The Outdoor Classroom Project

Monger’s innovative teaching idea, “The Outdoor Classroom Project,” focuses on incorporating science learning within the context of nature and the local Sultan High School landscape through the use of an outdoor classroom. Students involved in the project will have different opportunities to learn about science while engaging in hands-on activities. For example, when learning about photosynthesis, students will tap local maple trees in order to taste the sugar being made in the process, or when learning ecology, students will measure the local river to see if the conditions are suitable for the release of hatchery salmon; and so on. The outdoor classroom project will include a pond, a native plant museum, vegetable gardens, a chicken coop, an orchard, a covered outdoor classroom, a salmon hatchery, forest restoration, and trails. With the Voya grant, Monger’s outdoor classroom experience will help students discover new ways of protecting and caring for natural resources.