Reimagining Outdoor Play & Learning Environments

"A place where children are surrounded by hills, gardens, sandpits, trees, orchards, climbing walls, rocks, streams, caves, labyrinths, sundials, and other natural features that help children discover nature while they play and build social cognitive, and motor skills.” 

Project Vision

Unleash the latent ecological potential of schoolyards as healthy, comfortable, and safe play and learning environments. Currently, schoolyards are underutilized spaces and are lands that are too precious to waste. They are fertile ground for nature, learning, and restoration of the soul – space for the revitalization of body, mind, heart, and spirit.  

                      

Research Questions

How does outdoor schoolyard design affect heat and air pollution exposures in a desert city?
Is a nature-based redesign associated with changes in physical activity and social behavior?
How can integrated landscape design seed inquiry in outdoor learning ecologies & native ecosystems?

 

LEHR LLC logo
City of Phoenix logo
CAP LTER logo

 

AZ Ag Extension

Funders

Meet the Team