What is the purpose of an Excellent Schoolyard Habitat?

A Schoolyard Habitat is a naturalized area on the school ground that provides authentic habitat as well as an opportunity for people to connect with their local environment.   Both human and natural communities benefit from excellent schoolyard projects. The human community is engaged in an authentic problem solving experience, and the environmental community benefits through improvements in wildlife habitat and water quality.   The excellent schoolyard habitat project is the perfect stepping stone to receiving the Maryland Green School Award which recognizes schools that embrace community and environmental action.

What are the elements of an Excellent Schoolyard Habitat?

The Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education's members have helped to create schoolyard habitats across the state for the last twenty years.   In our collective experience we have found that these three elements must work together in order for a schoolyard habitat program to be truly excellent:

1. Curriculum integration
2. Environmental impact
3. Community partnerships

These elements tend to evolve and develop throughout the years that the project is developed, used and expanded. The balancing of these elements creates a project that is not only a wise use of land for native wildlife and an improvement of water quality but it also serves as an experience that, in its entirety, engages students in investigation and action in their natural world and local community.  

The Excellent Schoolyard Habitat Project is integrated into the curriculum.

Like a school's books or computers, the schoolyard is a tool to achieve curricular goals. Schoolyards offer an opportunity for students to interact with the environment, observe, explore, ask questions and seek answers.

• The activities associated with the creation, use and maintenance of a schoolyard habitat must be ones that are specifically linked to curricular outcomes. In Maryland it is essential that activities associated with the project are linked to the Maryland State Voluntary Curriculum and Core Learning Goals in many subject areas; including but not limited to: earth science, physical science, social studies, research, writing, math, and art.

• In excellent, student-driven projects students collect authentic data to assess the natural systems of their schoolyard and investigate how they can improve the schoolyard's impact to the local ecosystem.   Some of the data that students can collect includes information on existing wildlife diversity, steep slopes, land use, erosion problems and naturalized spaces.

• As supported by the several nationally recognized studies including a study of Maryland Green Schools, Dr. Kate Clavijo demonstrates that schools who use the school grounds as a place for learning and make a school-wide commitment to the study of the environment, are schools that have higher reading and math achievement on standardized tests.
  

The Excellent Schoolyard Habitat Project has Environmental Impact

Engaging the students in an authentic project is different than 'just gardening'.   When designing the project students must understand their direct connection to the school's watershed; and ensure that the location and size of the project has the greatest water quality impact possible. The project should be patterned after large scale habitat restoration.

• The environmental impact of a schoolyard habitat project is dependant upon: site selection, implementation (including ground preparation) and determining the best maintenance plan. To create significant change in quality of the habitat and impact of storm water run off, the schoolyard project has to be of a significant size and quality.

• The project must be a habitat that is native to Maryland and restores the natural systems that were in place before the land was developed. For most of Maryland this would mean creating a forest.   Depending on size, soils and placement, wetlands, rain gardens and meadows can also be vital habitats that improve water quality.
  

The Excellent Schoolyard Habitat program sustains community partnerships

Partnerships are essential to excellent schoolyard projects.   Parents, all levels of school personnel, local businesses and organizations and government agencies can play a role in a successful project.   Through partnerships, the school and the community enjoy the opportunity to celebrate the success gained from effective education and an improved environment.  

• One of the most important aspects of longevity is maintenance.   All landscapes require some level of maintenance. Before the project is started there must be a clear understanding of how much effort it will take to maintain the project and who will be responsible for the different aspects of the maintenance.   Create a lower maintenance project by using only native plants in a naturalized landscape.

• All projects need outside funding, because they are outside the realm of ordinary school business. Finding local, state or national funding sources that are interested in the ecological and environmental impact of the project is vital to the projects success.  

• As a schoolyard project evolves through the years the project creates a sense of place and a sense of community. In many successful projects there is a local team that is committed to the project. When highlighted by signage, brochures or media, the project can become a highly visible and instructive model for the community at large.

• Proper site selection and implementation frequently requires students and teachers to find outside experts and organizations that can help ensure the technical viability of their habitat.   Every locality has these experts, they just may never have thought of themselves as being resources for schools.

Where do I start?

•  Assess the school grounds focusing on storm water flow, existing wildlife and their habitat, and human use patterns.

•  Gather a team of invested partners including: grounds keepers, teachers, students, local technical resources, and other community members.

•  Contact MAEOE and any of our member organizations and partners to find out more about local examples and teacher resources.

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