Infrastructure & Equipment

Infrastructure & Equipment

Outdoor classrooms can be elaborate and expensive. But they can also be simple and low-budget and very effective and engaging!  Items that can facilitate outdoor learning include:  

Seating: Permanent seating is great, but so is portable seating. Consider 5-gallon buckets (each student can carry materials  outside, then turn it upside down and sit on it!). Or, consider plastic grocery bags, cutting individual squares from tarps, stadium  cushions, lightweight wooden benches, or camp chairs. Browse photos.  Another option is stumps, benches and logs - available at low cost from Camp Small, part of the Forestry Division in the City's Department of Recreation and Parks. 

Weather protection: If your campus does not have natural shade, consider small pop-up tents or hanging a shade cloth.  

Teaching supplies: Clipboards are exceptionally useful - students can use them to complete an assignment, draw their  observations or write a poem. Portable whiteboard/chalkboards can be helpful; a laminated sheet of poster-size white paper can  be a lightweight, cheap solution. Carts with wheels can help transport materials to and from the outdoor space. Storage cabinets with a combination lock reduce the amount of things to carry back and forth. Content-specific materials can be helpful, such as a  wind vane, a thermometer, or a sundial. Hula Hoops make inexpensive transects for conducting science experiments and observation activities. They can also be used to delineate student work spaces for social distancing.  Browse Photos. 

Boundaries: Consider how you will delineate the edges of your education space. Are there clear natural boundaries or a fence that make it obvious where students should and should not be? If not, using flags, traffic cones, or stakes with rope to mark out the space can give students a visual clue when you issue instructions.