Students at Eden Hall Upper Elementary School in the Pine-Richland School District have an environment rich in learning opportunities and regularly participate in activities that are focused on engaging in a healthy and sustainable environment.  At Eden Hall, murals and an interior color scheme throughout the school’s 189,000 square feet represent the Earth’s biomes – desert, grasslands, aquatic, tundra, and the forest.  Despite its size, the school provides an intimate learning environment for students in grades four, five, and six.

Eden Hall Upper Elementary School houses a “Think Tank” which is the building’s own version of a Makerspace.  This space allows students to explore their own creativity by using tools and materials, both physically and virtually, to build creative projects.  The Science program at Eden Hall Upper Elementary incorporates a hands-on, minds-on approach to learning.  In 4th grade, curricular components focus on the natural elements of land and water. In 5th grade, students participate in hands-on opportunities to understand how human interactions and other environmental factors affect an ecosystem and how all parts of an ecosystem are interconnected and interdependent.  The 6th grade curriculum provides students with several opportunities to focus on STEM/STEAM initiatives.  

The funds for this project will help transform the space directly outside the Eden Hall library to an outdoor flexible learning area that can be used for a variety of purposes including:  outdoor classroom, learning directly related to core content curriculum, and experiential learning opportunities.  This project is expected to include:  one large shelter area, designed to hold 2-classrooms, which ties to Eden Hall’s teaming concept,  8-12 (8 ft.) tables for the purposes of shade and the ability to be outdoors in some inclement weather, gazebos and/or 4-5 additional small-group meeting spaces, butterfly gardens, outdoor learning materials, and sun-shades to expand the current outdoor amphitheater.

This project will impact approximately 1100 students that attend Eden Hall.  All students and 120+ members of the EHUE staff will be able to utilize this outdoor learning space.  Classrooms will be able to utilize the outdoor seating areas for all subjects including reading, math, science, social studies and special areas, with a specific focus on the arts. Students will also experience STEAM lessons and engage in hands-on experiences in the outdoors.