With the onset of the pandemic came huge changes to physical spaces.
In March and April, businesses did everything from installing plexiglass barriers to slashing waiting areas to putting social distancing stickers on floors to keep people a little bit safer from the coronavirus.
But to Tolya Stonorov, a professor of architecture at Norwich University, there is one change in physical space that is particularly emblematic of the pandemic: outdoor classrooms.
“Based on the research, we know it’s safer for us to be outside,” Stonorov said. “And we know that kids interacting with the outdoors is tremendously important to their education. Now it’s important to their lives.”
In that spirit, Stonorov is sponsoring a contest for high school students: Whoever can design the best outdoor classroom will win an $8,000 scholarship to Norwich.
The contest, Stonorov said, was born out of a 2018 project, when 10 of her students designed and built an outdoor classroom for Union Elementary School in Montpelier. The round wooden classroom, dubbed “The Nest,” opened last month.
“We wanted to find a way to reach out to high school students and get them really involved, and acknowledge that they have brilliant ideas about their own learning that we need to be paying attention to,” Stonorov said.
She said outdoor classrooms give students the opportunity to learn in-person in a safe environment.
“In Vermont, we have very cold winters; it’s obviously going to become more difficult,” she said. “But on the other hand, we’re really tough people. We know how to put on clothes for colder temperatures, so I think we can still embrace outdoor learning in the winter.”
The contest has a few rules. Each classroom can be no bigger than 20 feet by 20 feet, the classroom should be designed for a school somewhere other than the student’s hometown, the design should accommodate nine students and a teacher with room for 6-foot social distancing, and it should offer protection from rain, snow and wind.
Stonorov said teachers often discourage students from looking out the window at school, but in an outdoor classroom, that’s kind of the point.
“I think most people are happier when they have natural light and well-ventilated spaces and have the opportunity to be outside,” she said. “And that is all encompassed in an outdoor classroom.”
Outdoor learning has been booming during the pandemic. But Stonorov said it’s not usually done in a carefully designed space.
“The pandemic has happened so quickly, I think a lot of makeshift things are happening,” Stonorov said. “But students and educators are trying to think creatively about how to create outdoor classrooms.”
Usually, she said, that looks more like tents put up in schoolyards, and less like the Nest project that took her and her students 15 weeks to design and build. But to Stonorov, the more outdoor classrooms, the merrier, as long as they’re helping kids get outside.
Stonorov presented her idea to the university’s admissions office, and said she was thrilled when they told her they could offer an $8,000 prize. Plus, any fully completed submission will earn prospective students a $2,000 scholarship, regardless of whether the design wins the competition.
“The other fact of this pandemic is that a lot of people’s economic situations are really challenging,” Stonorov said. “The opportunity to get kids excited about architecture and offer scholarships is a really fantastic thing to be able to combine.”
