Why schoolyards are a critical space for teaching about — and fighting — extreme heat and climate change

According to preliminary analysis by Green Schoolyards America, over two million college students in California attend colleges with lower than 5% tree cover. Less tree protection contributes to urban heat island effect, which is when heat-absorbing supplies like asphalt or tar end in greater temperatures in a group. Students’ firsthand observations supplied a tangible link between their instant environment and points exterior of their college. 

Nurturing curiosity and critical considering

When the scholars returned from gathering information, they shared their findings as a class. When college students offered the temperatures they measured, Lamm recorded it on a poster-sized map of the college with colour coded stickers. Blue stickers represented the bottom temperatures, which have been beneath 70 levels fahrenheit, whereas crimson stickers represented temperatures above 100 levels fahrenheit. Shades of yellow and orange stickers indicated temperatures in between.  

Looking on the map, college students identified the better quantity of crimson stickers, in contrast with blue ones. “It’s mostly hot where we’re playing,” mentioned Adriana. The two lonely blue stickers have been in areas with a massive tree and a shade construction, respectively. 

Lamm and Heinz prompted college students to brainstorm the way to make the playground cooler. “We want to mark our map with triangles to show where we think we should plant more trees and squares for where we think we need shade structures,” mentioned Heinz. One pupil supplied an concept to guard their colleges’ youngest college students. “There’s this little concrete box. I was thinking maybe we could plant a tree because sometimes I would notice kindergartners eating a snack there,” he mentioned. By the tip of the exercise, the map was coated in coloured dots. Triangle and square-shaped stickers – college students’ proposals for shade – have been subsequent to a few of the hottest areas. The academics posted the map with all of its stickers in entrance of the college to indicate their findings to folks and group members. 

The energy and potential for inexperienced schoolyards

Tackling bigger points on the college stage can nurture problem-solving expertise that stretch past tutorial topics and put together college students for the complexities of the bigger world. “It’s really depressing for a lot of kids to read about all the negative things that climate change has created in the world,” mentioned Sharon Danks, CEO and founding father of Green Schoolyards America — the group that created the “How Cool is Your School” exercise. In providing this hands-on STEM lesson plan to colleges, Danks and her group hope that directors implement college students’ options and create inexperienced schoolyards. “It gives kids a chance to learn about climate change, but also learn about being positive forces for change for the better,” she mentioned.

While inexperienced schoolyards can range broadly as a result of they mirror the encompassing ecosystem and climate, they could embody options similar to edible gardens, stormwater seize options or strolling trails. Danks described a inexperienced schoolyard as “an ecologically rich park and a place that has all kinds of things happening and all types of different social niches for people to be doing different activities in different places and in a natural environment filled with plants and living things.” 

Green schoolyards supply safety towards the heat and present a distinctive setting for interdisciplinary studying experiences, in accordance with Priya Cook from Children & Nature Network, a corporation that works to make sure children have equitable entry to inexperienced areas. She provides that advantages related to outside studying, similar to improved behavioral control and increased student engagement, “impact the way a kid can thrive in the classroom.” When college students have entry to a inexperienced schoolyard, their physical activity will increase, and research have proven that being in pure areas improves psychological health and wellbeing.

While inexperienced schoolyards boast a lot of benefits, not each college can simply make the transformation. Danks cited failures to pass bills supporting greening projects and a scarcity of funds as probably the most important obstacles. Removing asphalt is dear. And as a result of inexperienced space is inequitably distributed, colleges with probably the most asphalt are additionally prone to be colleges with the least monetary assets. However, California has allocated $150 million for green schoolyards, and other states might observe swimsuit.

As one of the vital closely trafficked public areas, inexperienced schoolyards might have an outsized impact. “There’s a reframing that needs to happen in our budget, in our mindset, that says this is a crucial space for children,” mentioned Danks.

Episode Transcript

This is a computer-generated transcript. While our group has reviewed it, there could also be errors.

Kara Newhouse: Welcome to MindShift, the podcast about the way forward for studying and how we increase our children. I’m Kara Newhouse.

Nimah Gobir: And I’m Nimah Gobir. Educators are all the time striving to create hands-on classes to interact college students. These varieties of studying approaches enhance studying retention and promote a deeper understanding of ideas.

Kara Newhouse: Some academics depend on mission primarily based studying, the place they’ve college students resolve actual issues of their group. Others may decide for experiential studying, which may contain area journeys and role-playing. There’s additionally collaborative studying the place college students work with friends.

Nimah Gobir: Luckily, academics don’t need to go far in the event that they need to implement hands-on approaches. According to educator Jenny Seydel, the college building and college grounds are unbelievable assets for any such studying.

Jenny Seydel:  For youngsters up by means of center college, that’s the place that they spend most time.  By the time a baby graduates from high college, they’ve spent greater than 15,000 hours in a college. 

Nimah Gobir: Jenny is an knowledgeable in environmental training and the founding father of Green Schools National Network. She invitations educators to think about colleges as 3-dimensional textbooks.

Jenny Seydel: Any phenomenon, even historic phenomenon, might be taught by means of the historical past of that individual college — the social points and social issues that are occurring on the earth — are oftentimes occurring in a college.  That’s the place the place we are able to convey something to life that we are teaching.

Kara Newhouse: So Jenny is saying we are able to use colleges to bridge the hole between theoretical data and real-world utility?

Nimah Gobir: That’s precisely proper. When you utilize your college as a 3D textbook, you possibly can take a look at every kind of issues – like your college’s water system or structure, even college lunches. Today we’ll zero in on schoolyards.

Nimah Gobir: If you suppose about it. Schoolyards are unbelievable as a result of they entertain children over a few years and developmental phases.  And except a child is a part of a household that’s massive on gardening, hiking or tenting, then it’s probably that schoolyards are the place they spend probably the most of their exterior time. 

Sharon Danks: My identify is  Sharon Danks, and I’m an environmental metropolis planner.

Nimah Gobir: I talked to Sharon to be taught extra about schoolyards – how they’re used and their untapped potential.

Sharon Danks: Many issues they wish to examine might be accomplished outside in a schoolyard. These days, it’s significantly well-suited to learning climate change and how the supplies that folks put into the surroundings shift the temperatures of our city places. In California, we’ve 130,000 acres of public land at our Okay-12 colleges. And they’ve near 6 million folks on them day-after-day. And that’s extra public land visitation than, say, Yosemite has in a whole 12 months.

Nimah Gobir: But in contrast to Yosemite and different nationwide parks nearly all of schoolyards are not very inexperienced! 

Sharon Danks: Asphalt, plastic, grass and rubber, which are a lot of the go to conventional supplies within the United States.

Kara Newhouse: I’ve seen asphalt and blacktop at many faculties. It’s often the place children play four-square and pores and skin their knees taking part in tag!

Nimah Gobir: It’s in every single place. In reality, thousands and thousands of youngsters go to colleges the place fewer than 5 p.c of the grounds have bushes.

Sharon Danks: Even in communities which have a lot of bushes, if you happen to take a look at the aerial pictures, they’re not on the colleges.

Nimah Gobir: If a college has bushes or inexperienced space it’s often across the edges of a college. Like subsequent to the college signal or by the parking tons. It’s to not shade children in sunny climate.

Nimah Gobir:  And as of late children want all of the shade they’ll get. Triple digit temperatures have compelled colleges throughout the nation to cancel courses and even delay the primary day of college. Here’s what 4th grader Adriana Salas is noticing.

Adriana Salas:  It’s largely sizzling the place we’re taking part in at. And typically when it’s too sizzling, typically once you seem like, simply on the highest of something it turns like foggy. 

Nimah Gobir: She’s speaking about when it will get so sizzling out that the bottom appears type of wavy. She’s seen that occur on her college’s playground. We’ll hear extra from Adriana later.

Priya Cook:  There’s a lot of communities fighting city heat island impact and actually extreme temperatures that make it unsafe for children to be exterior.

Nimah Gobir: This is Priya Cook from the Children & Nature Network group. 

Kara Newhouse: I heard Priya say “urban heat island effect.” What is that?

Nimah Gobir: That’s when asphalt and pavement truly improve the temperature in a group.

Priya Cook: There’s a lot of supplies that are utilized in playgrounds that we use in parking tons and roads that basically take up heat and mirror that heat again.

Nimah Gobir: Places which have a lot of city heat islands are prone to be decrease earnings elements of the town as a result of they often have fewer vegetation and extra pavement. Often these hotter areas are populated by people of colour.

Priya Cook: There’s a distinction in some circumstances of ten levels between a place that has bushes planted and a web site that doesn’t. And in order that’s in lots of circumstances, that’s a large enough distinction to, dictate whether or not or not children are going to go exterior that day, which has every kind of health and studying impacts. 

Nimah Gobir: The excellent news is that colleges aren’t standing idly by whereas their schoolyards heat up. We’ll hear from one college in San Leandro, California about how they turned to their schoolyards as a approach to be taught extra about these environmental modifications firsthand. That’s arising after the break.

Nimah Gobir: Stay with us.

Nicole Lamm: Welcome, everyone.

Nimah Gobir: It’s a lovely day at Roosevelt Elementary School in San Leandro, California. Today it’s 67 levels fahrenheit, however temperatures right here can get into the triple digits. Ms. Heinz and Ms. Lamm’s 4th grade courses have come collectively to start a mission that makes use of their schoolyard as a 3D textbook.

Nicole Lamm: Today is our first day of doing our “How Cool is Your School?”  mission.

Nimah Gobir:  Ms. Lam is chatting with college students utilizing a headset. This mission is the brainchild of Green Schoolyards America — Sharon Danks, who we spoke to earlier is the founding father of that group. Ms. Lamm teed up college students for the “How Cool is Your School?” mission with two guiding questions…

Nicole Lamm: Is our college a snug place for youngsters and adults when the climate is heat?

Nimah Gobir: And…

Nicole Lamm: How can our college group take motion to shade and defend college students from rising temperatures because of climate change? 

Nimah Gobir: Students are put into teams of three and every group is given a map of the college

Nicole Lamm:  We have our school rooms proper right here. We have the basketball courtroom, the cafeteria, our different building over there and the kindergarten rooms… 

Nimah Gobir: Different places on the map are numbered from one to 25

Nicole Lamm: Those numbers are there for a purpose. You are going to get 5 locations that it’s important to measure. So it’s important to determine precisely the place that quantity is and discover that spot within the college.

Nimah Gobir:  Each group additionally will get an infrared thermometer.

Dorie Heinz: You’re going to level the thermometer on the floor. When you pull the set off, the temperature stops and information it. That’s the place you and your group are going to report your temperature. So, at one location you’ll be doing three readings. 

Nimah Gobir: This is the crux of the mission, so I’ll reiterate what Ms Lamm says: Each group takes three temperature readings of the identical level on the bottom of their assigned location. This is to get an correct studying of the bottom floor. Then, they report the typical of the three readings on a worksheet.

Adrianna Salas: We are happening the sector to 16.

Nimah Gobir: We adopted one group of scholars as they did their measurements.

Arlo Jones:  Arlo Jones, fourth grade.

Jake Decker: Jake Decker, fourth grade.

Adriana Salas: Adriana Salas, fourth grade. 

Nimah Gobir: And sure, that’s the identical Adriana we heard from earlier!

Nimah Gobir: First up on their record:  space 16. It’s positioned on the sector, so it’s a grassy space. They make their manner over and get their three readings with the thermometer

Nimah Gobir: They report their findings. The floor of the sector has a mean of about 97 levels. They head to the following spot on their record. Number 17 on the map. It has grass too and it’s shut  to some school rooms.

Nimah Gobir: So the typical temperature of the bottom floor right here is about 95 levels. They start to make their approach to their third location: quantity 18. It’s a triangular playground space with swings. 

Arlo Jones: I might say it’s like the primary playground. The fundamental place the place folks play.

Adriana Salas: It’s like the massive playground

Nimah Gobir: They describe it as the college’s fundamental playground so most youngsters play there. The floor is fabricated from that rubber security materials that you simply see in so many schoolyards now. Especially newer colleges…and they predict that it’s going to be sizzling. They’re proper. The three readings they get there common at a steamy 143 levels

Nimah Gobir: Adriana shared some reflections on what she’s realized about her schoolyard to date.

Adriana Salas: It’s very popular. And typically you may get like, a surprising, like, “Wow. Like kids play in the hotness.”

Nimah Gobir: After college students are completed visiting the entire places they’ve been assigned, they arrive again to the classroom to speak about their findings.

Nicole Lamm: So after we say a location that you simply examined, I need you to boost your hand and learn out the typical that you simply simply discovered for location one.

Nimah Gobir: That’s Ms. Lamm once more. The different instructor, Miss Heinz, is standing in entrance of a poster-sized map of the college. She has coloured stickers starting from blue – which signify temperatures within the 70s or beneath – to deep shades of crimson, which represents temperatures over 100 levels. 

Nicole Lamm:  Location two proper over right here the place the tetherball is. 115.

Nicole Lamm: What about location three? Right on the lake by the 4 sq.. 123.  

Nicole Lamm: Four, which is over by the place you eat lunch day-after-day?  63.

Nicole Lamm: What can we discover about location 4? It’s coated by a shade construction? And are you able to say that quantity good and loud another time? Sixty-three levels is a lot cooler when we’ve a shaded construction. Interesting to note.

Nimah Gobir: Every time they name out a quantity, a coloured sticker representing the temperature is caught to the corresponding location on the massive model of the map.

Kara Newhouse: So college students might truly see the place the completely different coloured dots have been clustered at their college.

Nimah Gobir: They went throughout 25 places. And once they have been all accomplished calling out the typical temperatures. They have been asked to share what they seen about all the coloured dots on the map. 

Nicole Lamm:  What do you discover about the 2 locations that are blue, although?

Students: They’re shaded. 

Dorie Heinz: They’re shaded in order that they’re manner cooler.

Nicole Lamm: What? Shades the blue dot on this facet?

Students: The tree.

Nicole Lamm: What about the opposite one? The cover. The shade construction. So each of these are the good places and we all know that they’ve issues that are offering shade: the bushes and the shade construction. Really good remark. 

Nimah Gobir: Aside from these two blue spots the college is usually a cluster of crimson and yellow dots representing floor floor temperatures from 80 levels to as high as 151 levels. The actually sizzling temperatures are on the playgrounds and basketball courts. Materials like turf, rubber and blacktop obtain temperatures within the triple digits.

Nimah Gobir: But the mission doesn’t finish there. 

Kara Newhouse: What else do they do? 

 Nimah Gobir: An enormous a part of utilizing your college as a 3D textbook, particularly when coping with massive points like climate change,  is discovering options and encouraging pupil company. So for the final a part of the exercise, college students make a proposal for how they’ll make the college a bit cooler. So Ms. Lamm directs the scholars’ attention again to the massive map once more.

Nicole Lamm: We need to mark our map with triangles to indicate the place we expect we must always plant extra bushes and squares for the place we expect we’d like shade constructions. 

Nimah Gobir: You can hear that they’re  considering about the schoolyards supplies as they resolve which locations want cooling down.

Nicole Lamm: So Adriana is saying that not simply due to the bottom floor materials, however due to the playground itself that would profit from having a shade construction over it. Is that proper?

Adriana Salas: Because the play construction is made out of steel. Metal is very easy to get sizzling

Nicole Lamm: Right. Thinking about that materials once more. The play construction is made out of onerous plastic and steel. Those issues get actually actually sizzling. So we undoubtedly need to add a shade construction over the playground. I really like that concept. I additionally heard Adriana say that we need to add a tree to the center of the sector just like the way it appears on the entrance of the college with our massive bushes.

Nimah Gobir: When they have been accomplished, they put the massive map with all of its stickers on show within the entrance of the college for dad and mom and group members to see. 

Kara Newhouse: Sometimes speaking about real-world challenges can result in anxiousness and emotions of helplessness, however it’s nice that they have been capable of share their insights. That’s usually step one in direction of placing concepts into motion.

Nimah Gobir: Activities like this may result in colleges growing inexperienced schoolyards. Here’s Sharon Danks once more to inform us extra.

Sharon Danks: I might say that it’s most succinctly described as an ecologically wealthy park. 

Nimah Gobir: They range broadly. The vegetation in a inexperienced schoolyard will depend upon its ecosystem and climate. Numerous colleges are beginning to transition to inexperienced schoolyards.

Sharon Danks: I believe the necessity is turning into extra clear by means of climate getting extra extreme.  

Nimah Gobir: California is within the second 12 months of a statewide initiative referred to as the California Schoolyard Forest System. The fundamental purpose is to extend the variety of bushes in public colleges.

Nimah Gobir: Green schoolyards don’t simply present shade on sizzling days. They include a entire bunch of advantages, together with extra alternatives for children to make use of their colleges for studying. When college leaders start dreaming about the potential they’ll unlock with a inexperienced schoolyard, it’s onerous to cease. They start saying issues like…

Sharon Danks: I’d like a place for children to do their curriculum exterior. I’d like a place that’s good for bodily and psychological health for children and academics. We’d like a place for nature. We’d like a place for the birds to come back, the wildlife, to have the ability to go to the pollinators andyou need to see the butterflies and you realize, issues like that.

Nimah Gobir: Our college buildings and schoolyards are not simply bodily areas however dynamic studying assets ready to be tapped into.

Kara Newhouse: Learning from textbooks is effective, however true studying comes alive after we convey training into the actual world. School grounds and schoolyards present the right alternative to just do that.

Nimah Gobir: And if a college is ready to develop a inexperienced schoolyard, you possibly can present children with a residing laboratory the place they have interaction with nature, discover ecosystems, and perceive the impression of their actions on the surroundings.

Nimah Gobir: So academics, you don’t need to journey far for your subsequent hands-on studying alternative. Seeing your schoolyards and college buildings in a new mild may simply empower the following era of change-makers.

Adriana Salas: I believe I believe now I’m going to be actually good – an knowledgeable!

Nimah Gobir: This episode wouldn’t have been potential with out Sharon Danks, Jenny Seydel, Priya Cook, Principal Kumamoto, Ms. Lamm, Ms. Heinz, and their 4th graders. An enormous thanks to Kevin Stark and Laura Klivans for their assist with reporting.

Nimah Gobir: The MindShift group contains Ki Sung, Kara Newhouse, Marlena Jackson Retondo and me, Nimah Gobir. Our editor is Chris Hambrick and Seth Samuel is our sound designer.

Nimah Gobir: Additional assist from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan .

Nimah Gobir: MindShift is supported partly by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.