Algood Middle School’s outdoor lab is providing valuable learning opportunities to students outside of the classroom.
Algood Middle School STEM Teacher Wren Goedken told the Putnam County School Board the outdoor lab contains a garden, which features different plants and a chicken coop. Goedken said the garden teaches students how much work goes into creating food.
“There is a lot that you can do outside that is difficult to experience inside,” Goedken said. “So in my class, they are learning direct experience about agriculture, direct experience about nature, and direct experience about building, by doing it, not just looking at a screen or reading a book.”
Goedken said other classes, like the music class and art class, have contributed to the outdoor lab and use it frequently. Goedken said the outdoor lab are important for students to experience.
“Kids today are not playing outside very much,” Goedkensaid. “And these experiences are really, really healthy for their development and for their social development as well.”
Goedken said Tennessee Tech and Local 4-H programs also frequently visit the outdoor lab. Goedken said the outdoor lab has four different biomes that kids get to learn about.
“We have a prairie, and the prairie is big, it’s bigger than this room, and so the kids get to see the prairie plants, and the butterflies, and the bees, and the birds that are supported by it,” Goedken said. “We have a very large wetland with lots and lots of different plants that support lots of frogs, and turtles, and tadpoles, and all sorts of things kids might enjoy. We have a desert, which is something that a kid might not see elsewhere.”
Goedken said the fourth biome is a forest biome where kids can learn about different species of trees. School Board Member Jill Ramsey said it is exciting to see the opportunities that the students are experiencing and wished that it could be replicated at all of the schools.
