Use the courtyard now in the easiest, lowest-cost way
Add benches - manufactured or log-salvaged - to sit and watch the grass grow and pollinators and birds visiting. Expand mulch beds where indicated. This will provide places for benches without complicating the mowing pattern.
Add some or all of the rock slope, since it will be harder to install as more plants are added to the courtyard.
Add bird feeders along the path edges, within sight of classroom windows, but near trees or shrub beds - for escape cover.
Natural settings promote inquiry. This spontaneous activity can be promoted through daily observation journals, structured to keep a seasonal record of visiting birds, insects, and other wildlife. These observations provide data for investigation of natural patterns and for inquiry into systems. Journals can be individual, emphasizing writing skills and drawing (cf. Thoreau, Clare Leslie Walker). They can be group projects, shared language arts experience, or library reference. Records can be kept on computer to become a data bank for the entire school.
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• Can you map the wildlife in the courtyard; what habitat is preferred by what wildlife?
• Keep records of the sun and shade pattern in the courtyard over the school year; how do they change?
• Keep records of weather and temperature; do these correlate with leaf fall, budding of trees and shrubs,
visits of migrating birds?
• Which part of the courtyard is warmest on a winter day? Why? Record temperature differences in sun
and shade. How long does a boulder hold its heat after the sun moves past? Is this a straight-line function
or does the process accelerate at some point? Why?
• How does a tree grow? If a small tree has a limb at three-foot height, will it still be at three feet next year,
or does it grow up with the tree? Which trees grow fastest, which slowest? How do you measure
tree height anyway?
TREES
Bp Betula papyrifera, Paper birch
Pn Pinus nigra austriaca, Black pine
Sa Sorbus americana, American mountain ash
Bd Buddleia davidii, Butterfly bush
Hvn Hamamelis vernalis, Vernal witchhazel
Cd Cotoneaster dammeri, Bearberry cotoneaster
Cp Comptonia perigrina, Sweetfern
Cs Cornus sericea, Redosier dogwood
Cso Symphoricarpos orbiculatus, Coralberry
Mm Pinus mugo (Dwarf mugo pine)*
Mp Myrica pensylvanica, Bayberry
Vo Viburnum opulus var. americanum-trilobum,
American cranberrybush
Restore the habitat/plant association concept
Start the slowest growing plants
Begin to establish the intended spatial arrangement
• Remove the shrub bed at the west end of the meadow near the art room. The bed interrupts the swath of pollinator meadows across the site; neither species is native North America nor suited to the plant association concept. Remove the Pinus mugo (Mugo pine) from campus (preferably). Remove (preferably) the Buddleia davidii (Buddleia) to shrubby edges of the campus, or transplant to the library door and southeast door, as shown. Monitor carefully to keep the plant from escaping to other parts of the courtyard.
• Transplant three Juniperus horizontalis (Creeping juniper) near the library door to the east edge, as shown.
• Remove two of the three Viburnum opulus (American cranberrybush) near the art room windows - transplant to the outer campus by the southeast play yard fence. Although possibly bringing birds close to the window, the growth habit of these plants will block the light and view over time. In addition, European cranberrybush is often mistakenly named as the native species - its wildlife value is not as high.
• Remove Symphoricarpos orbiculatus (Coralberry) to woods-edge in outer campus. This species is not native to MA and not suited to the plant association concept. Replace it with trees as shown.
• Move one of the two Hamamelis vernalis (Vernal witchhazel) from art room door to north wall. The dense, rounded growth habit of two plants would begin to block the light and view. This species is not native to the Northeast but is suited to the Woods Edge associations as a contrast to Common witchhazel.
• Move two Myrica pensylvanica (Bayberry) at the west edge of The Hilltop Knoll to the northwest edge of The Clearing, as shown. The dense, rounded growth habit of this species is not suited to the leggy, open character of other plants on The Hilltop Knoll.
• Remove three Cotoneaster dammeri (Bearberry cotoneaster) from campus (preferably). This plant may mimic the native Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), but it is not native to North America, and neither plant is common to a hilltop association.
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• Plant identification: Color, texture, shape, and character.
• Leaf prints, use of field guides, sorting, categorizing, hierarchy, record keeping, ecology.
• Botanical terms and concepts: leaf, stem, bud, flower, fruit, seed, germination, etc.
• Natural processes: pollination, reproduction, growing, dying, weather, drainage, erosion,
succession.
• Management processes: measurement, soil preparation, planting and transplanting, watering, fertilizing,
pruning, training, weeding,
Complete the Courtyard Plan
Pavers can be added to The Clearing incrementally, beginning at the concrete walk edges. These should be dry-laid on compacted sand or stone dust, with the finished surface even with the concrete walk and maintaining the existing slope to the drain inlet. Excavation of topsoil may be necessary, which can be used to fill raised planters in The Farm Garden. Pavers can be manufactured commercially or be handmade by classes.
Habitat amenities probably will have been added throughout the process to this point - bird feeders/baths/houses, seats, rainbarrels, shed. Expenditure on the waterfall and pond should probably wait till this point, since birdbaths and rainbarrels can substitute during the earlier stages. In order to conserve the water used in the stream and pond, this feature should have a recirculating pump. Avoid wasting electricity on running a pump,,,use electric power that is generated by humans or sun (and stored). Conventional pumping apparatus may be used, with the power source hooked up through a battery and generator/transformer to a recumbent bike or hand pedals (Click here for picture). Grants for exercise-related activity might fund the equipment. See the website of Humbolt State College Center for Appropriate Technology in California, which uses student power for non-essential electric use (www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/home).
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kinetic rain sculptures designed and built by students - modest constructions with movable parts that respond to raindrops.
The opportunities for first-hand experience and hands-on learning are the strength of this project.
Physical science concepts such as water flow, gravity, mechanical advantage, energy conservation, and transfer of energy can be explored first-hand at the application level.
Using the design process, students can apply principles learned in the classroom to solve real world problems in their own environment. The courtyard functions as a laboratory extension of the science classroom as well as a natural science curriculum on its own.
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