Designing Outdoor Spaces for Learning and Play: No Student Left Inside!
Designing Outdoor Spaces for Learning and Play: No Student Left Inside!
As districts across the country consider taking learning outside in response to COVID-19, they need help rethinking the physical landscape. These sessions will be useful to facilities directors, school administrators, and educators to envision and implement nurturing and inspiring school environments.
DLR Group’s Senior Landscape Architect David Contag and Landscape Designer Maddie Bestick will discuss “how” and “why” research can positively impact outdoor learning using a seven-step challenge. Beyond pragmatic information (maintenance, materiality, and safety), this session will highlight how learners and educators can use nature and outdoor spaces to strengthen learning outcomes and ultimately become stewards of nature and advocates for natural systems. Takeaways will include recommendations for analyzing and taking inventory of outdoor spaces on your campuses, building consensus through workshops, and prioritizing improvements.
