The Wildflower Center has partnered with several environmentally-minded organizations to support the Austin chapter of OLE! Texas, an initiative to build nature into childhood education through outdoor learning environments. The OLE! project helps promote the health and fitness of young people by engaging them in activities outside of traditional classrooms or care facilities.

At the state level, Center designers have helped develop a practitioner’s guide for daycares interested in transforming typical playgrounds into areas that emphasize nature play; locally, we are working on a pilot project at Austin Community College Children’s Lab School, which offers year-round child care to ACC students, staff and faculty and serves as demonstration school for ACC’s Child Development Department.

Outdoor learning environments help young people foster a deeper understanding of human dependency on the natural world, and they’ve been shown to positivity effect children’s behavior, resulting in fewer altercations and better integration of children with different abilities.

The hope is to grow outdoor learning environments throughout all schools in Texas, but underserved communities are extremely important because of the lack of resources provided to those children, and outdoor learning environments can make a huge difference in such situations.

DIG DEEPER

• Discover resources for creating your own Outdoor Learning Environment by visiting Texas Tech’s Designer Network.
• Learn about our work on Triumphant Love Lutheran Church’s Child Development Center.
• Read more about nature play in Wildflower Magazine or visit our Family Garden to see an Outdoor Learning Environment in action.
• Explore research and advocacy tools for connecting children, families and communities to nature via Children & Nature Network.