Outdoor learning lab approaches finish line
Project for Jefferson Elementary in Pullman has been aided by WSU architecture students
With spring underway and summer in sight, Jefferson Elementary in Pullman held a celebration of its partially completed outdoor learning lab Thursday, promising students the space will be ready for use when they return in the fall.
The project, located in a “U” shaped courtyard between the major wings of the school, will incorporate five learning zones, including a small amphitheater, an edible garden and a nature journaling area.
“We’ll pretty much be completed with the zones by the end of summer,” PTA Fundraising Chairwoman Meg Gollnick said. “Really, once the school year starts, that’s when the vegetable area will be planted and we’ll have things in the greenhouse growing to be transplanted and all those things.”
Gollnick said the project has been largely funded through donations and grants, but she estimated they have saved around $35,000 by collaborating with architecture students from Washington State University. She said other schools in Pullman, including Lincoln Middle School and Franklin Elementary, are in the process of developing their own outdoor spaces, and she plans to be involved with those projects as well.
Jena Jauchius, an instructor with WSU’s landscape architecture program, said her design-build class has helped with much of the project’s execution, including handling construction documents and refining designs of the space. She said this project is a great way for her students to cut their teeth on real world architecture projects, but there are peripheral benefits for both groups when college students interact with the children.
“There’s so much that happens that goes well beyond the actual product of the space,” Jauchius said. “For the young ones, for them to know that we’re celebrating them and we’re doing all this hard work for them, I think is really important for them to know.”
The handful of Jauchius’s students in attendance Thursday said there were conceptual designs of the space in place when they came on board but it was left to them to figure out how the project would come together. Molly Landin, a junior, said not only has the project been a creative outlet for them to test their design skills, but it has also been a harsh dose of reality for students used to constructing conceptual drawings. Imagining the possibilities of a project is one thing, Landin said, but constructing those projects while respecting a budget and available materials has been an important learning experience.
“Even more than that, this is our legacy in Pullman — most of us are going to be moving out of here,” added WSU student and project manager Jaime Kemple. “When we leave, this is the one thing that we can say we definitively contributed this to the Pullman community and the Pullman community has contributed a lot to us.”
Scott Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.
