Sunnyside Environmental School is a K-8 school in Portland’s eco-friendly Sunnyside neighborhood. I recently toured the school and talked with principal Sarah Taylor.
Sunnyside has an environmental place- and project-based curriculum. Students spend an average of 1 hour per day outdoors, and middle schoolers spend one day a week off-site. Nature, agriculture, and the environment are at the heart of the comprehensive curriculum.
The school is located in an older, more traditional school building, which is somewhat at odds with the more progressive, integrated program. Classrooms and hallways do not look much different from a typical school, but the community spaces really begin to show that this school is something different. The front lawn has been transformed into student gardens, cobb benches, and gathering spaces. The front entry greets you with student work–from art collages to dried herbs students have collected. Ms. Taylor was bursting with ideas of new spaces that could enhance the school’s mission– from more communal space to student kitchens to student-managed natural museums.
It was interesting– and inspiring– to see environment-based education in action, and began to illuminate the spacial implications of such a program.
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