After a few years of planning, a new outdoor classroom “opened” April 13 at Glenbrook South, and it’s now available for all to use, district officials announced.
Students and staff gathered near the campus greenhouse to celebrate a ribbon cutting for the new space made up of 10 wooden benches of varying heights.
According to Glenbrook South science teacher Jenny Friedmann, the idea began a few years before as part of a five-year program to restore the nearby basins and turn them into prairies.
“When we consulted with professionals, it became clear that this was something that was going to take a big collaborative effort,” Friedmann said. “That’s when we invited other members of other departments to jump on board with a committee and talk about, if we are going to turn this into an outdoor living space, what would that look like?”
The benches were designed and built by Glenbrook South woods students, officials said. Each is engraved with quotes selected by the English department.
That space now connects the west and north lots through a pathway, according to officials.
In addition to the prairies, the learning space area also has a pollinator garden and donation garden that grows vegetables for the Northfield Township Food Pantry, Glenbrook South science instructional supervisor Jeff Rylander said.
Following the Tuesday ribbon cutting, students in Planet Green, Interact and Elpida clubs at the school cleaned up the basins and helped with landscaping preparation.
“Though it is not a completed project by any means, we thought it would be special to take a minute and say, ‘Look where we are and where we can go in the future,'” Rylander said.
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