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I want to welcome our audience to this
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learned podcast it is in these podcasts
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that learn once you to meet experts that
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can help you and your work as school
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leaders or perhaps Partners in the
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education landscape the topic for this
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podcast is Outdoor Learning environments
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and our guest is Jaime Gonzalez Houston
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healthy cities director for The Nature
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Conservancy in Texas on the learn
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website you will find on the research
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page under the Coe of sustainability and
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the element of Outdoor Learning
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environments research in this area being
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discussed today along with potential
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resources to access
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Jaime I want to welcome you to the learn
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podcast it's good to have you here to
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speak with us about this important topic
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now I know because I've spoken with you
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many times that you have an extensive
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research and work background in the area
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of Outdoor Learning environments but
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would you please share that with the
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audience
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yeah sure thing it's great to be here
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with you David
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So in terms of my body work I've been an
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environmental educator for 25 years and
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I serve on the as the vice chair of the
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board of the North American Association
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for Environmental Education in in
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addition to my duties at The Nature
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Conservancy
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um
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and I've spent these 25 years mostly
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situating nature
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in onc on campuses or teaching kids uh
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in classes and workshops and Eagle Scout
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projects across the Greater Houston
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region so I've been able to see
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students from K to Gray and see what the
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impacts are for having nature nearby
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um I my background is in conservation
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biology I have a biology degree and I
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have a master's in Science Education
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with a focus on curriculum instruction
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environmental education issues analysis
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so I um I work with lots of school
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teachers over the years
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and and I can definitely you know I have
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the certainly the anecdotal information
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on on what nature means to students and
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teachers and how it can get them to
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better academic outcomes but also just
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better mental and physical health
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outcomes
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yeah and that's super important these
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days we talk about obviously the
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academic impact of covid but probably
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the emotional impact has been as
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significant if not more so and so I
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think there's a lot of research on there
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I'm sure you'll talk about that a little
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bit I am curious in your in your
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background just knowing what we've been
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doing and developing learn have you had
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a great deal of experience is it
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relatively new experience working with
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Architects as as districts start
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planning for the development of new
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buildings can you speak to that some
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absolutely
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so for the vast majority of my career I
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worked with pre-existing campuses
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oftentimes with teachers as we know that
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are
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have way too many duties on their plate
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and they're often asked to raise the
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money install and maintain these outdoor
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habitats now the outdoor habitats
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themselves
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work wonderfully as outdoor classrooms
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as learning opportunities project-based
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opportunities
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but they're very hard to maintain and
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because of teacher turnover sometimes
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they go away when the teacher leaves um
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so what what we've decided to do I'm
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working with Melissa turnbaugh at a
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school Architecture Firm called pbk to
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kind of rethink what a college or a
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Class A campus can look like and what I
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mean by that is
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um if we can use much of the campus for
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nature and what we call nature-based
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Solutions which are basically using the
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power of nature to do things instead of
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just small Pockets what you get is you
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get two things one is you lessen the
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burden on teachers because operations
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and maintenance can actually maintain
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this very large nature and then as far
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as the learning is concerned you have
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more options because the bigger the
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nature the more options you have and the
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less time you're spending maintaining it
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the more time you have for instruction
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time and and your focus so we're working
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on a Model campus in a leaf which is uh
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in southwest Houston where we're
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restoring about four and a half acres of
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historic ecosystems Prairie Wetlands and
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over 200 trees on this campus so what it
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is is it's really like I I tell people
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it's like a postage stamp national park
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for kids who are principally apartment
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dwellers so as we look to become more
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resilient with our neighborhoods as we
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look to give more nature experiences to
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kids particularly kids in underserved
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communities or Park deserts
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using that public infrastructure is
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going to be a cost-effective healthy way
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of getting there
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yeah and I I think this a new kind of
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level of expertise that you're venturing
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into is really exciting and and I think
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a future of potential a potential future
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that is
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in in the construction world as well as
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we start you know kind of sight locating
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things and thinking about those site
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locations that's what's really exciting
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I want the listeners to hear is this
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isn't just about existing space and and
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reframing that existing space it's about
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the future of construction of of
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buildings as well and you're you're
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getting very involved very early in that
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in that area and that to me is very
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exciting now
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you've done a lot of work in this for a
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lot of years so you you know the
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research you know what it says about
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student engagement it's about student
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behaviors about the emotional states of
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students what and whatnot but we don't
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have all the time in the world decide
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all that research right now but if you
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could cite two or three pieces of
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research that you think our audience
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would really like to hear right now what
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would that be
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yeah I think you know pointing back to
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something you said earlier go to the
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learn website and pick up some of these
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pieces of information there's also a
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really great website
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um with the children of nature Network
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which is the national group and there's
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a whole research library that points to
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the benefits of nature the academic
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benefits the mental health benefits and
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the the physical benefits but there's
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another piece which is the community
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benefit how does it increase social
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cohesion at a time where Society seems
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to be very much strained in terms of
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building Community right so in terms of
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the research it's pretty clear now
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particularly after the pandemic some of
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the benefits so things like increased
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attention and I know that as a child I
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actually struggled with attention a lot
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and so I got sent outside to read under
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a tree now that's not going to happen in
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the modern classroom anymore
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but if you create environments that help
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to lessen the symptoms of ADHD or
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attention or Focus issues and nature has
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a proven track record of doing this then
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everything becomes better for the other
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students involved and for the student
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who who might be impacted with those
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attention issues another thing that um
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that the research shows is that a
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certain amount of nature exposure can
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increase science test scores
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and that makes a lot of sense because
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you know when we talk about the sorts of
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creativity the sources of uh of kind of
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open play and discovery that encourages
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different ways of coming to solutions
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that nature gives it makes sense that
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when you're in situations where you're
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trying to find out and be creative about
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solutions that that is that's an
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environment that's conducive to that
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it's not for nothing I'm a huge fan of
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Science Fiction and a lot of the early
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science fiction writers like Jules Verne
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and H.G Wells and other people spend a
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lot of time in nature because it opens
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up the trajectory of your horizons in a
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way that's expansive you know other
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things obviously there is a lot of
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concern and rightly so over physical
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health
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um and the increase of things like
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diabetes amongst the population so
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anytime you can get kids outside whether
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it's structured or in Nature's natural
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settings it's always a great thing
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but here's one thing that popped out of
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the pandemic which I think is super
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super important for our students and for
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our our wonderful teachers and
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administrators
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loneliness
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so loneliness is a is a pandemic unto
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itself in the United States and it was
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just worsened by covet but it was
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already there and became way worse after
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covid
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so some researchers just dropped some
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research here recently about the impacts
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of spending time in nature and the
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feelings of loneliness and what they
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looked at is they looked at a couple of
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variables one was
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if you were to go to a Civic space what
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would that do to feelings of loneliness
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well it dropped it quite a bit as you
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would probably guess
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but they also looked at danger if you
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just went outside even if you weren't
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with anybody and you could see the trees
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in the sky and other natural processes
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the seasons what would that do to
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feelings of loneliness and it dropped 19
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wow and that's because we feel connected
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right with the rest of nature we have
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this biophilia in us this love of nature
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and if you mix the two you had Civic
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spaces with nature then it dropped by 40
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percent
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interesting
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um so I think where I'm going with that
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is it's not for nothing that many of us
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adults save up for 50 weeks of the year
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and then go spend two weeks out of
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Yellowstone Park or somewhere right
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guilty me too and so why wait 50 weeks
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to get there why not create these many
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national parks on school campuses so the
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kids like the kids were working with in
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a leaf were so beautiful but have
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limited options in terms of
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Transportation this may be the only
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nature that they get in a day so let's
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not wait uh until they have to grow up
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and get a job and afford that Let's Make
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nature as equally distributed and the
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beautiful thing about schools as you
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know David is they're fairly equally
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distributed by population this is a
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piece of public infrastructure that can
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help us get to Nature Equity very fast
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if we do it the right way
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a really really powerful message and
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thank you for that Jaime it's
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interesting as you're talking though I'm
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reflecting on a conversation I had with
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another partner on one of these podcasts
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and they citing research out of the
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University of Oregon on something called
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fractals and it's fascinating because it
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really comes out of studying nature yeah
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and looking through patterns in nature
281
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and it relaxes the brain which kind of
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coincides with what you're talking about
283
00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:32,820
it just creates a relaxation you don't
284
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know what's happening really powerful
285
00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:36,959
stuff and so that's right that's very
286
00:10:36,959 --> 00:10:38,760
exciting stuff now if a district wanted
287
00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:40,080
to engage in
288
00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:41,820
really going down this path of either
289
00:10:41,820 --> 00:10:43,440
designing with new construction or
290
00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,440
redesigning existing spaces what are
291
00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:48,959
some of the positive outcomes that you
292
00:10:48,959 --> 00:10:51,060
could predict they're going to see right
293
00:10:51,060 --> 00:10:52,560
away and they would want to communicate
294
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to their public yeah so I think you
295
00:10:54,660 --> 00:10:58,140
there's several things one is there's an
296
00:10:58,140 --> 00:11:00,360
outside portion obviously getting kids
297
00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:02,519
up in nature and doing it in a safe way
298
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a manageable way
299
00:11:04,260 --> 00:11:05,880
but I just I wanted to point out one
300
00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:07,200
thing you can do inside the building
301
00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:10,560
which is there's a lot of evidence in
302
00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:12,899
terms of seeing nature and how it
303
00:11:12,899 --> 00:11:15,120
reduces stress levels now you don't
304
00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:17,279
actually have to see like real nature to
305
00:11:17,279 --> 00:11:18,839
see all that benefit so one of the
306
00:11:18,839 --> 00:11:20,220
things that we're doing at this alien
307
00:11:20,220 --> 00:11:22,079
campus is we're going to be in placing
308
00:11:22,079 --> 00:11:24,060
big pictures of nature
309
00:11:24,060 --> 00:11:26,220
and I tell people like when you go to
310
00:11:26,220 --> 00:11:28,440
get your hospital procedure if you
311
00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:29,700
notice like when you go in the hospital
312
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they don't have pictures of like rock
313
00:11:32,220 --> 00:11:35,459
groups or abstract art or other things
314
00:11:35,459 --> 00:11:38,160
like that because nature is proven to
315
00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,320
really reduce your stress levels so one
316
00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:42,540
of the things that that I can I can
317
00:11:42,540 --> 00:11:44,700
assure you is that there is nature
318
00:11:44,700 --> 00:11:47,760
present in classrooms in hallways and
319
00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:49,860
certainly outside that it's going to
320
00:11:49,860 --> 00:11:51,360
have something of a stress relieving
321
00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:54,120
value because that's just documented I
322
00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:55,980
think uh another thing is you know
323
00:11:55,980 --> 00:11:57,180
depending whether you're doing new
324
00:11:57,180 --> 00:11:58,800
construction you're doing uh you're
325
00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:00,540
working on an existing campus and you're
326
00:12:00,540 --> 00:12:03,959
retrofitting nature or rewilding in a
327
00:12:03,959 --> 00:12:06,420
certain sense on that campus I think
328
00:12:06,420 --> 00:12:08,399
you're gonna there are several steps
329
00:12:08,399 --> 00:12:09,480
there's you know there's Community
330
00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:11,160
involvement like what do people want to
331
00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:12,779
see what kinds of nature are they
332
00:12:12,779 --> 00:12:14,339
Gardens are they wildlife habitats
333
00:12:14,339 --> 00:12:16,440
pollinator guards a mixture of all those
334
00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:18,720
things so I think that from the very
335
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:20,760
beginning the actual process of trying
336
00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:22,440
to figure out what can go in that space
337
00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:25,200
can help to start build community so
338
00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:28,200
social cohesion can start very quickly
339
00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:31,019
as you develop that site what you will
340
00:12:31,019 --> 00:12:33,300
see is if you're if you're going out and
341
00:12:33,300 --> 00:12:34,680
using it
342
00:12:34,680 --> 00:12:36,420
is I think you're going to find that
343
00:12:36,420 --> 00:12:39,540
kids a lot of times are going to be so
344
00:12:39,540 --> 00:12:42,060
captivated especially in the uh well in
345
00:12:42,060 --> 00:12:44,040
all the grades but K through five for
346
00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:45,480
sure where you're trying to build this
347
00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:47,579
this love of the natural world and
348
00:12:47,579 --> 00:12:49,380
you're trying to also give them an
349
00:12:49,380 --> 00:12:51,779
insight into what they're inheriting
350
00:12:51,779 --> 00:12:54,300
um and the responsibilities
351
00:12:54,300 --> 00:12:55,620
um I think you're going to find that
352
00:12:55,620 --> 00:12:58,620
kids are you know sometimes we hear that
353
00:12:58,620 --> 00:13:00,720
you know kids have changed and you know
354
00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:02,040
kids aren't like what they used to be
355
00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:03,839
when we were kids and I would push back
356
00:13:03,839 --> 00:13:07,320
on that to say that that's not true kids
357
00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:09,839
still very much love nature they're
358
00:13:09,839 --> 00:13:11,760
still in love with the Wonder of the
359
00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:14,339
thing and all the questions and all the
360
00:13:14,339 --> 00:13:16,500
all the ways in which you can study it
361
00:13:16,500 --> 00:13:18,540
whether it's arts or science or math or
362
00:13:18,540 --> 00:13:20,760
whatever they just love being in nature
363
00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:23,700
and in some ways because we have such a
364
00:13:23,700 --> 00:13:25,860
such a world with so many screens nature
365
00:13:25,860 --> 00:13:27,959
is a novel thing for so many kids so so
366
00:13:27,959 --> 00:13:30,360
there's a novelty thing so I think what
367
00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:31,800
you're going to see is a lot of
368
00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:34,680
Engagement a lot of curiosity and also
369
00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:36,959
so I think it's I think that you know
370
00:13:36,959 --> 00:13:39,060
students these days are very concerned
371
00:13:39,060 --> 00:13:42,600
with the the health of the planet health
372
00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:45,240
of Nature and one thing that is surely
373
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:48,839
clear in the research now is that many
374
00:13:48,839 --> 00:13:50,880
students particularly middle school and
375
00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,459
up are feeling echoing what's called
376
00:13:53,459 --> 00:13:56,160
eco-anxiety real concern about the
377
00:13:56,160 --> 00:13:58,139
planet the climate all that stuff and
378
00:13:58,139 --> 00:13:59,399
it's been shown that if you give them
379
00:13:59,399 --> 00:14:01,980
even smaller tasks that are that are
380
00:14:01,980 --> 00:14:04,620
moving towards stewardship that that
381
00:14:04,620 --> 00:14:06,540
really helps to alleviate some of these
382
00:14:06,540 --> 00:14:08,399
societal things that come into our
383
00:14:08,399 --> 00:14:10,500
schools so I think there's a lot of
384
00:14:10,500 --> 00:14:12,959
academic and emotional and societal
385
00:14:12,959 --> 00:14:14,100
benefit
386
00:14:14,100 --> 00:14:16,260
now but like anything else and and I
387
00:14:16,260 --> 00:14:17,639
appreciate those positives and agree
388
00:14:17,639 --> 00:14:18,660
with them I was actually as you're
389
00:14:18,660 --> 00:14:20,940
talking on in my own head imagining my
390
00:14:20,940 --> 00:14:22,740
time as a child in my backyard which
391
00:14:22,740 --> 00:14:24,560
consists of woods
392
00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:27,420
how great that was to just walk through
393
00:14:27,420 --> 00:14:29,100
and explore and just be in a constant
394
00:14:29,100 --> 00:14:31,200
state of exploration you know I want
395
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:32,519
that for our children as well but like
396
00:14:32,519 --> 00:14:33,959
anything else in redesign or
397
00:14:33,959 --> 00:14:35,279
Construction
398
00:14:35,279 --> 00:14:38,100
they're often implementation barriers if
399
00:14:38,100 --> 00:14:39,480
a district was interested in this work
400
00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:40,800
what would be the thing you'd want them
401
00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:43,079
to be aware of not to be dissuasive of
402
00:14:43,079 --> 00:14:45,240
doing the work but that you want to make
403
00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:46,740
sure they were fully aware of as a
404
00:14:46,740 --> 00:14:48,540
potential barrier to this work yeah
405
00:14:48,540 --> 00:14:49,920
absolutely and there are multiple
406
00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:51,779
barriers that exist all of them can be
407
00:14:51,779 --> 00:14:53,940
overcome but yeah you have to take that
408
00:14:53,940 --> 00:14:56,339
stuff seriously one is that there is
409
00:14:56,339 --> 00:15:02,100
you'll need to find a firm that is not
410
00:15:02,100 --> 00:15:03,660
just able to do this but it's
411
00:15:03,660 --> 00:15:05,519
enthusiastic
412
00:15:05,519 --> 00:15:07,620
an Architecture Firm in a landscape
413
00:15:07,620 --> 00:15:10,800
Architecture Firm and that's because
414
00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,260
this is not the regular cookie cutter
415
00:15:13,260 --> 00:15:16,079
way of doing things and David as you
416
00:15:16,079 --> 00:15:18,660
know you've worked on getting designs
417
00:15:18,660 --> 00:15:21,480
for very novel campuses there's a lot of
418
00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:22,860
hand-holding that needs to happen
419
00:15:22,860 --> 00:15:25,980
between you and the design team and then
420
00:15:25,980 --> 00:15:28,199
during the implementation
421
00:15:28,199 --> 00:15:30,980
because folks that put together school
422
00:15:30,980 --> 00:15:33,899
campuses don't often work in these ways
423
00:15:33,899 --> 00:15:35,940
they plant trees in straight lines and
424
00:15:35,940 --> 00:15:38,339
they cut holes that are square to hold
425
00:15:38,339 --> 00:15:40,380
water and things like that so if you
426
00:15:40,380 --> 00:15:42,300
want a naturalistic design that really
427
00:15:42,300 --> 00:15:46,040
is approximating a park like atmosphere
428
00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:50,279
working very intentionally and and also
429
00:15:50,279 --> 00:15:52,260
there's a couple other pieces one piece
430
00:15:52,260 --> 00:15:55,260
is this managing perceptions
431
00:15:55,260 --> 00:15:59,639
so we have grown up in a society that no
432
00:15:59,639 --> 00:16:03,600
longer finds Brown acceptable in many as
433
00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:05,220
soon as anything turns brown right rip
434
00:16:05,220 --> 00:16:07,860
it out and put some annuals in there so
435
00:16:07,860 --> 00:16:10,019
you know anytime you're working with uh
436
00:16:10,019 --> 00:16:12,540
with a college or college campus or I'm
437
00:16:12,540 --> 00:16:14,459
working on college campuses but K-12
438
00:16:14,459 --> 00:16:15,600
campuses
439
00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:19,139
you're gonna have to have a real great
440
00:16:19,139 --> 00:16:21,180
and open dialogue with the instructors
441
00:16:21,180 --> 00:16:23,459
and the administrators to say this
442
00:16:23,459 --> 00:16:26,699
campus is going to look different but
443
00:16:26,699 --> 00:16:28,740
it is going to serve your children
444
00:16:28,740 --> 00:16:30,959
differently too than a normal campus
445
00:16:30,959 --> 00:16:33,540
it's going to have many pro-health
446
00:16:33,540 --> 00:16:35,820
benefits and so it may look different
447
00:16:35,820 --> 00:16:37,980
but you know as somebody who grew up in
448
00:16:37,980 --> 00:16:39,600
the woods David and somebody who grew up
449
00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:41,279
I grew up in the woods too my backyard
450
00:16:41,279 --> 00:16:43,560
went right into the woods there is
451
00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:45,120
something profound about the human
452
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:47,880
condition in seeing seasonality seeing
453
00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:50,519
the seasons rotate through so even that
454
00:16:50,519 --> 00:16:52,980
brown phase is a part of that life it's
455
00:16:52,980 --> 00:16:55,199
a part of the big picture right so I
456
00:16:55,199 --> 00:16:57,000
think there's that the last piece David
457
00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,220
is really this it's about
458
00:16:59,220 --> 00:17:02,100
like plant selection and maintenance so
459
00:17:02,100 --> 00:17:03,839
the maintenance you have to have that
460
00:17:03,839 --> 00:17:05,760
worked out before you even get into the
461
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:07,140
building stage like who's going to
462
00:17:07,140 --> 00:17:09,120
maintain it
463
00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:11,579
um you should work with your architect
464
00:17:11,579 --> 00:17:14,100
or a local conservation group to create
465
00:17:14,100 --> 00:17:17,160
a a maintenance and restoration kind of
466
00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:19,140
manual so that they know kind of what is
467
00:17:19,140 --> 00:17:22,500
expected of this whole process right so
468
00:17:22,500 --> 00:17:26,339
that in a in a time of uncertainty which
469
00:17:26,339 --> 00:17:28,500
is trying something novel
470
00:17:28,500 --> 00:17:30,720
you've put as many guard rails there as
471
00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:32,460
possible so I have really continuous
472
00:17:32,460 --> 00:17:34,200
conversation with both the Architecture
473
00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:36,840
Firm and the school administration and
474
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:38,580
the district on this project because
475
00:17:38,580 --> 00:17:40,380
we're learning together and we're a team
476
00:17:40,380 --> 00:17:42,419
and we're supporting each other but it's
477
00:17:42,419 --> 00:17:45,539
a learning process and like you said you
478
00:17:45,539 --> 00:17:47,880
know schools are constantly being
479
00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:50,580
rebuilt or built so this is a great time
480
00:17:50,580 --> 00:17:53,460
to get in there and and try some new
481
00:17:53,460 --> 00:17:54,559
things
482
00:17:54,559 --> 00:17:57,660
yeah I agree with that and now you've
483
00:17:57,660 --> 00:17:59,340
worked with a number of districts over
484
00:17:59,340 --> 00:18:01,919
your time but really of late you've
485
00:18:01,919 --> 00:18:03,240
really started down this architectural
486
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:05,880
kind of path around this is there if a
487
00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:07,260
district was interested in exploring
488
00:18:07,260 --> 00:18:09,480
further is there a district that you
489
00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:10,980
would direct them to to kind of look at
490
00:18:10,980 --> 00:18:12,660
our school specifically that you would
491
00:18:12,660 --> 00:18:14,340
direct them to to kind of look at and
492
00:18:14,340 --> 00:18:16,080
and to get a better understanding of
493
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,419
this work yeah I think I think that
494
00:18:18,419 --> 00:18:20,340
they're there are scattered examples
495
00:18:20,340 --> 00:18:22,200
throughout the state
496
00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:24,480
um one of my favorite campuses that I've
497
00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:26,039
worked with for a long time is West Side
498
00:18:26,039 --> 00:18:28,260
High School in
499
00:18:28,260 --> 00:18:30,539
um in Houston ISD they have What's
500
00:18:30,539 --> 00:18:31,860
called the wolf Prairie it's this
501
00:18:31,860 --> 00:18:34,260
ecological Center on their campus it's
502
00:18:34,260 --> 00:18:35,640
not the whole campus but it's a pretty
503
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,640
good chunk the reason I like them is
504
00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:41,220
they have a couple of really Dynamic
505
00:18:41,220 --> 00:18:43,320
teachers who over the years have created
506
00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:45,480
kind of a whole pathway for learning
507
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:48,120
from 9th through 12th and it
508
00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:49,559
incorporates things like interpretation
509
00:18:49,559 --> 00:18:51,419
like how do you tell the story how do
510
00:18:51,419 --> 00:18:53,760
you study the ecology what impacts does
511
00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:56,340
it have on society variety so it's it's
512
00:18:56,340 --> 00:18:58,919
a more kind of holistic Vision but the
513
00:18:58,919 --> 00:19:01,380
kids also the students also do
514
00:19:01,380 --> 00:19:04,200
habitat restoration they grow out plants
515
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:05,940
things like that
516
00:19:05,940 --> 00:19:08,460
um you know and it's it unfortunately
517
00:19:08,460 --> 00:19:10,140
right now
518
00:19:10,140 --> 00:19:12,900
um the dynamic is with as of with many
519
00:19:12,900 --> 00:19:15,600
things as campus to campus
520
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,299
um you know really what we'd love to do
521
00:19:18,299 --> 00:19:20,700
is use examples like the one that we're
522
00:19:20,700 --> 00:19:22,980
doing to influence School bonding
523
00:19:22,980 --> 00:19:24,780
because if you can influence a whole
524
00:19:24,780 --> 00:19:27,000
tranche of schools that are being
525
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:29,640
created then you get this economy of
526
00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:31,559
scale both in the learning and the
527
00:19:31,559 --> 00:19:33,600
practice and so that's what we're going
528
00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:34,500
to try to do we're going to try to use
529
00:19:34,500 --> 00:19:36,900
this as a model teaching campus to teach
530
00:19:36,900 --> 00:19:39,600
other leaders educational leaders you
531
00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,120
know what are the benefits and and the
532
00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:43,980
the benefits are many and and I'll just
533
00:19:43,980 --> 00:19:45,539
point out one that I think a lot of
534
00:19:45,539 --> 00:19:48,059
people don't don't know because they
535
00:19:48,059 --> 00:19:51,179
just never been told and that is we have
536
00:19:51,179 --> 00:19:53,460
in places like Texas where we have
537
00:19:53,460 --> 00:19:57,360
relatively large campuses with Greenery
538
00:19:57,360 --> 00:19:59,160
uh you know some schools in the
539
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:00,360
Northeast and other places are very
540
00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:02,940
compacted but they're even rewilding
541
00:20:02,940 --> 00:20:04,200
those campuses they're ripping out
542
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:06,000
asphalt and putting in nature for all
543
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,280
its benefits but here in Texas we mow a
544
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:11,039
lot WeMo a lot you know some of these
545
00:20:11,039 --> 00:20:13,140
campuses get mowed 30 times a year
546
00:20:13,140 --> 00:20:16,320
and so not only is there a huge like tax
547
00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,679
burden for that but there's also a big
548
00:20:19,679 --> 00:20:21,840
Health burden in that every time you mow
549
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:24,840
you are creating air pollution
550
00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:26,520
and some of the chemicals that come out
551
00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:28,799
of the mowers is not so nice and you're
552
00:20:28,799 --> 00:20:30,960
contributing to ground level ozone and
553
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:32,520
particulate matter which you're not good
554
00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:35,400
for young lungs or old lungs either and
555
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,760
so there's a huge Health burden that
556
00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:42,240
comes with these giant mode campuses and
557
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:43,860
what we want to try to do right with our
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00:20:43,860 --> 00:20:45,720
students is do right by them both for
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00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,360
their future but also keep them as
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00:20:48,360 --> 00:20:50,520
healthy as possible so
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00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:52,140
um you know the areas that we're
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00:20:52,140 --> 00:20:54,419
restoring on this a-leaf campus are
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00:20:54,419 --> 00:20:56,820
going to get once one mode once a year
564
00:20:56,820 --> 00:20:59,580
right yeah so this is this incredible
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00:20:59,580 --> 00:21:01,020
work you're talking about just the
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00:21:01,020 --> 00:21:02,640
insights that I know as I've sat with
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00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:04,559
you over time it's just it's amazing
568
00:21:04,559 --> 00:21:06,960
insights I gain and and I I would never
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00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:07,919
even
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00:21:07,919 --> 00:21:09,960
qualify myself as an environmentalist
571
00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:11,880
but I have become more and more aware of
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00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:15,720
my role and as a leader in kind of uh
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00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,000
furthering our understanding the
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00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:19,320
environment and furthering frankly
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00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:21,419
access to that that natural environment
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00:21:21,419 --> 00:21:23,220
that's what we talked about now if a
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00:21:23,220 --> 00:21:24,480
district or partner we're interested in
578
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:26,520
exploring more deeply into this work how
579
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:28,200
would they go about contacting you to
580
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:30,240
arrange for deeper conversations yeah I
581
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:31,799
think there's a couple of a couple of
582
00:21:31,799 --> 00:21:34,679
avenues I'll give you my my email it's
583
00:21:34,679 --> 00:21:38,400
um hi mates j-a-i-m-e period Gonzalez
584
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:42,539
g-o-n z-a-l-e-z at TNC which stands for
585
00:21:42,539 --> 00:21:44,700
the natureconservancy.org
586
00:21:44,700 --> 00:21:47,760
I would also Point them to there's a
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00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:50,039
community of practice called The Green
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00:21:50,039 --> 00:21:53,820
Schools Green School yards and it's run
589
00:21:53,820 --> 00:21:56,580
by the cities connecting children or
590
00:21:56,580 --> 00:21:59,280
actually the the children nature Network
591
00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:01,580
and
592
00:22:01,580 --> 00:22:03,960
at that meeting you have people from all
593
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:06,840
over the nation sharing kind of best
594
00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:09,480
practices models what's happening
595
00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,360
Finance all of these things so
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00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:14,400
that green schoolyard's peer Learning
597
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:15,120
Network
598
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:17,460
I try to make as many of those meetings
599
00:22:17,460 --> 00:22:19,020
as I can because that's that's really at
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00:22:19,020 --> 00:22:21,120
the Vanguard of what's happening there
601
00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:23,159
and like I said there's so many exciting
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00:22:23,159 --> 00:22:26,100
things happening in really dense cities
603
00:22:26,100 --> 00:22:28,500
where they're pulling out asphalt and
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00:22:28,500 --> 00:22:30,000
they're putting in nature to capture
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00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:32,820
water and provide green Greenery to very
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00:22:32,820 --> 00:22:34,500
dense neighborhoods and there are other
607
00:22:34,500 --> 00:22:36,480
neighborhoods that are much bigger and
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00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:38,520
have different options and things like
609
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:41,340
that but but I you know I would I would
610
00:22:41,340 --> 00:22:43,799
find I would also say this
611
00:22:43,799 --> 00:22:45,539
um no matter where you are right no
612
00:22:45,539 --> 00:22:47,280
matter what district you're in you're
613
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:48,720
gonna have that teacher you're gonna
614
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:50,700
have that administrator you're gonna
615
00:22:50,700 --> 00:22:53,100
have somebody who has taken the chance
616
00:22:53,100 --> 00:22:57,179
of doing this and they know your local
617
00:22:57,179 --> 00:22:59,940
contacts backwards and forwards so I
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00:22:59,940 --> 00:23:01,620
think it's connecting with national
619
00:23:01,620 --> 00:23:03,299
folks but I also think it's just
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00:23:03,299 --> 00:23:05,159
connecting to your backyard the last
621
00:23:05,159 --> 00:23:06,840
thing I'll say one other group to to
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00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:08,760
contact is if you have a local Native
623
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,820
Plant Society right oftentimes they have
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00:23:11,820 --> 00:23:14,400
small grants to get you
625
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:16,740
um plants and things like that so that's
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00:23:16,740 --> 00:23:19,440
another resource to know about well
627
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:21,840
thank you Jaime and especially thank you
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00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:23,400
for being part of this important work of
629
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:25,020
supporting our students in schools and
630
00:23:25,020 --> 00:23:26,820
thank you for your participation in this
631
00:23:26,820 --> 00:23:29,419
learn podcast
