Landscape Improvements & Moving Beyond Beautification

As Bryant and community volunteers have worked on the school grounds over the last few years, many people have commented on how much nicer it looks.

While it’s nice to make things look better, this ongoing project goes much broader and deeper than simple beautification. It’s about integrating the school grounds as an educational resource. It’s about environmental conservation, plant science, community service, and pride of place.

This project at Bryant is reflective of a trend at schools around the nation, where on-site gardens and natural areas provide experiential learning opportunities in everything from science, to math, English and art.

Researchers in environmental education have found that lesson topics based in far away places like the tropical rain forests can be confusing to students. They relate best to their local environment. Now Teachers can have environmental based lessons by simply walking outside, and field trip lessons can be reinforced at the school.

Teachers who have been using the grounds now have a much richer resource to draw on. Science lessons can draw from the resources of the hands-on area and native landscapes.