Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Title from PDF of title page (viewed July 10, 2009). Additional advisors: William W. Andrews, David E. Vance, Kirstin J. Bailey, Lynda L. Harrison. Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-59).

In this study, I investigated seven and eight-year-old children’s interest in the boreal forest in Yukon, Canada. This research attempts to provide insight on this topic by giving students autonomy over their movement in a diverse natural landscape, and by investigating where they go and what they do in a forest context. A mixed methodology approach was used to explore children’s interest in the boreal forest, and data were analyzed from the geospatial technology that was affixed to each child, and by inquiring about what the children enjoyed doing in the forest. Key findings from the study included: the importance of play as a primary means of interacting socially with the environment, children’s affiliation and fascination with living things as strong motivators for exploration, and the affordances the landscape offered the children, specifically loose parts (e.g., sticks, berries) and the diverse topography (e.g., hills for running, dense forest for hiding). Based on these findings, I contend that it is becoming increasingly important for educators, parents, and policy makers to understand the child-nature relationship and its relevance to young children. / Graduate

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary Catherine (Katie) Kingery-Page / Neighborhood parks can provide a place for children and teens to satisfy their curiosity and learn about nature. Without an open-space policy or regulation from the city, no park was proposed during the development of the neighborhood adjacent to Susan B. Anthony Middle School in Manhattan, Kansas. People have to cross Highway 113 (Sethchild Road) or Kimball Avenue to the closest parks: Marlatt and Cico. However, neither of them is within walking distance for children and teens in this neighborhood. As a result, families have to build private playgrounds in their own backyards. In addition, technological development makes children and teens prefer staying inside playing video games. Neither private playgrounds nor video games provide interaction with nature or social interaction around nature. This project considers how the middle school site, which sits on approximately 40 acres, can be designed as a neighborhood park to allow children and teens to have close nature access and experiential learning opportunities. To better understand what users really need, interviews with teachers and questionnaires for students determined their current and preferred future use of the school site. In addition, neighborhood children, who are not in the middle school, were interviewed about their play preferences. Observations of the school site usage during school time and after were recorded for design purposes. Six precedents were examined to compare and understand what works to connect children and young teens to nature. After analyzing user needs and physical conditions of the site, a neighborhood park design for the site of Susan B. Anthony Middle School was proposed. The proposed design meets both students’ experiential learning needs and the need of neighborhood children and young teens to connect to nature. Because the 40-acre schoolyard is a nationally recommended size for middle schools, this joint-use schoolyard and park concept can be applied cross the country where needed.

Submitted by Ricardo Cedraz Duque Moliterno (ricardo.moliterno@uefs.br) on 2015-09-30T21:45:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o_Izenildes.pdf: 1777189 bytes, checksum: 0469e81124302d46cbc37e8f42673af7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-30T21:45:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o_Izenildes.pdf: 1777189 bytes, checksum: 0469e81124302d46cbc37e8f42673af7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07-28 / This research starts by assuming that children, as natural and cultural beings, need to interact and live with the natural world. This is one of the children?s unquestionable rights and it is a condition for their fully development. Children?s separation from nature is one of the features of contemporary childhood. It is a result of a long historical process that started with modernity which instrumentalized nature for merchandizing ends and withdrew human beings from its conviviality. The consequences of this vision for infant schooling are the increase of an education distant from life, performed in self-contained spaces that imprison the body which gives no regard to the specifics of children cultures, thus, it blocks up children?s potentialities for development. This research had the goal to systematize meanings and senses expressed by children when in presence and in action in green areas in order to discuss the way these senses contribute to his/her construction as multi-dimensional beings. Our research (of qualitative approach) took place at the Apito Children School, located in the municipality of Cama?ari, State of Bahia, Brazil, where we promoted participant observation in a five year old children class and facilitated a focal group with four educators and five trainees. Among its approaches, it included: first childhood environmental education; organization of learning environment; children as culture producers; sensibility development as a necessary condition for the growth of new ways of life. Data revealed that green areas are the ones most preferable by the children, in which they play, interact, imagine and create - places where their bodies move freely in accordance with their own desires and interests. Furthermore, through planting and care for animals spontaneous experiences, children learn about the natural world and practice a loving attention for other forms of life. Thus, conviviality with other beings and elements of nature is one of the most primal means in our humanization process. Composed by rational, bodily, spiritual and emotional dimensions, our humanity enhances and enlarges itself in interaction with the natural world, which we are part, resulting in ways of being regulated mostly by sensibility. / Este estudo parte do pressuposto de que as crian?as, enquanto seres constitu?dos de natureza e de cultura, necessitam de conv?vio com o mundo natural, sendo este um dos seus direitos inalien?veis e uma das condi??es para que elas se desenvolvam plenamente. O afastamento das crian?as da natureza ? uma das caracter?sticas da inf?ncia contempor?nea e ? resultado de um longo processo hist?rico, que, a partir da era moderna, instrumentalizou a natureza para fins mercadol?gicos e retirou o ser humano do seu conv?vio. Uma das consequ?ncias desta vis?o nas escolas da inf?ncia ? uma educa??o distante da vida, realizada em espa?os fechados que aprisionam o corpo, desconsideram as especificidades das culturas infantis, e, consequentemente, bloqueiam o desenvolvimento das potencialidades das crian?as. Esta pesquisa buscou sistematizar significados e sentidos expressos pelas crian?as quando convivem e atuam nas ?reas verdes e discutir de que modo estes sentidos contribuem para sua forma??o enquanto seres compostos de m?ltiplas dimens?es. A investiga??o, de natureza qualitativa, se deu na Escola Infantil Apito, no munic?pio de Cama?ari, Bahia, atrav?s da observa??o participante junto a uma turma de crian?as de cinco anos de idade e da realiza??o de um grupo focal com quatro educadoras e quatro estagi?rias. Teve, entre seus referenciais, os estudos sobre: a educa??o ambiental na primeira inf?ncia; a organiza??o dos ambientes de aprendizagem; a escuta das crian?as enquanto produtoras de cultura; o desenvolvimento da sensibilidade como condi??o necess?ria para constru??o de novos modos de vida. Os dados revelam que as ?reas verdes s?o espa?os amplamente preferidos pelas crian?as, nos quais elas brincam, interagem, imaginam e criam, onde o corpo se movimenta livremente a partir de seus desejos e interesses. Al?m disso, pelas experi?ncias espont?neas, de plantios e cultivos, de cuidado com os animais, as crian?as aprendem sobre o mundo natural e exercitam o cuidado amoroso com outras formas de vida. Nossa humanidade, constitu?da pelas dimens?es racional, corporal, espiritual, emocional, se amplia e se aprofunda a partir da integra??o com o mundo natural, do qual somos parte, resultando em modos de viver pautados, prioritariamente, pela sensibilidade. O conv?vio com os demais seres e elementos da natureza ?, portanto, um dos caminhos primordiais em nosso processo de humaniza??o.

Twenty years ago the public schoolyards in Boston, Massachusetts were in a deplorable state: most were entirely paved, seriously neglected and used predominantly for parking. Since 1995, the Boston Schoolyards Initiative (BSI) has worked to transform these spaces into vibrant environments of recreation and learning. Renovations typically include adding play structures, gardens, murals and seating that can engage children at recess or support an educational activity. Recent research has shown that BSI renovations have had a positive impact on student academic performance (Lopez, Jennings and Campbell, 2008), but little attention has yet focused on how these revived and greened spaces have contributed to citywide urban greening efforts and to the environmental quality of their surrounding neighborhoods. This study uses design plans and GIS data to compare pre- and post-renovation canopy cover and pervious surfaces at 12 BSI schools. Data analysis included both an examination of the percent increase in canopy cover and pervious surfacing as well as exploration of the spatial configuration of green space and play space within the newly designed schoolyards. Data indicates that overall BSI renovations have a slightly positive impact on canopy cover and pervious surfacing, but gains are not uniform and many schools are left not meeting citywide goals for canopy cover and pervious surfacing. In addition, schoolyard designs emphasized traditional play structures and paved spaces, subordinating opportunities for children to interact with vegetation. Although eight school renovations included an outdoor classroom with natural features, only one provided any space for children to interact more informally with vegetation. Schools are organized into five different typologies based on the proportions of spaces they contain and spatial configurations, and one typology is recommended as a model for future renovations. In conclusion, this study addresses the challenges and constraints facing urban schoolyard renovations and proposes a framework for integrating recommendations in an iterative experimental manner.