Outdoor Classroom

Cross Country Elementary and Middle Schools developed an outdoor classroom at the Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills, MD. The outdoor classroom provides an area for hands-on learning in a natural garden setting, seating for classroom lectures and presentations, and a safe space for unstructured play during recess and lunch.  The outdoor classroom is used by teachers, students and non-profit organizations who work directly with the school, allowing students to have more exposure to the outdoors while gaining more appreciation for the natural world.   

Cross Country serves approximately 500 students and is a leading school in providing urban environmental education to its youth.  Cross Country ES/MS is a certified Maryland Green School and has been involved with Irvine Nature Center’s Schoolyard Discovery program for the past four years.  In this program, Irvine Nature Center offers hands-on environmental lessons to third and eighth grade classes on topics including schoolyard habitats, pollution prevention, recycling, soil science, tree identification, plant function and biology, biodiversity, and watershed function.  This program also offers a chance for eighth grade students to teach third grade students basic environmental concepts and research skills, all while stressing  the importance of environmental stewardship.

The students of Cross Country ES/MS led design, creation and maintaining the school’s greening projects, including the proposed outdoor classroom.  Students helped to develop the design plans for the project and in the process have learned about professions like landscape architecture and horticultural sciences.