Commission Agenda Item No. 1
Presenter: Johnnie Smith

Briefing
Outdoor Learning Environments (OLE! Texas)
May 24, 2018

I.         Executive Summary: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff and representatives from Texas Tech University will brief the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission about TPWD’s partnership with the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) on the project entitled Outdoor Learning Environments (OLE! Texas). The partnership meets TPWD’s desire to inspire in children appreciation and love of the outdoors and the DSHS’s goal of making healthy choices easier for Texans of all ages wherever they live, work, and play. Our partnership agreement sets TPWD up to meet deliverables for this project such as: providing outreach and orchestrating technical assistance for childcare centers to improve their Outdoor Learning Environments; assist in development of community coalitions: coordinate the delivery of Train the Trainer trainings at the community level; and assist in the development of action plans that lead to development of design plans to build an outdoor learning environment at each of three demonstration sites located in Pasadena (Harris County Public Health), Austin (United Way of Greater Austin), and Lubbock (Texas Tech University). Texas Tech’s OLE! Project includes a beautifully designed outdoor learning environment at the Covenant Child Development Center in Lubbock.

II.        Discussion: Research shows what many parents have long known, that children who learn and play in nature are healthier both mentally and physically. Active, unstructured play outdoors helps build a child’s physical strength and helps children build social and emotional skills such as problem solving and self-esteem. Unfortunately, children today are spending 7 to 11 hours per day sitting with media and only minutes per day playing outdoors. With that sedentary lifestyle, we’ve found a rise in childhood obesity, depression, near-sightedness, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Unstructured free play in the out-of-doors brings a host of benefits to children, from being smarter to more cooperative to healthier overall. The cognitive benefits from play in nature include creativity, problem-solving, focus, and self-discipline. Social benefits include cooperation, flexibility, and self-awareness. Emotional benefits include stress reduction, reduced aggression, and increased happiness. Children will be smarter, better able to get along with others, healthier, and happier when they have regular opportunities for free and unstructured play in the out-of-doors.

Aligned under the DSHS Obesity Prevention program, the OLE! Texas program is led by the OLE Texas Statewide Leadership Team of which TPWD is a member. The team was instrumental in developing the Regulatory Framework for OLE in Texas Childcare Facilities which includes standards and guidelines for various outdoor learning environment settings such as: bird, butterfly and pollinator habitat; dry creek beds and playable rain gardens; grass mazes and tall grass areas; groves of small trees and large shrubs; mounds and sloping topography; and sand play and water play features. Through the Natural Learning Initiative under North Carolina State College of Design, this project makes training available for landscape architects and planners to be better able to include outdoor learning environment settings such as these into the design of childcare centers and other child centered learning and play areas.