Ocean County Outdoor Classrooms
Students at Toms River Intermediate School North gather together to create a beautiful Outdoor Classroom for their school.
Outdoor Classrooms provide a variety of resources for educators of classes of all different age groups and fields. Teachers who plant gardens with their students are able to incorporate lessons in science, health, math, geography and many other subjects while enhancing collaboration among their students and fostering a sense of commitment. Furthermore, the opportunity for students to simply be outside has been proven to boost the overall morale of a person, thus resulting in better grades and demeanor in general.
Rain Garden Sign posted in the Outdoor Classroom at Central Regional High School
Rain gardens and Outdoor Classrooms are the perfect platform for students to achieve an awareness at a young age of the importance of environmental stewardship. While establishing a garden, it becomes more clear to students that having vegetation and pervious surfaces are key to the improvement of water quality and preventing storm water runoff. These gardens also give students a deeper appreciation of the environment around them, and a sense of pride watching a garden they started in a plot of barren land grow into something that can be used for generations to come.Outdoor Classrooms in Ocean County
The Ocean County Soil Conservation District has worked with various partners to develop the Outdoor Classroom Development Program, which has so far been successful in creating over 25 Outdoor Classrooms at Ocean County Schools. This program works to not only have students plant and develop their own rain garden, but trains educators as well to integrate the use of the outdoors into their curriculum for years to come. Since its inception in 1996, the program has been awarded over $14,500 in grants to improve 28 Ocean County Schools.
Outdoor Classrooms in Ocean County
View Ocean County Outdoor Classrooms in a larger map
Point Pleasant Beach
Bay Head
Lakewood
Spruce Street Elementary School
Brick Township
New Egypt
Manchester
Toms River
Walnut Street Elementary School
Whiting
Berkeley Township
Bayville
Clara B Worth Elementary School
Central Regional Middle School
Lacey/Lanoka Harbor
Barnegat
Lillian M. Dunfee Elementary School
Stafford Township
Southern Regional Middle School
