Take it outside: the added benefits of school courtyards

You may remember staring at the window outside when you were a child, gazing at your watch while waiting for the school to end. Today, children are less likely to use outdoor activities, and in general, the interest in field experience seems to be getting lower and lower. This is a pity, but I am fully aware of the desire to stay indoors. Let's see the impact of many of today's young people, such as xbox, wii, ipad, ipod, dvr, blue ray. Briefly, I have Pong, Commodore 64, and beta max. This is equivalent to all 10 minutes of interest. You can easily search the internet and find outdoor benefits for children's physical and cognitive development. Recently launched projects incorporate these benefits in a very practical way through a well designed courtyard.

The school included the outdoor space for a long time in the form of a courtyard; these building exercises provide daytime lighting and ventilation. My middle school and high school have a courtyard, but I do not remember them as comfortable spaces. And they may be restricted areas. In my opinion, I was allowed to eat lunch in this space as a premium benefit. I remember that the space for excessive planting and postponement of maintenance problems is limited in function and students and teachers do not make full use of space.

Today is Spring of the day. The school in the 21st century treats the courtyard as an opportunity to support the learning program so that students live healthier and provide opportunities to connect with nature. In the Birchwood Design Group, the importance of the school shifted to the courtyard. As more and more school courses move from STEM to STEAM (please see Science and Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics, http://stemtosteam.org/ for details on the movement of STEAM), the courtyard makes young people touch naturally It plays a role. It plays a decisive role. How to integrate these core learning areas

In our recent experience, the courtyard has become a life lab inspired by science, experiment sites, courses of art and design, and mathematical skills by measurement and geometry. It can also be used as a venue for contemplation and discussion of language courses, and it is also used as a cafe to support school's culinary art curriculum. In the courtyard there is a playground in front of kindergarten, plaza for outdoor activities and performances. Regardless of the needs and desires of the facility, the courtyard plays a dual role for outdoor learning while improving the quality of the interior space by daylighting and ventilation.

Another advantage of this healthy and high-performance school building is that the building plan forms a strategic intersection with the courtyard of the wide glass wall and the corridor, between the school interior, the classroom building, the main entrance and the outdoors It is to create a clear line of sight. . The use of such passive safety reduces the maintenance cost and enhances the safety of passengers. EMS combines two schools into one building to increase energy efficiency and reduce the materials used. Natural light touches all major spaces in the building, creating a more exciting environment and reducing lighting costs. Low temperature window coatings, solar curtains and lighting fixtures reduce glare and solar heat during the warmer season, maximize yearly sunshine during the winter and increase heat.

It was a sunny day at the end of February when I met Ben Gucciardi outside the office of the Auckland International High School's Football Without Borders office in the Temescal community of Auckland. The school is decorated with colorful mural paintings and fruit trees with flowers in the courtyard - this is when there is playback and spring is near. "I like this first experience is to work at a team community center called Jamestown, which is a wonderful organization, a after school enrichment program for young people. One thing they do is exercise. Material, "said Gucci Rudi of San Francisco. "Sports director is very enthusiastic about creating opportunities for girls, especially at the time, especially young people, very low-income Latina women who participated in sports, were very rare, a wonderful experience, Please see how much meaning it is for girls. "