“It seems as though our relationship with the outdoors is ironically reflected most through social media these days. Going for a family hike, climbing a mountain, or simply going for a run around the neighborhood is no longer a standalone activity. They are often accompanied by numerous hashtags and filters that attempt to capture the beauty of the experience that surrounds us. The justification is we hope to inspire others to get outside and find the same adventure, find the same beauty.”

The quote is an excerpt from “Take Me Outside: Running Across the Canadian Landscape That Shapes Us” by Colin Harris, an educator and founder of Take Me Outside, a non-profit organization focused on raising awareness of and encouraging nature connection and outdoor learning in schools across Canada.

How many times have I pulled out my phone to capture a beautiful moment in nature, only to find that the picture could never compete with what I’m looking at live? My family and I are always outside. Most of the time we’re outside hiking around our community; I see cell phone cameras out everywhere, so I know I’m not alone. We want to share these experiences with others because we want them to see and feel what we do, and as Colin Harris says in his book, we want to inspire them.

I’m an architect, and six years ago, I was asked to design my first outdoor classroom. It didn’t take me long to realize through my own research that the United States is far behind our friends in Canada and in Europe when it comes to nature-based learning. Forest schools, outdoor classrooms, nature classrooms, living schoolyards – they go by many names and existed long before Covid in these other countries. As a culture, Canadians and Europeans recognize the many benefits of outdoor learning and outdoor play cited in nearly every article that you read today: physical and mental health, cognitive development, social development, nature connection, hands-on learning and more.

Through my research and curiosity, I came across a study by Dr. Stephen Kellert and DJ Case & Associates intended to better understand and foster Americans’ relationship with nature. Nearly 12,000 adults and children across the United States participated in the 2015 – 2016 study, and while all eight of the study’s major findings are fascinating and relevant to what we’re doing, two of them really stand out in relation to what we’ve witnessed firsthand with outdoor classrooms:

Finding #1 (as it stood out to me): Experiences in nature are deeply social.

“When Americans talk about their most memorable moments and special places outdoors, they nearly always involve other people. Americans make time for nature when they have the social support to do so and when the activities involve their friends and family.”

Think about your own favorite memories. Mine involve friends and family and are outside, from digging in cold mountain soil to build GI Joe forts with my brothers in New Mexico, to high school parties in the fields of my hometown in Texas, to spending blazing hot days as a counselor at summer camp, to my wedding day on the bank of my favorite river - under my favorite tree - to unforgettable backpacking adventures with friends through Colorado.

But my love of nature started when I was a child.  You can look at any photo in our Outdoor Classroom Ideas gallery showing children together and see them engaging with and enjoying each other, whether they’re tumbling down a hill, planting in a raised garden bed or making mud pies. Outdoor learning fosters relationships through doing, and just like I can still smell those GI Joe mountain days with my brothers, students enjoying these outdoor classrooms together are making memories that they’ll look back on for years to come.  

Finding #2: Adults and children differ in where they locate unforgettable, authentic nature. 

“For children, nature is located quite literally right out the door. Special places outdoors and unforgettable memories often consist of back yards or nearby woods, creeks and gardens … in contrast to children, adults tend to set a high and even impossible standard for what they perceive to be ‘authentic’ and ‘pure’ nature, believing that it requires solitude and travel to faraway places, which reinforces their perceptions of the inaccessibility of nature.”

Designing and building outdoor learning environments has challenged us to look at things through the lens of children, and until we started down this path, I didn’t realize how much my own view of nature had changed. That log I just hiked by and barely noticed, when placed in the vicinity of a child, can become a balance beam, a train, a home for little bugs, a source for peeling bark for further inspection and artistic creation, and on and on. The children that step into these outdoor classrooms find new adventures every day.

We’ve also talked to many educators through this process to make sure we’re meeting their needs and are helping them meet their goals for their students, and we’ve heard countless examples of how spending more time outdoors has impacted the teachers’ experiences too. This has reminded all of the adults involved in this process that, as the quote says, nature is just outside the door.

It's been exciting and rewarding to have a hand in bringing outdoor learning to Oklahoma where Good Fieldwork is headquartered. Oklahomans joke that trends trickle in slower here because we’re right in the middle of the United States and it takes longer for things to, well, “take” here. But if we have anything to do with it, outdoor learning won’t just be a trend – it will become a focal point for all schools representing all grades. We’ve since expanded beyond Oklahoma, and today we’re building an outdoor classroom in Ohio, with intentions of expanding into Arkansas, Colorado, Texas, and wherever else the need takes us.

Each day, we’re creating outdoor spaces that will impact hundreds of thousands of children for decades. My hope is that when these kids are adults in their 30s and 40s and are asked to share a favorite childhood memory, that the time spent in the outdoor classroom is top of mind.

-       Mary Jones, outdoor classroom architect and founder of Good Fieldwork