Outdoor education gets boost at Connoquenessing Elementary
Connoquenessing Elementary School received a $5,000 grant that will improve educational opportunities for students. Most of that money will be used outside the building. Literally.
Dave Andrews, instructional coach for student engagement at Butler Area School District, said the money from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Education Grant will develop the school’s outdoor campus.
“There are actually about 10 acres of woods that the district owns as part of the campus,” Andrews said. “Part of the funding will be used to build bridges to go across the stream so kids have more access ... install wireless game cameras so kids can watch nature and wildlife out there.”
Outdoor education has been Connoquenessing Elementary’s focus for about a year-and-a-half now, Andrews said. Each elementary school in the district is homing in on an educational angle that will help students develop specific knowledge, which can then be shared with the other elementary schools.
Hope Hull, principal of Connoquenessing Elementary, said parents, teachers and students set up a sensory garden in the school’s courtyard in May, and that has opened up new educational avenues at the school.
“Everybody uses it, whether it be for reading or for planting or caring for the flowers,” Hull said. “It’s supposed to be a calming atmosphere ... There are aspects of it that appeal to all five senses.”
The DEP awarded more than $1 million in Environmental Education Grants on June 1 to 73 projects that will engage youth and adults in improving water quality and climate change resiliency in their communities.
Andrews said the outdoor classroom at Connoquenessing has been in the works since school committees decided on a focus, and the grant money will allow administrators to further develop it this summer.
“We’re already looking at how we can use the outdoor campus to cover some key concepts,” he said.
The sensory garden also will be tended over the summer by parents and other volunteers who sign up, so it will still be in good condition when children return from summer break, according to Hull.
While students at Connoquenessing Elementary have already explored some of the wooded land as part of school classes, Andrews said the grant money also will fund professional development for the school’s teachers that will add to their lessons.
“It’ll be bringing some experts in to train staff; we're looking forward to starting those initiatives this summer,” Andrews said. “The teachers and kids are already out there starting to dabble there.”
