PAISBOA Sustainability Group gathered at The Philadelphia School on October 29, 2019.
The PAISBOA Sustainability Group convened at The Philadelphia School (TPS) on October 29, 2019. The theme for the evening: Nature Classrooms Outside. TPS Head of School, Lisa Sun, welcomed the 26 participants from 13 different schools. Director of Finance & Operations, Carol Lerner, kicked off a tour of the campus. Highlights included a visit to the playspace which contains loose parts for children to move, build, and explore, and a tour of the vegetable garden where the youngest students harvest green beans, celery, bok choy, tomatoes and spinach.
One of the inviting spots where TPS students engage in outdoor play.
TPS teacher Emily Soffa explained how the garden is central to all types of learning from mapping the garden to making dye in art class from the indigo plant. While the garden will soon be put to rest for the winter, the students will first harvest the remaining vegetables and herbs for an all school Thanksgiving salad.
TPS encourages its employees to reduce their environmental footprint. As an example, TPS pays employees to ride bikes or take public transportation.
After the tour, participants enjoyed a low-waste, plant-based dinner while TPS teachers shared a presentation on the school’s Green Flag Certification through National Wildlife Federation’s Eco Schools program, a video about their Seed to Table program explaining the benefits of getting children outside and gardening, and slides about their partner program with the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.
TPS students visit the Center one day a week for 10 weeks in the fall and again in the spring. While there, students participate in hands on, outdoor experiences. According to one 8th grader: “Before TPS I had never been in a forest so the Schuylkill Center has helped me get in touch with nature and discover new things. I have learned how to connect nature to all different subjects whether it be math to ELA.”
After a brief Q&A session, the group discussion focused on how schools incorporate nature and the responses included a school farm, greenhouse, bike program, and farm to table event.
The evening ended with a raffle prize of the book: Drawdown edited by Paul Hawken. Drawdown describes 100 substantive solutions to “drawing down” heat trapping gases.
The next PAISBOA Sustainability Meeting will be held at Agnes Irwin in January (date tbd) and in April (date tbd) at Germantown Academy. For more information about the PAISBOA Sustainability Group, contact Ron Hill at rhill@paisboa.org or Mary Ann Boyer at maryann@boyersudduth.com.
Article by Allison Day, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and intern at Boyer Sudduth Environmental Consultants.
