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How Savannah schools are taking it outside

Written by JESSICA LYNN CURTIS

COURTESY TYBEE ISLAND MARITIME ACADEMY

Science teacher Katie Holliday exercises outside learning with her Tybee Island Maritime Academy students every chance she gets.

Outdoor learning is hands-on at Tybee Island Maritime Academy.

GROWING UP IN Massachusetts, the moment spring arrived, each class would begin with a steady chorus of, “Can we go outside? Can we go outside?” The rare days when the answer was “yes” still stand out as warm memories from my youth.

In Savannah, the weather not only permits many more of these days, but the environment also lends itself to lessons in nature. And since the start of the pandemic, several area schools have increased their commitment to and resources for getting kids outside.

Katie Holliday, a science teacher at Tybee Island Maritime Academy, has always incorporated experiential learning as much as possible. “If there’s a chance to be outside that fi ts the curriculum, I’m going to take it,” she says. “And being on Tybee gives us a great opportunity to use our environment as an outdoor classroom.”

This past year, Holliday’s students monitored the water quality in a nearby creek for diff erent parameters like dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH and salinity; they built drifters and placed them into a river to measure the speed of the current; and they created documentaries about different aspects of the salt marsh. Even back when school was remote, Holliday encouraged her students to get outside each day to do nature journaling.

COURTESY TYBEE ISLAND MARITIME ACADEMY

Students Clarus Garden, Juwon Johnson and Chris Cook harvest fresh produce as part of the Bethesda Academy Farm & Garden Work-Study Class.

COURTESY BETHESDA ACADEMY

Holliday’s hands-on teaching style has gained notice among students, parents and her peers: She was voted Teacher of the Year at TIMA, nominated for Georgia Charter School Teacher of the Year and is one of just 10 middle school science teachers across the country to be named a National STEM Scholar. This honor means Holliday will spend a week at Western Kentucky University working with the other nine selected teachers to create a challenge project for their students — one that she’ll bring back to TIMA students next year.

She is also quick to acknowledge her co-workers. “Teaching is a collaboration,” Holliday says, and she is grateful for her collaborators and an environment that fosters such opportunities.

At Bethesda Academy, a private boys’ school located on 650 acres of stunning Savannah nature, being outdoors is a fundamental part of students’ education.

“We routinely integrate outdoor learning opportunities into the daily schedule,” says school president Mike Hughes. “Although the pandemic did lead us to move some classes outside, it did not have a major impact on our teaching strategies since we routinely spend time outdoors anyway. Boys learn best in hands-on mode, and we use the outdoors to our utmost advantage.”

“If there’s a chance to be outside that fits the curriculum, I’m going to take it.”

— KATIE HOLLIDAY

COURTESY HANCOCK DAY SCHOOL

The Pre-K class at Hancock Day School welcomed some special visitors this past spring.

The students gain inspiration from their majestic campus — for instance, a creative writing assignment written under the Spanish moss-covered oaks.

“For geometry classes, our boys are able to walk outside and fi nd unique angles, match Google Earth to the terrain or measure distances on the ground,” explains Hughes. The school’s wildlife preserve area is a 77-acre home for a variety of wildlife, “including fi sh, plants and the occasional gator,” says Hughes. As such, it’s also a great resource for science classes.

Bethesda Academy even has its own cattle herd, off ering students the unique experience of working with newborn calves, assisting the cattle staff in providing immunizations, pregnancy checks and a variety of veterinary tasks. Science and math teachers also work with the farm and cattle staff to create lessons on everything from measurements to biology.

Although a full-blown wildlife preserve can help students experience the outdoors, it’s far from the only way. At Hancock Day School, staff is busy readying an outdoor eco-classroom for middle school students to use next year that includes garden beds, work tables, fl ex seating and a native pollinator garden. “We want to create a beautiful and functional space that our students can use for a variety of projects and experiences,” says Paige Rowlett, Hancock’s director of development.

At Esther F. Garrison School for the Arts, “there are several things that we have added into our pedagogy portfolios from teaching through the pandemic,” says teacher Katie Wells, “and certainly utilizing the outdoors is one of them.”

COURTESY CALVARY DAY SCHOOL

Bringing the Outdoors In

The STEM and Nature Center, located inside Calvary Day School, is home to 13 species of reptiles, including eight species that are native to Georgia and fi ve that are exotic.

Pre-K through grade 12 students use the indoor center in incredibly vast and creative ways. Third graders learn thermodynamics by using an infrared temperature gun to measure reptiles’ basking spot temperatures, while ecology students design and construct enrichment items for Nature Center residents.

“One group built a shell scratching station for our sulcata tortoise, Sheldon, while another group constructed a snake peg board, a place for our snakes, Lucy, Juniper and Panther, to climb, crawl and explore,” shares Natalie Helbling, the center’s director and animal curator. “Middle school Spanish classes even practice verb conjugations by creating sentences using the daily habits of the snakes, turtles and lizards — while getting to touch and hold them!”

It also gives students a space to unwind during their free periods and build relationships with the animals. While third-grader Chloe Kendrick likes seeing the animals, learning about their habitats and even watching the snakes shed, eighth-grader Aidan Walsh appreciates how it has taught him to protect the earth and its habitats.

“Going to the STEM and Nature Center is the highlight of my day,” says ninth-grader Scarlett Jackson. “Getting to see and hold the animals lets me take my mind off the everyday school stress.”

COURTESY ESTHER F. GARRISON SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS

And though the idea of outdoor classrooms isn’t new, Wells describes it as a “missed opportunity” in many traditional school settings.

This year, Wells and fellow teacher Laura Ike launched a project for their students to explore and restore plantings in the Children’s Botanical Garden of Tiles. This is a formal garden on the Garrison campus, designed in 1997 to commemorate Savannah’s hosting of the 1996 Olympic sailing events. Created by three local artists, Haywood Nichols, Polly Cooper and the late Emeline Cooper, the garden has walls made of tiles created by Savannah children.

Kindergarten through eighth-grade students took on various projects within both of Garrison’s garden areas, including participating in the Great Georgia Pollinator Count; researching and planting native perennial plants to support native pollinators; and planting, tending to and harvesting edible plants.

“I loved working on the tile garden with everyone,” says sixth-grader Zachary Roach. “When I go outside, I have super happy moments. I can’t wait to see how the garden turns out!”

The outdoor project also dovetailed with digital media, Ike explains: Four eighth-grade students “produced a documentary about the origins of the garden, including live interviews with Haywood and Polly and a visit to the Georgia Historical Society to research the garden’s archives,” Ike says. A behindthe-scenes documentary was also developed in conjunction with the research documentary to produce a complementary insight into the project.

“I am grateful for the experiences this project has given me and my peers,” says Garrison student Hemalni Balasundaram. “I think my group and I are very lucky to have met the founders and to have learned the rich history of the garden.”

Although Ike admits it’s a little harder to keep students focused outdoors, she says it’s worth it.

“Having an opportunity to be in nature and have a positive experience is essential,” she says. “We come from nature, we can be restored by nature, and we can help to restore nature.”

COURTESY LIVE OAK PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Go Wild

At Live Oak Public Libraries, kids can explore the great outdoors by using their library card (and not just by reading about it!). With a Live Oak Public Libraries card or Student PLAY account, students can check out free passes to all the Georgia State Parks, Telfair Museums and more.

According to Sarah Collier, LOPL’s director of communications and marketing, “libraries create a variety of opportunities to get outdoors, through active hands-on experiences that encourage learning and literacy.”

Many library locations have outdoor movie nights and outdoor storytime programs. Live Oak Public Libraries even has Seed Libraries that provide seeds for people to grow their own food — just look out for those pesky bookworms. liveoakpl.org/home