STRONG — Day Mountain Regional Middle School recently created an outdoor classroom thanks to a large donation of stumps from Rob Thorndike and Maple Hill Forest-Tree. The new classroom space, with rows of stumps serving as desks and seats allows students to learn in a natural environment, enhancing their educational experience.
“This donation from Rob was exactly what we needed to get this classroom started,” said Jami Badershall, the school’s library technician. “I asked him what he thought it would cost to get some stumps. I looked at pictures, and some of the setups had a taller stump for a table and a shorter one for the seat.” She said Thorndike wanted to donate the stumps. “He came with a huge load of stumps and dropped them off. We had the kids go out one day and start setting them up.”
The outdoor classroom occupies a fenced area that was once a playground for pre-kindergarten students before the school restructured as a middle school. “We had this space just sitting there unused,” she said. “It’s close enough to the school that we can still access Wi-Fi, which makes it versatile. We didn’t need to go far to find the perfect spot,” Badershall explained.
Badershall is using the outdoor classroom to support the school’s Wabanaki studies curriculum, inspired by the Maine Department of Education’s emphasis on traditional teaching methods. “I’ve been building up our Wabanaki resources and wanted a Wabanaki project for the students,” Badershall shared. “In listening to presentations by Brianne Lolar, Panawahpskek citizen and Wabanaki Studies Team Leader for Maine’s Department of Education, she stressed using traditional teaching methods with talking circles and outdoor learning, so I thought that was a great use for an outdoor classroom, and we’ve already used it for a couple of lessons, including one about wikhikon or birchbark maps.”
“We made the maps in the classroom, and then we went out in the field and playground and had to follow each other’s map,” Badershall said. “They seemed to enjoy that.”
Looking forward, Badershall has plans to expand the outdoor classroom with additional features and resources. “I am working on grant stuff right now,” she said. “If we could get grant funds, we could add bird feeders with cameras so we can observe birds.” She said the Cornell Lab of Ornithology [CLO] collects data through various methods, including its Citizen Science program, which engages hundreds of thousands worldwide in recording bird observations.
Badershall said a native plant and pollinator garden is also in the works, giving students an opportunity to study ecosystems and observe local wildlife. “We have a garden up, and we are trying to redo that to make it a flower garden area with native plant species,” Badershall said. “Another area where they can look at ecosystems. And put more bird feeders out there.”
In addition to natural studies, the school plans to introduce technology to the outdoor classroom, using Micro Bits to test soil quality and measure temperatures, particularly in connection with maple sap flow studies. “We can test the soil with Micro Bits and use them on maple trees to test the temperature to know when it is ready to produce sap, to try to show it doesn’t have to be all one or the other,” she explained. “We can integrate that technology piece, that STEM piece, with what we are doing outdoors.”
For Badershall, who previously worked as a library technician at Day Mountain Regional from 2009 to 2012 and returned last year, this project is a blend of personal passion and dedication to enhancing students’ learning experiences. “I am always trying to think of different things we can do for the kids,” she said. “This outdoor classroom feels like a natural extension of that. Our students love being outside, and when we can connect it with academics everyone wins.”
