Director Jill Gordon, with staff and students, turned part of the woods next to the Dayton-Xenia Road school into an outdoor classroom.
As a WILD School Site, the school has pledged to maintain its environmental education program and wildlife habitat, using the school grounds and the woods, which is part of the Beavercreek School District’s land lab.
The WILD School Sites program is part of the national Project WILD program, a wildlife-focused conservation education program.
“We use it for nature play as well as planned educational activities,” Gordon said, noting that her greatest joy from the project has been watching the children get outside and enjoy nature.
Evergreen is the 134th site dedicated in Ohio and the second WILD School Site in Greene County, joining Fairborn Digital Academy at Black Lane Elementary.
Evergreen is located within the Beavercreek Church of the Brethren, which allowed the school to create an entrance into the land lab from its property.
No trees were cut down as a result of the project and nothing was removed from the woods. Instead, the project simply made the woods more accessible, Gordon said.
“The Beavercreek schools opened up the path with a Bobcat last summer,” she said. “Then our school age children moved some additional brush. We have a Girl Scout Gold Award project ongoing also.”
Maggie Kinney, a member of Beavercreek Scout Troop 30337, lined the path with logs found in the woods, made a deer feeder and identified and labeled trees along the path.
On Earth Day, she organized a tree planting ceremony, involving the staff and students in planting a variety of trees to enhance the site.
Gordon and her staff took Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s “Growing Up Wild” course in the fall before applying for a grant.
“We used the grant to improve the woodland habitat for animals,” she said, noting that, while the project is complete, it will require continual care.
“I will have to check for poison ivy on a regular basis,” Gordon said. “We also plan to teach the school age children about invasive species of plants and have them help maintain the area by pulling garlic mustard and honeysuckle.”
Outdoor classrooms and nature play gets students moving, motivates them to learn, builds self-esteem, stimulates imagination, increases problem-solving skills, reduces symptoms of hyperactivity and improves test scores, Gordon said. She added that, if children don’t connect with nature while young, they are less likely to appreciate it and want to protect it as adults.
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