Through the Learning Inside Out Outdoor Classroom Initiative, the Rhode Island Department of Education recently awarded $7.5 million to support outdoor education, including many new and expanded school garden projects. Eighty-nine projects across 29 local education agencies (LEAs) will receive grants to create, enhance and support access to natural resources for all students through outdoor classrooms or schoolyard habitats. These projects will build collaborations between  community partners so that many more students will have opportunities to learn about environmental and food literacy in exciting outdoor experiential learning spaces.

A commitment to Learning Inside Out means adjusting the existing curriculum and using the school as a hands-on laboratory to integrate environmental and sustainability concepts and activities into science, math, civics, language arts, technology and elective courses. “We know that teachers in Rhode Island overwhelmingly want to engage their students in environmental education and in outdoor learning spaces,” says Jeanine Silversmith, executive director of the Rhode Island Environmental Education Association (RIEEA).  “They understand that it provides meaningful learning experiences, integrates real-world experiences into the student experience and leads to positive academic, social-emotional and health outcomes.”

One exciting example of this is the Northern Rhode Island Forest School, a newly emerging outdoor learning program founded by Diana Brennan and Lindsey Baillargeron. After earning a B.S. in environmental science, Brennan worked as a wetland scientist for the past 20 years. She brings a deep understanding of Rhode Island’s natural resources, to which she has added a certification as a Level 3 Forest School Leader through Forest Schools Education, an internationally recognized program that offers both in-person and online training.

Baillargeron, who taught English in middle and high school classrooms for 14 years, earned her master’s in English from Harvard University and is currently pursuing her second master’s degree to become a K-12 reading specialist. During the pandemic, she took her students outside for classes, and after observing positive behavioral and academic outcomes, she left her teaching position to train as a Level 1 Forest School Assistant. Highly conscious of Rhode Island’s literacy crisis, as demonstrated by the low-test scores among third graders and exacerbated by pandemic measures, Baillargeron joined Brennan and created the Literacy in the Leaves program.

As outdoor classrooms continue to emerge, students of all ages will be able to learn outdoors through the live observation and experience of real-world connections, instead of just sitting inside and reading disengaged texts in books. The proof will become evident in future data.