8.
Schoolyard improvements are good for students, too.
Studies have linked vegetation in schoolyards to better school-wide academic performance, even after controlling for significant confounding factors like student poverty and minority status. Researchers suggest these improvements in academic achievement may be thanks to green schoolyards’ ability to decrease stress and mental fatigue, increase physical activity, and foster more creative play during recess.
Shuang Wen principal Jeremy Kabinoff said the new playground has allowed administrators to create clubs and host events that would not have been possible before: new tennis and track programs, a soccer league and an outdoor Halloween festival that drew more than 1,000 attendees last year.
When COVID-19 restrictions forced classroom closures, Shuang Wen was able to move classroom learning and other events outside into a still-comfortable learning environment. Kabinoff said the new facilities, including the stage, “gave students the opportunity to experience an authentic graduation experience as well, especially since COVID-19 eliminated many in-person events.”
Shuang Wen students helped design the new schoolyard through discussions, surveys and votes. Denk from TPL, who has worked with dozens of schools to upgrade yards, said students get just as excited about green infrastructure as new playground equipment. She fondly remembers an example from a group of 4th-grade students in Philadelphia.
“We learned all about water quality issues, flooding in the city, combined sewer overflows, and how the city is working to address it and how it’s a big challenge,” she says. “The students came back feeling very empowered to work on a solution in their schoolyard.”
When the time came for students to decide between expanding their playground or building a rain garden to help manage stormwater, the students chose the rain garden. “That is exciting to me,” says Denk. “When students are given the chance to do the right thing for their environment and their community, they will choose that, and that motivation carries forward in terms of how they see themselves as environmental actors and in relation to climate change.”
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