Collaboration with Lawrence Hall of Science

Green Schoolyards America’s CEO, Sharon Danks, was the keynote speaker for the Lawrence Hall of Science’s BaySci program on February 4, 2020. Photo by Jedda Foreman, Lawrence Hall of Science.

Green Schoolyards America had an exciting opportunity this month to collaborate with our colleagues at Lawrence Hall of Science who direct an environmental literacy program called BaySci. LHS’s BaySci program provides professional development, technical assistance, and a network for partner school districts who are “interested and ready to commit to a significant focus on improving K-12 science education.” The program helps school districts to implement Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

The BaySci program includes a series of seminars for school district leadership teams in the San Francisco Bay Area. Green Schoolyards America’s CEO, Sharon Danks, was the keynote speaker at their seminar held on February 4, 2020 in Berkeley, California. She co-created a session with LHS that focused on using school grounds as a hands-on teaching and learning resource for environmental literacy and science curricula, across the K-12 grade levels. The program for the day included an in-depth slide introduction to the living schoolyard field, and time for district teams to discuss the green schoolyard ideas with their colleagues. Since teaching environmental literacy is often accomplished through hands-on, outdoor experiences, school grounds afford a unique opportunity to put learning laboratories within reach of every teacher.

This type of interdisciplinary collaboration between Green Schoolyards America and Lawrence Hall of Science is exciting because both organizations partner with school districts to facilitate systems change at the district level. Our collaborative session allowed us to integrate ideas for school ground land use planning with systematic planning for high quality curriculum. This approach holds great potential for generating significant advances in the field—and in the lives of thousands of children who are served by our partner school districts.