Asphalt to Ecosystems is a compelling color guidebook for designing and building natural schoolyard environments that enhance childhood learning and play experiences while providing connection with the natural world.
With this book, Danks broadens our notion of what a well-designed schoolyard should be, taking readers on a journey from traditional, ordinary grassy fields and asphalt, to explore the vibrant and growing movement to "green" school grounds in the United States and around the world. This book documents exciting green schoolyard examples from almost 150 schools in 11 countries, illustrating that a great many things are possible on school grounds when they are envisioned as outdoor classrooms for hands-on learning and play. The book's 500 vivid, color photographs showcase some of the world's most innovative green schoolyards including: edible gardens with fruit trees, vegetables, chickens, honey bees, and outdoor cooking facilities; wildlife habitats with prairie grasses and ponds, or forest and desert ecosystems; schoolyard watershed models, rainwater catchment systems and waste-water treatment wetlands; renewable energy systems that power landscape features, or the whole school; waste-as-a-resource projects that give new life to old materials in beautiful ways; K-12 curriculum connections for a wide range of disciplines from science and math to art and social studies; creative play opportunities that diversify school ground recreational options and encourage children to run, hop, skip, jump, balance, slide, and twirl, as well as explore the natural world first hand. The book grounds these examples in a practical framework that illustrates simple landscape design choices that all schools can use to make their schoolyards more comfortable, enjoyable and beautiful, and describes a participatory design process that schools can use to engage their school communities in transforming their own asphalt into ecosystems.
Sharon Gamson Danks, environmental planner and founding partner of Bay Tree Design, Inc. in Berkeley, California, has visited and documented over 175 green schoolyards in North America, Europe and Japan, and has shaped and facilitated the master planning process for dozens of ecological schoolyards.
Visit the website Asphalt2Ecosystems.org!
Details
ISBN-10
0-9766054-8-1
ISBN-13
978-0-9766054-8-5
Publication Date
Nov 2010
Nb of pages
288
Includes
Index; Bibliography; Appendices
Illustrations 500
Illustration type
Plates, color
Dimensions 8.5 x 9.8 in.
Exclusive distribution by
Consortium
Onix What's this?
Summary
Foreword by Cam Collyer, Director, Evergreen Learning Grounds
Preface
PART 1: GETTING FROM HERE TO THERE Introduction
Chapter 1: Why Transform Traditional Schoolyards?
Chapter 2: Project Launch: Designing Your Dream Schoolyard and Building the School Community to Make It Happen
Chapter 3: Design Guidelines for Ecological Schoolyards
PART 2: ECOLOGICAL TEACHING TOOLS IN THE SCHOOLYARD Introduction
Chapter 4: Schoolyard Wildlife Sanctuaries
Chapter 5: Schoolyard Water Systems
Chapter 6: School Energy Systems
Chapter 7: Schoolyard Agriculture
Chapter 8: Ecologically Sensitive Materials for Schoolyard Landscapes
Chapter 9: Lessons from the Landscape: Weaving Teaching Resources into Schoolyard Design
PART 3: CREATING A DIVERSIFIED PLAY ENVIRONMENT IN AN ECOLOGICAL SCHOOLYARD Introduction
Chapter 10: "Active Play" in an Ecological Schoolyard
Chapter 11: Creative Play on School Grounds
Chapter 12: Outdoor Art and Music Play in an Ecological Schoolyard
PART 4: SHAPING SCHOOLYARD INFRASTRUCTURE TO CREATE COMFORTABLE, EFFECTIVE AND MEMORABLE PLACES Introduction
Chapter 13: Comfortable Schoolyards: Seating, Microclimates, and Protection from the Elements
Chapter 14: Form and Function: Key Design Considerations for Well-Organized Green Schoolyards
Chapter 15: Artful Schoolyards: Creating a Unique Sense of Place through Art
PART 5: PUTTING IDEAS INTO ACTION
Chapter 17: Ecological Schoolyards: From Grey to Green
Resources to Help Transform Your "Asphalt into Ecosystems"
Referenced Works
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
Additional Materials
Schoolyard Transformation
Rosa Parks School in Berkeley California. A case study by Sharon Danks from the book.
Turning Nature Into Classrooms
Sharon Danks, a leader of the "Asphalt to Ecosystems" movement, discusses her work making playgrounds more eco-friendly (and child-friendly). Posted with permission from OnEarth Magazine (OnEarth.org) and Erika Brekke.
Reviews
Press Reviews
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Children, Youth and Environments
"At the heart of the ecological schoolyard philosophy is the concept of raising children to become land stewards" (243). Sharon Danks has given us brilliantly illustrated examples of this philosophy
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in action in schoolyards around the world in her stunning book, Asphalt to Ecosystems. I cannot remember any book that has made me long so much to return to age seven, to magically enter a book's photographs and to try out the many natural, creative play and learning spaces that Danks documents. Her professional knowledge as an environmental planner working with school communities to design and build naturalized play and educational spaces makes this work a true tool for anyone wishing to inspire local schools to become places where school grounds reflect a living sustainability ethic.
- Illène Pevec
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Foreword Reviews
Nov 1, 2010
"One of the more dramatic shifts in modern childhood . . . is the loss of freedom," laments Cam Collyer in the foreword to this wondrous, book. Collyer tells of a survey in the UK that documented the area roamed by each generation within the same family as a child. The great-grandfather, in 1919, would walk “up to six miles away from his home,” while in 2007, “little Ed” was only allowed to the end of his block. “Wow,” says Collyer, quoting Richard Louv's description of modern childhood as “virtual house arrest.”
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Readers might wonder what this has to do with green schoolyards, but the answer is everything, as the author points out. Children no longer allowed to roam through meadows and woodlands, fields and farms have no connection with nature, and further, have no idea where food comes from. The book cites additional alarming statistics: 35 percent of children eat no fruit, and 20 percent don’t eat vegetables. For most of the kids who do eat vegetables, French fries are the mainstay. Danks, who is an environmental planner by profession, has put together an extraordinary guide to creating, or re-creating, a portion of the natural world to teach children all those connections that used to be a natural part of growing up.
Self-generated and passive power sources, beekeeping, vegetable gardening, outdoor cooking, and art classes—for all of these things, Danks provides insights and photos to show how it’s done. Anyone can advocate within a school community to replace sterile and uncomfortable paved play areas with amazing, comfortable spaces furnished with ponds, willow-whip teepees, storytelling areas, and solar ovens. In other words, play areas can be places to stimulate the imagination, rekindle the connection with nature, and address ecological concerns all at the same time.
The book itself is lovely, with good quality paper stock, a plethora of plans, and hundreds of photos; if there is one request, it is for more consistent inclusion of garden locations or the purposes of equipment in photo captions. The writing is clear and impassioned, and the advice practical: Danks stresses, for instance, that school gardens should never be “finished,” and points out that natural things will wear out or need to be replaced periodically so that funding should be allocated appropriately.
Parents, teachers, school administrators, and community planners will all find this book both helpful and revealing; children will find the results magical.
- Marlene Y. Satter
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Re:place Magazine
Dec 15, 2010
Asphalt to Ecosystems does a great job targeting its audience: teachers, students, and community activists. It is heavy on practical advice and detailed examples while being light on theory. Danks recognizes that some of the greatest challenges to such innovative playgrounds are liability legislation and a general fear of the unknown. Therefore, this book lays out a framework for change and supplements it with ample global examples. It is as much a call-to-action as an expose of works, and most definitely a wonderful addition to any elementary school library.
- Kevin J. Zhang
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Therapeutic Landscapes Network
This is the third year for TLN Blog book recommendations, and I have a couple of new ones to add to the list. The first is Sharon Danks' Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation. Although this book is not so much geared to home gardeners, it's so inspiring that it deserves a place on this list. It's a beautifully illustrated guide for turning the traditional school ground’s slab of asphalt into edible gardens, wildlife habitats, and vibrant creative spaces.
- Naomi Sachs
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Landscape Architecture Magazine
Jul 1, 2011
As I was reading this book I realized I wanted to buy boxes of it and send copies off to all officials involved in education at the national and state level—it is that good.
- Deborah Dalton
Asphalt to Ecosystems
CHPS
Dec 6, 2011
Danks sees the schoolyard as the perfect place to start engaging children with their environment. School gardens are an extension of the "school as a teaching tool," a microcosm for the potential that schools in general have to impart environmental awareness and stewardship on future leaders. Danks' book builds looks at the big picture for making a case for school gardens, but then moves into the practical with how to design, build and maintain school gardens on an ongoing basis.
- Bill Orr, CHPS Executive Director
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Chicago Tribune
Oct 13, 2010
Danks encourages teachers to take their students on field trips to their own schoolyards and "make their own schoolyard landscape a really rich teaching environment that will connect to their own teaching curricula."
The idea is that a thoughtfully designed garden can be used for reading, story time, poetry, art or any other subject, she said, adding schoolyards are perfect settings for composting, learning about insects, and creating wildlife habitats, rainwater purification systems and solar-powered pump systems for ponds.
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"Green" playgrounds can also include edible gardens, which can be used for teaching both science and nutrition. Placing large boulders around a campus can teach about geology as well as provide objects to play and sit on. Students can plant orchards, build outdoor puppet theaters and ovens, even raise chickens, Danks said.
"It's not about removing all the ballgames," she said. "It is trying to create balance by adding diversity to the schoolyard."
- Amanda Marrazzo
Asphalt to Ecosystems
FOSS Newsletter
Oct 1, 2011
Hands down, this is absolutely the most comprehensive book about greening schoolyards that I have seen, and I've seen most of them. The author's work involves photos from unbelievable green spaces from 11 countries around the world and spans a decade of research. If you have an inkling of desire to do some greening projects in a schoolyard or are looking for inspiration for yourself or others, this book provides all the information you need, along with saving you time and money. It is loaded with gorgeous photos of students working and learning outdoors in spaces that are now teeming with life but were once barren asphalt. The teacher in me focused on the many ways to organize seating outdoors. Some are simple seating arrangements using tree sections in a circle or various ways to have amphitheater seating. There are also photos of artful and functional cob bench sculptures or the dual functioning flower-shaped concrete raised tree bed that also provides seating.
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The book is brimming with integrated art projects that range from tile mosaics, painted asphalt, to willow sculptures. Often the art is functional and beautiful. These outdoor spaces are welcoming, provide ownership when created by students and parents, build community, and, of course, invite active learning right outside the classroom door. Concluding the book, Sharon Gamson Danks writes, "The examples in this book are intended to help you envision what is best for your school, to help you avoid 'reinventing the wheel.' Use this book as a springboard to develop your own ideas or tailor those you have read about to reflect your own school community and its geographic location. Dream of the schoolyard you would like to achieve and then help to shape this reality at your school." Asphalt to Ecosystems provides a wealth of information about how to create effective and beautiful spaces while simultaneously truly inspiring everyone to get out there and start building. Looking at the pictures of this book makes me want to get over to my kids' schoolyards and start working—and as a full-time working mother, that's saying something.
- Erica Beck Spencer
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Learning through Landscapes
Nov 1, 2010
It's fair to say that when Sharon Danks' book Asphalt to ecosystems: design ideas for schoolyard transformation landed on our desks at LTL, there was a bit of a fight over who would borrow it first; we are big fans of Sharon's work.
And it's a delightful book; meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated with full-colour photographs, combining persuasive arguments for change with a clear, accessible, writing style. Sharon has travelled widely in Europe and the US and there are stories and pictures from over 150 schools in 11 countries - including the UK.
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Those of you who attended LTL's international conference this summer will recall hearing Sharon talk passionately about her work in San Francisco and across the UK; many of the stunning images she showed are reproduced here, including a selection of 'before' and 'after' pictures that will amaze - can these really be the same schools? Yes - they are, and alongside the motivational pictures are case studies that explain the rationale and the processes behind the changes.
Carefully chosen images also illustrate Sharon's points about simple, effective interventions. For those schools aiming higher, there are inspirational examples of schools keeping animals, renewable energy programmes, managing play spaces with running water and offering urban learners spaces that begin to replicate natural, wild environments that they may never visit for real.
We would recommend this book to any school - primary and secondary - or PTA with an interest in taking learning outdoors, becoming 'greener' or providing richer play experiences. It's also an invaluable text for designers and planners, offering guidance on materials, planting and sustainability, based on real-life, successful examples in a wide range of different school contexts.
The easiest way to get a copy is via newvillagepress.net or other online retailers. Don't let the fact that it's an American edition put you off - if you are interested in broadening your curriculum outdoors or becoming a more sustainable school community, you'll find inspiration and practical help here.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Marinscope Community Newspaper
Nov 3, 2010
Who ever thought that schoolyards could be so much fun and enriching for everyone in the community? All it takes is ongoing community support and involvement at every stage of site-specific planning, funding, construction and maintenance. "Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation" is more than an idea book; it will help inspire and guide change.
- Jeanne Santangelo
Asphalt to Ecosystems
GardenABCs
Wow! I wish this book had been around years ago when I first got involved with my local school's outdoor classroom. It offers ideas from 150 schools in 11 countries that have successfully changed uninspiring, outdoor 'dead space' into thriving, creative learning environments. It gives guidelines for building everything from wildlife sanctuaries and edible gardens to sustainable energy and water systems, and offers ideas for encouraging creative play and connecting curriculum. Great photos illustrate how children interact with the natural world, art and academics in the outdoor classroom.
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This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to transform -- or continue transforming -- their schoolyard, park or outdoor community space. It will cause you to look at your children's or student's play space with brand new eyes... and that's a very good thing. Every school administrator and park official should have a copy of this inspiring manual on her desk.
- Anne Nagro, GardenABCs founder and author of kids' garden-based books
Asphalt to Ecosystems
enVisionGreen
Nov 18, 2010
The essential guidebook for communities who are concerned for the future of their children comes to us from our friends at New Village Press. "Asphalt to Ecosystems" by Sharon Danks provides designers, educators, parents and communities with useful information for transforming a school's uninviting, unimaginative hardscaped areas into healthy, positive learning environments.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
School Garden Weekly
Mar 9, 2011
The book's abundant illustrations and stories show readers how ecological schoolyards can improve students' classroom performance, increase self-esteem, better lifestyle practices, and instill in young students a much-needed sense of environmental stewardship.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Therefore
Oct 13, 2011
I couldn't help but think that the program advocated here echo an older time. A time when children were taught about the world as they worked in it, as they experienced it with their family. Alas, now, how many times do we hear how little time families spend together? Now the schools we force our children into must be transformed to give them the experiences we as parents are not giving them. Parents should read this book. Schools should read this book. Maybe some of these ideas can be put to work at your own local school. Or, just maybe, some families could institute these or similar ideas at home. A yard, front or back, could benefit from the same changes promoted in the book for school grounds. Small gardens at home can be educational and even help a family move towards a self-sufficient status. So use this material wherever you can. Unleash some creativity.
- Gray Hunter
Asphalt to Ecosystems
The Midwest Book Review
Dec 10, 2010
"Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation" is a call for schoolyards to transform their unused grassland and asphalt yards into something more useful and educational.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
HarvestH2O.com
Sharon's book is highly unique and lovingly written. In addition to being well organized, it offers marvelous pictures that greatly add to this insightful and extremely useful guide. I highly recommend this book to anyone involved in improving our local schools and also those wanting to get involved.
- Doug Pushard
Asphalt to Ecosystems
www.lifelab.org
Aug 22, 2011
Sharon Danks, author of Asphalt to Ecosystems – Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformations, shares a vision of creating outdoor learning spaces as places of beauty and inspiration for natural interactions. From her travels around the world documenting stellar examples of schoolyard greening and her experience as an Environmental Planner, Sharon provide ideas and resources for anyone interested in creating change on a school campus or outdoor community space. Her book highlights ecological teaching tools such as energy, water, and garden systems. Additionally she outlines how to plan for schoolyard transformation and includes hundreds of photos of "green" schoolyard design. Her emphasis on demonstrating ways to encourage outdoor play make this book useful for parents as well.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
CLEARING: A Resource Journal of Environmental and Placed-Based Education
Feb 1, 2011
With this handbook to guide the planning, design, and implementation process, educators, parents, students, designers, and environmental activists will see the potential for redesigning under-utilized schoolyard spaces to cultivate richer learning and play experiences.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Connect Magazine
Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, by Sharon Gamson Danks, is an outstanding resource that considers multiple views of outdoor school spaces: learning, safety, fun, habitat, and sustainability. The book shares examples from more than 150 schools in 11 countries. There is great advice here and lots of inspiration.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Ecological Landscape Association
Aug 16, 2011
The transformation of our nation's asphalt and turf schoolyards into thriving educational and inspirational Green Space sounds like the ultimate "kumbaya" notion. A notion that one might assume would surely suffocate under mountains of red tape. Asphalt to Ecosystems proves that this idea is more than a fuzzy feeling and can become a tangible reality.
- Trevor Smith
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Green Teacher Magazine
Jul 1, 2011
This book is an important edition to the growing body of literature on green schoolyard transformation, and is a must-have for school district libraries as well as an asset for all schools.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
Sustainable Communities Online
The book is filled with examples that show that many things are possible on school sites, and supports that idea with approximately 500 colorful photographs from roughly 150 schools in 11 countries. The book is fully indexed and includes an extensive resource section and bibliography.
Asphalt to Ecosystems
City Farmer News
Asphalt to Ecosystems is a compelling color guidebook for designing and building natural schoolyard environments that enhance childhood learning and play experiences while providing connection with the natural world.
