Schoolyard Transformation

Collective Roots Emerging as a Powerful Force for Transforming Schoolyards Into Green, Ecological Habitats for Learning and Environmental Restoration

Working with under served schools and communities, Collective Roots plans, designs, implements, and helps to maintain ecological schoolyards--educational and therapeutic environments that are culturally and environmentally sensitive.

Collective Roots projects build upon the human and cultural strengths of the communities we serve. We instill life into these environments with talented staff, and an interdisciplinary, standards based, curriculum that serves Pre-Kindergarten through 12th Grade. Collective Roots works in diverse communities and provides a robust interactive website the delivers rich content and tools for learning and social change.

Collective Roots creates outdoor environments that promote teaching and learning through the engagement of students, parents, and members of the community. We leverage local support, collaboration, and talent as key resources that are essential to providing designs and builds in underserved communities that want to be part of the solution. Schoolyards can be transformed through creation of hands on, community wide initiatives that substantially improve the appearance of schools.

Communities are empowered to advocate and participate in meeting the needs of their children through establishing environments that promote learning and well being.

The appearance of a school and its ecological impact on the surrounding community are enhanced through creative plantings, structures, and use of space. Ecological schoolyards offer expanded educational and recreational opportunities, destination points for teachers and students, and refuges for wildlife, including birds, butterflies, and other creatures. These outdoor learning and play environments can be tremendous assets for the schools that invest the time and money to plan and build them.

Collective Roots seeks to transform the way people think about educational environments and develop model garden sites and programs. Collective Roots is developing model garden sites that include innovative garden design elements such as:

• Outdoor Kitchen including a community BBQ
• Year Round Salad Bar
• Garden Theater
• Garden Store / Produce Stand
• Recycled Amphitheater
• Mini Nursery + Commercial Quality Greenhouse
• Worm Zone
• Mini Red Barn
• Giant Green Dome--"Greendom"
• Giant Living Tipi
• Community Supported Agriculture (food production)
• Wild Border Zone
• Low Maintenance Irrigation System
• Lemonade / Juice Stand
• Organic soccer field combined with a community orchard
• Spiraling Mound
• Giant Eggs and other Garden Sculptural Elements

Imagine being “welcomed to the school grounds by the happy chatter of young schoolchildren as well as the soft calls of songbirds, the clucking of chickens, and an occasional splash in the schoolyard pond. In the spring, the grounds bloom with a wide variety of flowers and lush vegetation, and the scent of fresh herbs fills the kitchen garden. In the summer and fall, berries of many shapes and colors stain little fingers and mouths with their delicious juices, tomatoes ripen on their vines, and crisp apples fill the children’s harvest baskets and the school’s kitchen. Winter brings animal tracks in the fresh snow, and bird feeders thoughtfully stocked with winter treats for visiting feathered friends. The passage of time and the flow of the seasons can be easily read and understood by children and adults alike on school grounds such as this one that are in tune with the ecology of the local landscape.”

Is it a dream? No, it really exists (click here to learn more). Please support our efforts so that this dream can come true in more schools.

Collective Roots is currently working on an exciting project at East Palo Alto Charter School (click here to view a presentation / overview of the project concept--allow plenty of time to download this large file!). Click here to make a donation that will support Collective Roots efforts to transform schoolyards into ecological habitats. Click here for a map / visual presentation that demonstrates why this site is so important from an environmental perspective.

The East Palo Alto Charter School Garden has applied to become a Certified Wildlife Habitat, through a program of the National Wildlife Foundation.

Ecological schoolyards are being developed as part of an international movement. Students, teachers, and parents are working together, investing their own sweat equity to create these amazing habitats for learning and for health.

Want to know more?

Here are a few resources to explore (click on underlined headings to access):

Children's Landscape, Norway
Excellent content, links, and photographs from school and playground projects around the world.

Eco-Schools
A green school grounds program run by the Foundation for Environmental Education, a European organization with branches in 21 countries.

EcoSchool Design
Extensive links to resources and case studies for all types of ecological school ground projects.

Evergreen
Canadian national nonprofit with "a mandate to bring nature to our cities." Evergreen's Learning Grounds program applies to this idea to school grounds. Excellent publications.

Green Teacher Magazine
A magazine by and for educators to enhance environmental and global education across the curriculum at all grade levels. Many articles focus on school grounds.

Kidsgardening, National Gardening Association
A website sponsored by the National Gardening Association, dedicated to greening schoolyards through school gardens and related composting programs. Useful related curriculum ideas.

Learning Through Landscapes
Nonprofit membership organization working to improve school grounds in the United Kingdom. Encourages schools to develop multifaceted outdoor teaching resources. Outstanding publications available through website.

Natural Learning Initiative
Started by landscape architect and author Robin Moore at North Carolina State University. Site offers showcase projects, training for educators, publications, and other resources.

North American Association for Environmental Education
A network of environmental education professionals and students in North America. Hosts annual environmental education conferences and publishes related materials.

Schoolyard Wildlife Habitats, National Wildlife Federation
This program encourages schools to construct and enhance wildlife habitats on their grounds. They also offer a certification program for schoolyard habitats.

A Garden in Every School
In 1995, California State Department of Education Superintendent, Delaine Eastin, declared the goal of establishing a garden in every shool. We owe a great debt to Ms. Eastin for her leadership in the world of garden based learning.