What may have once seemed a decidedly back-to-the-land option now seems—at a time when we’re prioritizing outdoor time, open spaces and, more recently and more obviously, social distancing—like a way forward through the impasse.

But what even is forest school? Definitions vary wildly, from accredited programs with clear curriculums to ad hoc groups of parents banding together to loosely supervise groups of kids running wild together outside...

WNYC.ORG |The Brian Lehrer Show: Nurturing Kids' Curiosity in Nature

Most COVID-era classrooms have moved onto video conferencing apps. As kids are spending the bulk of their time indoors, Sarah Carlson, director of Brooklyn Nature Days, discusses and takes calls on using nature as a classroom.

Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.

Produced by WNYC.

As the first facility of its kind, Wonderforest presented Palette Architecture with a series of challenges associated with bringing nature into the built environment of an urban storefront. The firm’s approach began with a focus on how to fit the principles of a forest school into the physical constraints of a built environment. Embracing a strategy of abstracted nature, they embarked on a quest to replicate the palette and textures of nature through simplified biophilic forms that would enable children to learn through interactions with water, trees, dirt, and the collective landscape...

“Nature education at an early age is so important, particularly at this moment in time when our youngest generations are destined to contend with rising environmental challenges. As a complement to the school’s innovative program centered around outdoor excursions to nearby Prospect Park, we have endeavored to take the ethos of that style of education and to bring it indoors. The project strives to unite the principles of a forest school with the constraints of the built environment. A key strategy was to provide an abstracted nature that reflects the palette and textures of nature through simplified biophilic forms. The children learn by interacting with water, trees, dirt, and landscape. The primary play areas were designed to provide the same range of experience found in the park.”