to the mountain, she wants to help teachers and kids get engaged in their own backyards.

“Schools and teachers are experts at delivering curriculum, and classroom management and all the things that have to happen in a school year, but we’re experts at taking kids outside and finding ways to use a landscape whether it’s a city block, a mountain, a cave and using that as a tool for learning,” she said.

Fenwick, and Experience Learning under her leadership, have been heavily influenced by the educational concept called place-based education. The idea is to use local communities and environments as hands-on and engaging fodder to teach concepts like language arts, math, social studies and other subjects. Research indicates that kids who use their communities as extended classrooms have increased academic success, and that there are a host of other benefits for both kids and communities. Fenwick believes it’s a model of learning that would improve community pride and investment.

“There’s some really interesting research out there about community revitalization or community problem-solving, where students are active participants and oftentimes the driving force behind real, effective changes in communities,” she said. “So we want to see that happen all over the state and region.”

She said she’s seen a growing appetite for this kind of outside learning among some school administrators throughout the region. Whether programs can take root and shape healthier learners and communities relies on whether visionary leadership exists to implement best practices.

When asked about the future, Fenwick says she also wants to see Experience Learning become more relied on to educate educators on those best practices. But in the meantime, work continues to enhance learning for kids around Pendleton County.

Learning That Transforms

Students from Northfork Elementary worked on art projects inspired by their woodland surroundings during their Experience Learning outing.

Today, a wide assortment of visitors visit the group’s mountain campus — from homeschool groups to private and public schools. Students learn about everything from watercolor painting to social justice. The kids from Northfork Elementary, for example, spent two school days collecting berries, making jam, and exploring nearby ecosystems.

“We want to get kids outside whether it be in their community or here just to learn about themselves, to be curious, to explore, to get excited about learning — just to ignite that spark,” said Program Director Melinda Brooks.

Brooks works with various groups to design programs to fit their learning needs. She says Experience Learning has no political agenda, and there’s no overarching academic focus, there’s just a driving desire to inspire kids and adults to care about the world around them.

She and the seasonally rotating staff of about 20 collect some surveys and program assessments, but don’t spend hours collecting data or assessing established measurable outcomes. But they do believe they’re having an impact.

“There’s so much that you can learn out here that I can’t even tell you want that particular student might get out of it,” Brooks said. “They might get something totally different than what the school even had in mind. It’s the transformative nature of the programs that I think is the greatest impact that we’re having.”

Morgantown-Based Outdoor School Uses Nature To Teach Students To Thrive

A group of fourth and fifth grade students at Morgantown Learning Academy — a private, non-profit elementary school located in Monongalia County — are sitting at two picnic benches surrounded by a forested canopy on a recent Thursday. This isn’t a special field trip. Every Thursday, students spend part of their classroom time outside with Mountain Stewardship & Outdoor Leadership, or Mountain SOL.

Two streams — Lemon Creek and West Run — meander nearby the outdoor classroom. After a lesson on the basics, the students split into small groups, grab plastic probes the size of TV remotes and hop down into the creeks to take measurements.

“I think there’s a difference in opening up a science textbook and learning about water quality and looking at maps of a watershed,” Hannah Spencer said. Spencer is an instructor with and co-founder of Mountain SOL, an outdoor education program based in Morgantown.

“When you can go outside and be in your own watershed … I think it really brings it down to, to the level of ‘Hey, I have an impact here. And, you know, this is part of my responsibility, and I need to take care of it,’” she said.

Hannah Spencer, co-founder and instructor at Mountain SOL, sits with some of her students Sept. 13, 2019, at Morgantown Learning Academy in Morgantown, W.Va.

Mountain SOL has partnered with Morgantown Learning Academy since 2014. Every week, teachers from Mountain SOL take every student out of their brick-and-mortar classrooms and into the woods.

The program reaches 200-300 students annually between its in-school programs at MLA and afterschool programs open to anyone between second and 12th grade. During afterschool programs, students learn outdoor skills like setting up shelters and building fires. In-school classes are shaped around the state-mandated learning standards.

“My favorite thing to say is that you can’t protect anything until you love it,” said Jen-Osha Buysse, co-founder and director of the program. “Mountain SOL is all about learning from a place of fun and adventure, and connecting new experiences and learning with coming from a place of passion.”

Buysse said she wanted to create a place where kids — and adults — could find joy in learning and caring for themselves and others in nature. The mountains of West Virginia, where she raised a baby, were an ideal place to create that space. The program was also shaped by Buysee’s experience spending two summers with the Huaorani people in Ecuador.

“I was absolutely floored by the level of responsibility that these young people showed, as well as the kindness, love, and teaching skill embodied by their elders,” she said. “I wanted to create a space in which we could inspire and trust young people in some of the same ways.”

Mountain SOL student Hannah McKinstry builds a shelter in the woods during a Sept. 13, 2019, class.

Students are encouraged to take the lead outside. Kids are also given unstructured time to explore the natural world around them.

A study published in February found “particularly strong” evidence that experiences of nature boost academic learning, personal development, and environmental stewardship. In reviewing a series of studies on the impacts of nature-based learning, researchers found widespread evidence that experiences with nature boosted test scores, graduation rates, self-discipline and physical activity. Stress levels decreased and enjoyment of learning grew.

“It is time to take nature seriously as a resource for learning – particularly for students not effectively reached by traditional instruction,” the authors wrote.

Eighth-grader Braedyn Hill has participated in Mountain SOL programs for several years. He said every class is interactive.

“Every day is like its own separate adventure. You rarely get anything that’s the same,” he said. “It’s just having fun and enjoying yourself, but still getting the knowledge and information that you need to know to progress on in life.”

Students in the Mountain SOL program help each other practice knot-tying Sept. 13, 2019, during a class on land the program leases from Morgantown Learning Academy.

Morgantown Learning Academy’s 12-acre campus is well-suited to incorporate outdoor education with its hiking trails, outdoor classroom and garden. Administrative Director Eve Ammons Ward said while the ethos of Mountain SOL is a great fit, it’s not without a few challenges.

“We bring a lot of mud inside,” she said, laughing. Experienced Mountain SOL parents often carry a “survival kit” in their cars, complete with trash bags to more easily deal with muddy kids.

Ammons Ward added that changes in student behavior are immediate and translate inside the classroom. Mountain SOL and MLA expanded their partnership this year to offer a forest-based pre-Kindergarten program called Little Acorns.

“Kids are more focused,” she said. “They’re ready to work, they’re ready to be engaged with their inside part of their education as well.”

More Outdoor Learning Could Improve Student Achievement & Confidence

Community members are rallying around a school in the Eastern Panhandle. They want to build an outdoor classroom so that kids can get into nature more readily. The goal is to improve academic achievement and provide more opportunities – especially for kids from low-income areas.

Let’s Build Some Raised Gardens

Fourth-graders at North Jefferson Elementary School in Jefferson County are spending a portion of their morning learning outside of the classroom…in the front lawn of their school.

“We are making a garden,” a handful of them said, “We have three raised beds. One’s a circle. One’s [an] Orca. And one’s a square.”

Back in January, on a rare, warm winter day, these kids planted their first seeds in three raised vegetable gardens.

They designed and built the gardens with the help from their teacher Jim Jenkins and a newly formed community group based out of Charles Town called the Kiwanis Club of Blue Ridge West Virginia.

Kiwanis Club of Blue Ridge West Virginia member Roger Ethier helps two students dig in the dirt.

“The Kiwanis came to us and asked if they could make some raised bed gardens,” Jenkins said, “and I thought it was a great idea; they wanted the kids to raise their own food.”

This local chapter of the Kiwanis Club is a member of the Kiwanis International group, which says its focus is to empower communities and improve the world by making a difference in the lives of children.

“The school population is some of the most underprivileged population of Jefferson County,” noted Kiwanis Club of Blue Ridge member Tom Cain, “and we felt it important to adopt the school to try to come in and provide mentorship for as many of the students as we could.”

Increasing Educational Opportunities

North Jefferson Elementary School is one of more than 340 Title I public schools in West Virginia.

That means, most of the students at North Jefferson come from low-income households, so the school gets federal financial assistance to help ensure its students meet state academic standards and get as many of the same opportunities as other schools.

The Kiwanis Club stepped in to help enrich educational opportunities at the school, but wants to go beyond three raised garden beds. They hope to secure private and state funding to revitalize the entire schoolyard behind the school, turning it into an outdoor classroom.

Jenkins, the students’ teacher, is excited for it.

“This area right here is going to be a monarch way station, and that’s going to be a wildflower meadow there, and we’re gonna have book stations, benches, geology,” he explained, “and then behind the school, if you have time, we’ll look at the spot I think the outdoor classroom’s gonna go.”

Students step back inside the classroom with their teacher Jim Jenkins to graph out the best locations in the soil to plant their seeds.

Behind the school, the hope is to create a variety of seating areas and outdoor learning stations. Jenkins hopes to teach not just science out here, but also writing, math and social studies.

“This is an ideal location for an outdoor classroom,” said Roger Ethier — also a member of the Kiwanis Club of Blue Ridge West Virginia. He’s been spearheading the outdoor classroom project at North Jefferson.

“When the students finish the outdoor classroom, they have this beautiful outdoor area where they can hop, skip, and jump, and just have a great time.”

Inspiration from 500 Miles Away

Ethier says this outdoor classroom project was inspired by a successful initiative in Boston, Massachusetts called the Boston Schoolyard Initiative.

The Boston project lasted almost 20 years, and by the time it ended in 2013, more than 80 schoolyards in Boston were revitalized from barren asphalt lots to centers for recreation, learning and community life, including 33 outdoor classrooms.

Kristin Metz was the Director of Education for the Boston Schoolyard Initiative for thirteen years. She and teachers involved in the Boston project participated in a study where they reported observing significant growth in students as outdoor classrooms were more utilized – from deeper interest and confidence in science coursework to a sense of equality among their peers.

“It leveled the playing field that students who had very different life experiences could come together and share what they were doing outside, and that gave them more respect for each other,” Metz said.

Metz says she thinks the same thing could happen for the students at North Jefferson – many of whom come from low-income homes.

According to a 2011 study done by the National Center for Education Statistics, students in the United States who come from low-income homes are five times more likely to drop out of high school than middle-income students. In West Virginia, one out of every 100 students dropped out of high school during the 2016-2017 school year, according to state sources.

“If students are outdoors, they have access to a wide range of experiences,” Metz noted, “You know, you can touch things that are very soft, or hard, or brittle, or bristly, or spikey, or soggy, and that’s just at the very, most basic level – you have this range of materials, and they’re available, they’re free, they’re just there, and so I think that it just very much enriches what students have access to.”

One of three raised garden beds at North Jefferson Elementary; the Orca garden.

What’s Next for North Jefferson Elementary?

The Kiwanis Club of Blue Ridge West Virginia has continued to develop school gardens at North Jefferson Elementary over the school year, but still doesn’t have the funds to build out the full outdoor classroom.

They hope to hear soon about a state grant that would allow them to make progress.

As the school year nears its close, the students at North Jefferson now have spinach and lettuce growing in their gardens, and they’ve recently planted strawberries.

A solar panel was also installed to provide rainwater irrigation to support two butterfly beds and the raised gardens.