This thesis examines ways in which educational and community-building opportunities can be enhanced on a school/park site located in the proposed sustainable community of East Clayton. It explores ways in which children construct knowledge of their world, through processes of direct interaction with, manipulation of, and reflection on their immediate environment. It proposes how the designed landscape of a schoolground can support these formative processes within the context of evolving attitudes and values concerning environmental education, community, and sustainability. A threefold framework, based on the concepts of contextuality , constructiveness, and relational space, was developed as a means of addressing the sensori-motor, cognitive, and social facets of learning.

The deficiency of environmental understanding in conjunction with community and educational connections, isolates a problem. Few connections exist between the school, community, and the environment. Because of this, existing connections need to be enhanced and other connections need to be created. These linkages are essential to instilling ownership and stewardship of the land for the entire community. In addition, these linkages also provide vast opportunities for learning, observing, participating, and enjoying the environment.This creative project identifies and discusses the various issues that relate to the lack of connections between the school, the community, and the environment. From this analysis, three research questions evolved. To answer these questions, four case studies were reviewed and analyzed. The summary of these findings included the best features from each case study. These findings led to the formation of a model of design characteristics. The model was then applied to a site in central Indiana and led to the establishment of several design guidelines.These community-responsive guidelines are applicable to any site where connections between the school, community, and the environment are desired. / Department of Landscape Architecture

This thesis examines ways in which educational and community-building opportunities can be enhanced on a school/park site located in the proposed sustainable community of East Clayton. It explores ways in which children construct knowledge of their world, through processes of direct interaction with, manipulation of, and reflection on their immediate environment. It proposes how the designed landscape of a schoolground can support these formative processes within the context of evolving attitudes and values concerning environmental education, community, and sustainability. A threefold framework, based on the concepts of contextuality , constructiveness, and relational space, was developed as a means of addressing the sensori-motor, cognitive, and social facets of learning. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

The primary intent of this thesis is to demonstrate how the schoolyard, through physical diversification focusing on a three-fold paradigmatic framework, can become a significant educational environment able to support the physical, cognitive and developmental skills in children. Research is used as a tool to inform and support the designs. Discussed in the first two sections are the history and evolution of school grounds, play and the environment, the effects of place-identity on self-identity, as well as the power of place in pedagogy. The design framework is supported by precedent studies, intending to reflect the design principles, programs, ideas and values of the ecological, curriculum-based and narrative landscape design layers. The final master plan design is an amalgamation of these three layers, representing an educational setting that will foster a dynamic interchange between children and their milieu.

The primary intent of this thesis is to demonstrate how the schoolyard, through physical diversification focusing on a three-fold paradigmatic framework, can become a significant educational environment able to support the physical, cognitive and developmental skills in children. Research is used as a tool to inform and support the designs. Discussed in the first two sections are the history and evolution of school grounds, play and the environment, the effects of place-identity on self-identity, as well as the power of place in pedagogy. The design framework is supported by precedent studies, intending to reflect the design principles, programs, ideas and values of the ecological, curriculum-based and narrative landscape design layers. The final master plan design is an amalgamation of these three layers, representing an educational setting that will foster a dynamic interchange between children and their milieu. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

The purpose of this creative project was to develop a master plan for an outdoor learning lab for Daleville Elementary School (DES) in Daleville, Indiana. Utilizing a formal design process, including surveys, case study research, and site analysis, the best solution was devised specific to the needs of DES. Along with a design team from Daleville, additional DES faculty responded to a written survey to validate requests for various features. Daleville students participated in a design workshop to express their own ideas for outdoor learning activities and features. A site analysis was conducted on the school grounds utilizing criteria set for features within the design program. Three concepts were generated, leading to the development of the master plan. The research and design process used to create the master plan have provided data suitable for further research and concepts for outdoor learning labs in the elementary school setting. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The goal of this project was to design a masterplan for an outdoor discovery trail on the grounds of the Indiana School for the Blind in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 62 acre site has not been developed for outdoor exploration and is virtually inaccessible due to extreme topographical changes in elevation on the site. Based on guidelines and recommendations recently proposed by the USDA Forest Service and the USDA Park Service for accessibility and interpretation, combined with site research by the author, the masterplan was conscientiously developed. The trail integrates the unique historic background of the site with the sites' diverse, natural features to create a handicapped accessible trail that is an educational and recreational experience for the Indiana School for the Blind campus community. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The study draws on theories of society, learning, planning and design, democracy, identity formation, and cultural change to inquire into children’s participation in the social sphere. The thesis emerges from the growing literature in the sociological and educational study of childhood, identity, space and culture. A case study approach, using a variety of participatory methods and photographic visual evidence, is employed to investigate the substantive issue of children’s participation in changing their locales in a contemporary Scottish context. Two main cases are narrated: the first concerns primary school children’s experience in participating in changing school grounds throughout Scotland; the second details the experience of one local authority’s efforts to enhance public play provision for children with disabilities. Local socio-cultural / spatial practices used in the construction of children’s participation and their places of learning, work, and play are described. Children are found to be ‘positioned’ between adult desires to increase children’s participation in matters that affect them, while at the same time, adults may wish to protect children from perceived dangers. The context for children’s participation takes cognisance of the influences of schooling, the exclusion of children from the workplace, as well as the influences of technology, the media, and the changes in family make-up. One central finding of the thesis is that children’s experience of participation appeared to be constructed out of ‘essential beliefs’ about the relations between children and adults, the nature of the child and the child’s ‘place’ in society.