Baltimore Connecting Children to Nature (BCCN) Strategy 1: Creating a comprehensive plan to engage cross-sector partners to create and expand green schoolyards in Baltimore City Public Schools.
Outdoor learning helps young people get the academic, health, and social benefits of connecting to the natural world. It can take place on school grounds, in a park, or in your backyard, and offers endless opportunities for hands-on learning on topics ranging from science (how quickly does water infiltrate through soils and why?), to math (how many tomatoes can you grow using the square footage available?), to language arts (do you think that you shall you ever see a poem lovely as a tree?). Studies show that kids even retain information better when outside! That’s why outdoor learning is a major part of Baltimore Connecting Children to Nature and the first stage of implementing our strategy to create a comprehensive green schoolyards plan for Baltimore City Public Schools.
Outdoor Learning at City Schools
Launched in fall 2020 as a partnership between the Office of Sustainability and Baltimore City Public Schools, the Baltimore Outdoor Learning Program is a response both to safety during the Covid-19 pandemic and to our priorities around youth and nature. Major funders include Constellation, BGE, and Kaiser Permanente. With their help and that of local and national partners, we are providing nine city schools with funding to build new outdoor learning spaces and are supporting more. Schools receive design assistance, professional development for teachers, help with permitting and approvals, and access to a variety of other resources compiled by City Schools, from curricular guides to policy tools. This movement also goes way beyond our city, as evidenced by the National Covid-19 Learning Initiative.
Thanks to additional support from Heart of America and The Ravens, Edgecombe Circle Elementary School completed several new outdoor learning spaces (designed with support from Morgan State University through our program) in June 2021! Check out some images from their successful build day:
Outdoor Learning in Parks & Green Spaces
The Baltimore City Department of Recreation & Parks‘ Carrie Murray Nature Center is an amazing example of how outdoor learning in nature can enrich the lives of our young people. The center runs a Forest Preschool, Summer Nature Camps for multiple age groups, and holds many other regular programs every week for children and families to explore and learn in beautiful Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park (Baltimore’s largest park, at over 1,000 acres, and the nation’s second largest woodland park!). Center staff also provide nature-based programming for all of the city’s Recreation Centers.
Many other groups also provide outdoor learning experiences here in Baltimore, like the National Aquarium in Baltimore‘s Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center, Backyard Basecamp, and InDiGo: Inward Discover Grows Indoors to name just a few. Check them out!
