THE GREAT OUTDOORS: OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS EXPAND LEARNING HORIZONS

A few area schools, mostly those with plenty of wooded acreage, have established outdoor classrooms in the past several years.

Perryville, Meadow Heights and Nell Holcomb campuses feature the unique classrooms with some similar and some different features.

They all have lecture areas to gather students and plenty of trees to study. Nell Holcomb added a butterfly garden and Meadow Heights a weather station.

By learning outdoors, students get hands-on experience learning with wildlife, foliage, and soil.

Meadow Heights' outdoor classroom was constructed two years ago after teachers there submitted a grant application to the Environmental Protection Agency and received $5,000. They used the money plus $500 from Wal-Mart in Jackson to develop a curriculum, purchase resource materials and construct benches and tables.

Superintendent Cheri Fuemmeler said both elementary and secondary students use the outdoor classroom to learn about horticulture, chemistry and biology. She recommends other schools consider developing outdoor classrooms, whether they have several acres of woods or just a half-acre field.

"It takes an enthusiastic group of teachers and parents to get out and work, but teachers use the outdoor classroom quite frequently," Fuemmeler said.

Her husband, David Fuemmeler, is superintendent of Nell Holcomb School District in rural Cape Girardeau County. The former superintendent, Wayne Presley, and board of education member Karen Fornkahl worked together to get the ball rolling on Nell Holcomb's outdoor classroom.

They applied for a $3,000 grant from the Cape Girardeau County Soil and Water Conservation District in 1991 and received it. Over $1,000 went to classroom equipment, including binoculars and a camera.

Since then Nell Holcomb has received other grants, making for an intricate outdoor classroom.

The first part is only a few feet from the school. A footbridge carries students over a marsh so they may see plants and animals it supports. A stream flows through the area, and there are two butterfly gardens to attract the winged insects.

Other portions feature prairie grasses, sand and cactus.

"We have a unique situation, owning a lot of extra land that other schools don't," David Fuemmeler said. "With all the emphasis on hands-on learning, we feel it's better to expose our students to things they can see and touch."

The approach works, said fourth-grade teacher Jeannie Mishu. Her students make bark sketches and leaf rubbings each year. They also adopt trees, following their growth through the months.

This year students will test the native American crop fertilization method of planting a dead fish with corn. Some students will plant with the fish, others without. If the project is successful, they will use the produce to make corn-husk dolls next year.

During a recent outing at their special classroom, Mishu's students enthusiastically went about their leaf-rubbing and bark-sketching.

"We get to come out here and see the trees we planted in the second grade," J.J. Baker said.

Another classmate, Pierce Yates, said it was fun to "just get out of the classroom and look at all the things in the outdoors."

Starting an Outdoor Classroom

1. Develop some kind of vision about how the school would use an outdoor classroom.

2. Assess what assets the school has. Does it have 20 acres of woods and streams or a half-acre of pasture? An outdoor classroom can be developed on both.

3. Based on the school's assets, decide what sort of outdoor classroom would be feasible. Children could plant shrubs, erect birdhouses, grow a butterfly garden or even watch logs rot. The Missouri Department of Conservation may provide some of the plants.

4. Form a committee to oversee the outdoor classroom's development. Some teachers and administrators must take an active role in getting it going and inform maintenance people about how to care for it.

5. Set up some training with Missouri Department of Conservation education specialist Jay Barber. His number is (314) 624-2873, and he can tell teachers how to use the outdoor classroom to its full potential.

6. Construct benches so students will have a place to sit for opening lectures before they begin outdoor activities.

Source: Missouri Department of Conservation