Berkeley, July 21, 2011—Around the globe schools are tearing up their cement yards and replacing them with green gardens. Schools in many different countries are leaders in this field, finding innovative ways to weave curricula into their landscapes, diversify their recreational offerings, enhance their local ecology, and reflect their unique location and cultural context. The first international green schoolyard conference to celebrate and exchange ideas will be held this fall, September 16–18, in Berkeley and San Francisco, California. The conference—Engaging Our Grounds—is being organized by New Village Press, Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance, and Bay Tree Design, inc.
“Green schoolyards improve the local environment and profoundly change the way students experience the world,” explains conference director Sharon Danks. Engaging Our Grounds will include presentations by visionary leaders of the green schoolyard movement from around the globe, a resource and networking fair, and tours of outstanding local school grounds including Alice Waters’ famous Edible Schoolyard. The conference will discuss the latest trends and innovations, case studies, best practices, and creative thinking in urban green schoolyard environments for education, sustainable schoolyard design and maintenance, curricula, advocacy, and funding partnerships.
Keynote speakers from Sweden, Canada, Germany, England, Japan, and the United States will address a variety of topics. Children’s outdoor experiences in urban environments will be presented by Dr. Petter Åkerblom, a landscape architect from Movium’s Centre for Urban Public Space and the Swedish University of Agricultural Science. Cam Collyer of Evergreen’s award winning Learning Grounds, will show how educational institutions can green their grounds. Participatory schoolyard redesign will be covered by Manfred Dietzen, an advisor for ecological, participatory schoolyard redesign for Berlin. Additional speakers include Mary Jackson and Julie Mountain from UK charity, Learning Through Landscapes; Dr. Ko Senda of the Environment Design Institute in Tokyo, who is known for making vibrant play environments for urban children; Bernard Spiegal, the principal of Playlink, a London-based consultancy on play policies and strategies; and Birgit Teichmann of Teichmann Landschafts Architekten in Berlin, who has set the bar in Europe with her work in ecological, educational, and communal ventures.
Given excellent local examples to supplement the presentations, conferees will visit San Francisco schools that have undergone dramatic changes over the last decade, transforming their traditional, paved, urban schoolyard into vibrant outdoor learning and play spaces. Conference attendees will also visit three inspiring sites in Berkeley—the Edible Schoolyard, the City of Berkeley’s Adventure Playground, and an elementary school with a community-created green schoolyard.
Conference registration is open to the public, and special pricing will be in effect until the end of July. For conference details and registration, visit the website.
About the Conference Hosts
Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR)
ADPSR is a national nonprofit organization, working for peace, environmental protection, ecological building, social justice, and the development of healthy communities. ADPSR programs aim to raise professional and public awareness of critical social and environmental issues; further responsive design and planning; and honor persons and organizations whose work exemplifies social responsibility.
New Village Press
New Village Press is a public-benefit publisher specializing in works about grassroots community building, urban ecology, and community cultural development. The press publishes progressive non-fiction that offers useful solutions to critical social, environmental, and economic challenges. It is a division of ADPSR.
San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance
Since 2001, the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance has spearheaded the effort to transform San Francisco’s paved school playgrounds into vibrant green schoolyards and educational spaces. These environments increase students’ desire to learn about the world around them, improve students’ academic achievement, foster the next generation of scientists and environmental leaders, and promote students’ health and well-being.
Bay Tree Design, inc.
Bay Tree Design, inc., is a women-owned landscape architecture and planning firm in Berkeley, California whose work seeks to create beautiful, functional spaces that reflect ecological design principles, green building practices, and edible and native planting palettes.
Conference Director Sharon Gamson Danks is an environmental planner and founding partner of Bay Tree Design. She has visited and documented over 175 green schoolyards in North America, Europe, and Japan, and has facilitated the master planning process for dozens of ecological schoolyards. She is the author of Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation (New Village Press, 2010).
Interviews available to the media upon request.
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