MMCS is a public charter school serving Moore County, North Carolina. The design-programming workshop led by Robin Moore and Nilda Cosco with related user-needs surveys provided community input for creating an outdoor learning master plan/designs.

 

Workshop segments included:

1. Orientation. Robin Moore reviewing the site diagram (poster created by NLI for a kick-off, fund-raising event earlier in the Fall, 2021) to help teaching staff and school leadership understand existing site conditions and to provide a vehicle for expressing ideas about developing outdoor play and learning spaces. Photos around poster edge illustrate potential site developments based on prior work at other Montessori schools.
2. Site Safari. Teachers divided into small groups (a & b), with clipboards and site base plans (c) to make notes while exploring, observing, and discussing different areas of the 10-acre site and needed improvements to support MMCS outdoor learning programs (primary, lower elementary, and upper elementary levels).
3. Sharing Ideas. Back indoors site safari groups worked by level on posters to represent their ideas, presented to the whole group, and discussed next steps to implement them.