School Forest

School Forest Benefits

A functioning School Forest can positively affect all your student body, faculty, staff, parent-teacher organization, and community. Consider the following benefits of a school forest site.

For students, school forests can:

• Make lessons relevant because school forests provide meaningful, real-world situations that allow students to apply learned skills and allow them to be a part of the natural world, rather than a separate entity.
• Reach students through hands-on learning, especially important for those who struggle in traditional classrooms.
• Allow older students to mentor younger students and encourage higher self esteem.
• Provide opportunities for long-term environmental investigations.
  Encourage physical activity and improve student health.
• Allow students with disabilities frequent, safe contact with the natural world. Foster a sense of ownership, promote a conservation ethic, increase school pride, and decrease student vandalism.
• Capture young peoples' innate interest in the natural world.

For the school and staff, school forests can:

• Allow teachers to try new teaching methods in an outdoor setting.
• Help address academic standards by giving opportunities to include environmental education into the regular curriculum.
• Give staff a chance to see the profound effects of the natural world on children.
• Allow teachers and other staff to interact with students on a different level.
  Help "green" your school by teaching groundskeeping staff sustainable and efficient ways of maintaining school property.
• Provide resources and support for teachers and staff on natural resource education topics and techniques.

For parents, families, and communities, school forests can:

• Strengthen parent-teacher relationships when working toward a common goal. Provide increased recreation and exploration opportunities with an eye on learning, such as hiking and bird-watching.
• Create a more environmentally literate population who will make sound long term community decisions.
• Create a sense of ownership among parents, families, students, and community members.
• Engender cooperation between stakeholders.
• Expose students to possible local career choices through increased community connections.
• Involve community members as guest presenters and volunteers, and allow them to serve as positive adult role models.
• Increase community safety. Studies show that crime decreases as a community spends more time outside in a positive environment.