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Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation
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 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.
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 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.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 6, 2015
Asphalt to Ecosystems does an incredible service by providing the tools and planning procedures necessary to spark environmental and educational change within the school systems. By laying out all the reasons schools and parents should come together as a community to build an ecosystem for their children, and acting as a manual for success, this book acts as a guide for social change for present and future generations.
Many useful and inspiring examples are provided, and Sharon Danks proves her talent at transforming schoolyards and communities through her work. It seems every issue is addressed, from raising funds in the community, to addressing water issues in varying climates.
I recommend this for teachers interested in project-based learning, community leaders, Superintendents, mayors, parents, environmentalists, and anyone else interested in sustainable community gardening.
Many useful and inspiring examples are provided, and Sharon Danks proves her talent at transforming schoolyards and communities through her work. It seems every issue is addressed, from raising funds in the community, to addressing water issues in varying climates.
I recommend this for teachers interested in project-based learning, community leaders, Superintendents, mayors, parents, environmentalists, and anyone else interested in sustainable community gardening.
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January 22, 2016Danks is an authority on the subject of schoolyards, which becomes apparent in her brief biography in the preface. She has visited over 200 schools in eight countries. Readers benefit from her extensive travels as this book catalogs a number of ideas for the ecological schoolyard from Japan to the UK to California. The images are inspiring and the prose is organized. Although a useful reference for designers, the intended audience is broader than landscape architects. Accordingly, certain technical information such as site plans is absent.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews