PROJECT INSPIRE: BRINGING OUTDOOR INTERDISCIPLINARY K-12 EDUCATION TO COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON’S STONO PRESERVE
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Davis, Lucy
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Beginning at 5 years old, American students spend six hours a day inside the classroom, 180 days a year—a schedule they will repeat for the next 13 years of their educational lives. The only respite, recess, is merely recommended in some elementary schools and even then, may be as short at 15 minutes. Such a curriculum provides minimal room for individual thinking and drastically limits the amount of outdoor experiences to which students may be exposed. But imagine an education that exists entirely outside of the classroom, where there are no walls as barriers and free play is required in the curriculum—not merely encouraged. This paper explores the early educational structure of interdisciplinary thought and problem solving through outdoor Forest School inspired, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) education and assessment. Specifically, this paper will focus on two Forest School inspired model schools in the U.K. and one Forest School-inspired nursery program in Charleston, SC. This assessment model evaluates: (1) the key components present in these three Forest School inspired programs; (2) the techniques in which to embed them into the curriculum of the College of Charleston’s Project Inspire Program, an outdoor Forest school inspired program at Stono Preserve that highlights learning in nature and free-thought for students attending schools on Johns Island, SC; (3) and the correlation between autonomy and creativity within students in an outdoor environment. This research study also seeks to determine the correlation between providing students with such independence and free-thought in an educational environment beyond the four walls of the classroom and those students’ level of creativity