| Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation Contributor(s): Danks, Sharon Gamson (Author) |
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ISBN: 0976605481 ISBN-13: 9780976605485 Publisher: New Village Press OUR PRICE: $37.95 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2010 Annotation: Children today experience most of their academic training indoors and spend their outdoor playtime on paved surfaces with chain-link fences. This comprehensively illustrated guide shows proven methods for converting barren school grounds into learning and play spaces that are beautiful, vibrant, and alive. Case studies from North America, Scandinavia, and Great Britain demonstrate natural outdoor teaching environments that support hands-on learning in science, math, language, and art, in ways that nurture healthy imagination and socialization. With this book, schools, teachers, parents, and students will be able to envision exciting ecological learning environments and learn how to make them a reality. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Architecture | Landscape - Education | Administration - General |
| Dewey: 371.61 |
| LCCN: 2010025517 |
| Physical Information: 0.59" H x 8.51" W x 9.71" (1.89 lbs) 276 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Case Studies from North America, Scandinavia, Japan, and Great Britain demonstrate natural outdoor teaching environment that support hand-on learning in science, math, language, and art in ways that nurture healthy imagination and socialization Asphalt to Ecosystems is a compelling color guidebook for designing and building natural schoolyard environments that enhance childhood learning and play experiences while providing connection with the natural world. With this book, Danks broadens our notion of what a well-designed schoolyard should be, taking readers on a journey from traditional, ordinary grassy fields and asphalt, to explore the vibrant and growing movement to "green" school grounds in the United States and around the world. This book documents exciting green schoolyard examples from almost 150 schools in 11 countries, illustrating that a great many things are possible on school grounds when they are envisioned as outdoor classrooms for hands-on learning and play. The book's 500 vivid, color photographs showcase some of the world's most innovative green schoolyards including: edible gardens with fruit trees, vegetables, chickens, honey bees, and outdoor cooking facilities; wildlife habitats with prairie grasses and ponds, or forest and desert ecosystems; schoolyard watershed models, rainwater catchment systems and waste-water treatment wetlands; renewable energy systems that power landscape features, or the whole school; waste-as-a-resource projects that give new life to old materials in beautiful ways; K-12 curriculum connections for a wide range of disciplines from science and math to art and social studies; creative play opportunities that diversify school ground recreational options and encourage children to run, hop, skip, jump, balance, slide, and twirl, as well as explore the natural world first hand. The book grounds these examples in a practical framework that illustrates simple landscape design choices that all schools can use to make their schoolyards more comfortable, enjoyable and beautiful, and describes a participatory design process that schools can use to engage their school communities in transforming their own asphalt into ecosystems. |
Contributor Bio(s): Danks, Sharon Gamson: - Sharon Gamson Danks is an environmental planner and founding partner of Bay Tree Design, inc. in Berkeley, California, |