Built Environment News
Allies
Church Executive – March 01, 2008
Churches Encouraged to Connect Children with Nature
By Rachel Beach
The people who run the nation’s churches are being asked to “restore the connection between today’s children and nature” in the latest issue of Church Executive magazine. In addition to creating play environments on church grounds that incorporate more natural elements like trees and even wildlife, churches should consider restoring green play spaces within their communities as part of their ministries.
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Research & Studies | Event
Natural Learning Initiative – February 16, 2010
Growing in Place Symposium Coming March 5
How can we plan and design a public realm where children find the physical and social stimulation necessary for healthy human development in consonance with the culture and ecology of the places where they live? That's the question participants will address in the Growing in Place Symposium to be held March 5 in Raleigh, North Carolina. [+]
Local
Big Think – December 30, 2009
New York Playground Designed to Combat Nature-Deficit Disorder
By Tobin Hack
The principal landscape architect of a new $3.8 million playground in New York City is being congratulated for consulting experts in cognitive development before deciding where to plant trees in the new state-of-the-art park. The experts noted that kids respond more creatively to natural environments than to excessively groomed ones, so the architect responded with a more complex layout to foster imaginative play.
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Research & Studies
Washington Post – November 17, 2009
Benefits of “Park Prescriptions” Noted in Washington Post
By Daphne Miller
Support within the medical community is growing for the the use of nature experiences as a healing aid. Physician Daphne Miller, writing in the Washington Post, notes that doctors around the country are medicating their patients with nature in order to prevent (or treat) health problems ranging from heart disease to attention deficit disorder.
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Local
San Francisco Chronicle – October 09, 2008
New Museum Exhibit Encourages Free Play
By Paul Kilduff
A new interactive installation at the Bay Area Discovery Museum is designed to make children think differently about how they use their free time. The museum’s director hopes kids will come away motivated to choose leisure-time physical activities that are self-directed—that is, not done with parents and coaches scrutinizing their every move. “Everything we do here is child-centered play. No one’s telling them what to do, how to do it.”
State | Education
(Greensboro) News & Record – August 23, 2008
North Carolina Zoo to Build Outdoor Classroom
By Jeri Rowe
The North Carolina Zoo will soon begin raising $2.8 million to help create a four-acre classroom for kids, complete with caves, gardens, and a stream. And in another example of North Carolinian efforts to reconnect kids with nature, every family with a child attending Greensboro Montessori School is being given a copy of Last Child in the Woods.
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National | Education
New York Times – May 12, 2008
Why Are Schools Designed Like Prisons?
By Allison Arieff
In an opinion piece for the New York Times website, writer and editor Allison Arieff laments the way that school design tends to inhibit outdoor activity as children get older. “What if we looked beyond the notion of schools as institutions,” she writes, “and thought about them more as laboratories for creativity, exploration, and innovation?”
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As part of our ongoing efforts to build the movement, the Children & Nature Network has published two new resources for leaders, organizers, and participants at the local, national, and international levels:
