Rachel Harrington – Haller Middle School – Arlington School District
Project Title: “Outdoor Classroom”
Rachel Harrington is a 6th grade science teacher in the Arlington School District. She serves as a liaison for the Space Foundation and helps to bridge the gap between NASA’s space technology and classroom teaching and on occasion she serves as the district’s Science TOSA.
Last year, Rachel was inspired to apply for funding for an outdoor classroom by two elementary teachers in her district, Cory Timm and Wes Klein who did a similar outdoor classroom. Rachel said, “Because when you change your environment, it does something for the soul and brain. Imagine all the things that will open up to students when we are outside under the sky and sun.” Rachel feels that the outdoor classroom space will help to increase student engagement for the entire school and hopes all 700 students and 40 teachers will take advantage of the outdoor teaching and learning space.
The Ellison Foundation funded Rachel’s proposal for an outdoor classroom. Physical space and engagement are two areas of concern in education, especially since the pandemic. Haller Middle School will create an open-air space on school grounds to support outdoor science learning. Especially for science, there is no better environment than the outdoors to learn. Being able to break the routine and structure of a classroom opens a myriad of possibilities. Construction will begin this spring on an outdoor classroom.
Four NWESD Schools were named as 2021 recipients of Ellison Education Grants. This year the foundation funded 15 grants worth $75,000.
