Polk County Early College is creating an outdoor classroom for students. | Adobe Stock
Polk County Early College is creating an outdoor classroom for students. | Adobe Stock
Going to class will soon mean more trees and sunshine and fewer desks and classrooms for the students of Polk County Early College (PCEC), thanks to a grant from the Polk County Community Foundation.
The outdoor classroom, which is nearly ready for use, has been more than a year in the making when the foundation awarded a grant to the community college for the "Project Unplugged and Outdoors" program in April of 2019, the website, PolkStudents, reported.
A PCEC English writing class thought up the program, and the students brought it to fruition by planning and collectively writing the grant application, the website reported.
School-wide contributions to the outdoor learning space continued, and the area will now include benches, a podium, picnic tables for breaks and lunches, and a badminton/volleyball net to encourage physical activity, the website reported.
The college's focus on students' opportunities to learn in nature and leave standard modern technologies in the classroom has included new garden beds, dogwood trees, and a garden club, the website reported.
PCEC has plans for a mural to be painted by a recent PCEC graduate and stepping stones painted by students currently at the college to continue to enrich the outdoor program, the website reported.
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