Outdoor Education

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Hawley ISD Outdoor Classroom Garden!

The Outdoor Classroom Garden began as a cross-curriculum Culinary Arts and PALS project to develop a space for outdoor cooking and handicap accessible raised beds for kitchen gardening in order to satisfy the service element in a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Co-op Grant we received in December, 2010.

It continues as a service effort to provide a space on campus for students to explore nature, learn outdoor and sustainable living skills, and simply enjoy working cooperatively with others outside. As we continue to develop the site and add elements to our outdoor classroom, the area is a place where PALS meet with the Elementary students we mentor, present Environmental Programs and experience the value of serving others while improving the campus. The space can also be utilized by Family and Consumer Science, Agriculture, Visual Arts, Earth Sciences, and Career Technology programs and students for instruction, demonstration, and hands-on participation.

The space is accessible to the community and youth groups such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Three Eagle Scout projects have been completed there and both local Girl Scout troops built beds in the garden. Some features that have been requested, proposed or planned are a reflecting pond (donated by the Class of 2003), a weather station (already purchased by MS science dept.), specialty gardens (ie, butterfly garden, cactus garden, keyhole garden), bird houses, compost station, worm beds, and cold frames.

People ask me when the garden will be finished; I can honestly say, “Hopefully, never. If we’re lucky, it will always be a work in progress.” Kinda like letting kids learn, the beauty of a garden is watching it grow.