Landscape for Learning: School 90 Courtyard Transformed

By RaChaCha

With December snows heralding the return of single-digit wind chills, the prospect of outdoor learning may seem a bit daunting.  But go on it does, at the outdoor learning environment developed at School 90.  Located on A Street near Martin Luther King Park, School 90 is one of three schools currently making up the Drew Science Magnet.  School 90 serves students from Pre-K to first grade.  Sites at the Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Zoo serve grades 2-6, and grades 7 and 8, respectively.

The Science Magnet was one of several magnet programs developed during the Buffalo school desegregation process overseen by Judge Curtin (for an excellent account of that process, see Mark Goldman's City on the Lake).  According to School 90 Principal Jean Polino, a 32-year veteran of the Buffalo Public School System, "we draw students from all over the city, although 65% of our seats are reserved for the surrounding neighborhood.  There is an application process and lottery."  Principal Polino also told us that, given the district's funding crisis, there is a proposal before the school board to close the zoo location and consolidate the upper grades at the science museum site.

This unique outdoor learning environment was incorporated into School 90 as part of Buffalo's Joint School Reconstruction Project.  The seeds were planted, so to speak, by School 90 teacher Barbara Shaughnessy and Buffalo Advocates for Schoolyard Enhancement (BASE), of which she is part.  The idea was floated originally, in the design phase, of using the courtyard space for something like a butterfly garden.  The idea evolved, as the school's planning committee worked with the project team from Cannon Design, into an outdoor learning environment which would have interconnected learning areas to complement and supplement all the areas of the school's curriculum.  The final design was developed by Landscape Architect Joy Kuebler(http://www.jklastudio.com/index.html).  When the project budget tightened, the team worked hard to keep the fundamental design, requiring "a lot of creativity and thinking outside the box," according to Principal Polino.

Joy Kuebler, whom Peter Trowbridge, chair of the landscape architecture program at Cornell University, calls, "one of the most important young practitioners of New York State," whose work "exemplifies a progressive and sustainable approach to the complex issues of landscape architecture," has developed a professional specialty in the outdoor educational environment.  She often partners with architectural firms of the caliber of Cannon Design and Wendel Duchsherer to create unique designs which successfully integrate the natural and built outdoor environments.

Because School 90 is located in an inner-city environment, it was important to the faculty that the students be able to experience a true variety of landscapes and outdoor activities that they might not otherwise be regularly exposed to.  According to Principal Polino, "the school is located in an area where crime is prevalent and the neighborhood is dilapidated and vacant, making it even more important that children be given the chance to learn and play in a safe, structured outdoor environment."  The courtyard provides a clean and safe environment where "children can explore, roll around, run, etc. without the fear of injury."

Principal Polino said that Joy Kuebler's work resulted in "a beautiful natural teaching environment which provides connections to the New York State standards, and fosters the development of the next generation of environmental stewards."  Students can grow their own fruits and vegetables in raised planter beds to understand where their food comes from, learn how local native plants were used by Native Americans, and, according to Joy, "simply be inspired by a bright yellow daylily."  The courtyard has been designated a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Joy describes the project space as follows:

The math area is placed next to science and shares pavers of various sizes for counting and proportion lessons, and in various materials to see how they heat and cool with the sun.  A water channel winds throughout the courtyard and a centralized gathering space helps to unify the outdoor classroom spaces and allows for large group instruction.  Opportunities for physical education can be found throughout the courtyard from the circular path around the large gathering space to the logs for jumping and balancing and the mounds and boulders for climbing.  Every element within the courtyard is designed for multiple uses and opportunities for interaction between the students and the natural world, and, most importantly, each element helps teachers meet New York State curriculum for early education.

And Principal Polino describes how the areas of the project relate to the early education curriculum:

All the plantings in each area are connected in some way.  For instance, in the art area, all the plants can be used to draw or "paint," and in the music area all the plantings either make sound or attract insects that make sound.  There's a math area where pavers are in patterns.  There is a water feature that runs throughout the courtyard.  Children can float objects, dam it up, etc.  There are logs and hills to explore.  We grow vegetables, flowers, and have apple and pear trees.  Each year we plant a pumpkin patch with a variety of pumpkins--students compare sizes, measures, etc.  We grow a variety of different corn, grasses, etc., and do a lot of measuring, comparing, contrasting, charting, and graphing.  Teachers use it in a variety of ways.  We're developing kits complete with lessons for those teachers who lack knowledge or experience.  We journal, we write about what we see and do, we study insects and animals during the different seasons.  We watch the weather each day, and the changes in the courtyard through the seasons.  We have natural sandboxes for digging and exploring.  There's bamboo which will eventually grow big enough for us to make two natural teepees.  There are hills built into the landscape so that the children can experience walking up a hill or rolling down one.  In the spring, we plant a butterfly garden.  We keep bird houses and feeders, and have attracted the birds back to the area.  It's our hope that the children will be the next generation of environmental stewards through the education and experiences they have in the natural environment.  We teach them the "manners" of the outdoor environment, how to take care of it, and how to nurture and develop it.

Are there also learning landscapes on tap for other Buffalo schools?  According to Principal Polino, "it's my understanding that all reconstruction schools are now being looked at in terms of developing the green space in some fashion.  Montessori is currently in the construction phase and is developing a similar space."

Photo credit:

Joy Kuebler Landscape Architecture.

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Joy Kuebler Landscape Architecture

Drew Science Magnet Schools

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