Virtual Field Trip
Virtual field trip of childcare outdoor learning environments. POD considers the design of outdoor environments in early childhood as a preventative health intervention.
Planning and Planting
The Green Desk NLI Planning and Planting Guide to Developing a Planting Plan and Purchase List This article explains how to develop a detailed planting plan and plant purchase list from a schematic design. NLI provides schematic designs that do not indicate exact...
Edible Plants for Play and Learning
The Green Desk NLI Edible Plants for Play and Learning What are good edible plants for my landscape and garden? Edible plants offer the same benefits in an outdoor learning environment (OLE) as traditional landscape plants—creating shade, defining paths, providing...
Landscape Plant List
The Green Desk NLI Landscape Plant List What are good landscape plants for North Carolina?NLI provides a suggested plant list for each region of North Carolina, divided into the following categories: Mountains, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain. Click a link below to...
Landscape Plants for Play and Learning
The Green Desk NLI Landscape Plants for Play and Learning What are the best landscape plants for play and learning? “Plants add a critical dimension of change and diversity to children’s environments. They greatly extend the range of sensory stimulation...
15th Annual NLI Design Institute
October 5 – 6
9:00am – 4:30pm
Find out how outdoor activities are a powerful motivator for improving children’s science competence.
Fruit and Vegetable Gardens
Infosheet NLI Fruit and Vegetable Gardens Gardening with children provides numerous opportunities for hands-on learning, inquiry, observation, and experimentation. Gardening also helps children build an understanding of and respect for nature and our environment. When...
Matthew Babb
Matthew (Matt) Babb, MGD, is a UX/Communication Designer at the Natural Learning Initiative (NLI). There he leads the communication team’s design, production, and editing of a variety of graphics and media for print and online publications, course materials, outreach, social media, website, and photography/videography, working in a complex environment with a range of hardware, software, and systems…
James Barnes
James Barnes is an Assistant Research Professor in the College of Design, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and the Natural Learning Initiative. A landscape ecologist and designer by training, his research explores the intersection of biodiversity, human well-being, and the design of environments. Barnes’s current work focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to integrating biodiversity into the built environment, particularly in public schools and other learning environments, leveraging these spaces as ecological hubs for community resilience and environmental education through emerging technologies.
Dakshil Kanakia
Dakshil Kanakia is a Software Engineer at Natural Learning Initiative, where he engineered robust systems managing student records and developed scalable tools adopted by NGOs for outdoor learning data collection. In addition to his role at NLI, Dakshil works at Personalized Medicine as a Senior Software Engineer, pioneering an innovative scientific analysis system that leverages AI models to process over a million scientific studies. His work on the NutriLiv mobile application demonstrates his ability to deliver high-performance solutions with sub-2 second response times.
Matthew Maharaj
Matthew (Matt) Maharaj is a UX/Communication Designer at NLI where he works on online, print, 3D modeling, and other digital resources to support various projects. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from the University of Tampa, Florida, and a Master of Graphic Design from NC State University. Matt has been designing since 2014 and has worked on a diverse palette of projects that include startups, publications, and radio stations. He has previously interned at McCann Erickson, a global advertising agency network.
Matt grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, located in the Caribbean. Trinidad is a beautiful place for a child to explore, filled with mountains, nature trails, waterfalls, rivers, and beaches. Matt would enjoy these lush landscapes on school trips and with family, marveling at the diverse natural resources his country has to offer.
Tamiko McCullough
Tamiko McCullough, BS in Family Relations and Child Development.
Instructional Support Specialist
Shweta Nanekar
Shweta Nanekar, PLA, LEED AP (BD+C) B.Arch., MLA (NC State University)
Lead Instructor, NLI Professional Development Program.
Adrienne Murrell
Adrienne Murrell is a Program Support Specialist at NLI, providing support for professional development and instructional management. Adrienne is an early childhood education leader with experience in policy consulting, program management, business development, and community engagement. She is passionate about supporting children’s health, development, and learning through purposefully designed learning environments.
Adam Noel
Adam Noel is a UX/Communication Designer at NLI where he works on online, print, 3D modeling, and other digital resources to support various projects.
Early Childhood Design Institute 2017
NLI Blog Architecture and Landscape Architecture for Early Childhood Visioning/ concept design, design programming, community/ stakeholder/ client engagement, concept design, budget and development. From the vision to construction documents. Program This intensive,...
POD Wake Co. Gathering and Tour 2017
NLI Blog Natural Learning Initiative invites you to attend a tour of three POD Wake Co. Demonstration Sites to see progress in the creation of their naturalized outdoor learning environments. The day will also feature a panel discussion with POD Wake Co. directors and...
Heritage Park Natural Learning Environment
Project NLI Heritage Park Natural Learning Environment Heritage Park is a public housing community administered by the Raleigh Housing Authority. Communities in Schools North Carolina (CISNC), the leading dropout prevention organization in the country, established an...
My Place by The Bay: Prepared Environments for Early Science Learning
Research NLI My Place by The Bay: Prepared Environments for Early Science Learning The Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM) is an indoor/outdoor children’s museum at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, serving over 300,000 visitors per year on a 7.5-acre site. It is...
Kids Together Playground Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE)
Research NLI Kids Together Playground Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) Even though, a conservative estimate of the number of municipal parks and playgrounds in the US is almost 110 thousand, representing a continuing investment of hundreds of millions of taxpayer...
Blanchie Carter Discovery Park
Project NLI Blanchie Carter Discovery Park Blanchie Carter Discovery Park is a four acre outdoor play and learning environment (OPALE) located at Southern Pines Primary School in Southern Pines, North Carolina. In 1995, a group of parents decided that their children...
Teardrop Park (North)
Project NLI Teardrop Park (North) Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) viewed children as the most important users and appointed NLI as play consultants engaged in every stage of the 1.75 acre Teardrop Park (North) design process, including safety and...
Bright Horizons Child Development Center at Research Triangle Park
Project NLI Bright Horizons Child Development Center at Research Triangle Park The Bright Horizons Family Solutions (BHFS) Child Development Center at Research Triangle Park serves families working on the adjacent GlaxoSmithKline campus, Research Triangle Park,...
2017 Early Childhood Design Institute, Architecture and Landscape Architecture for Early Childhood
August 2nd – August 5th,
This intensive, three–day workshop provides practitioners with state-of–the–art, evidence-based design thinking for indoor/outdoor educational spaces for young children.
Children’s Garden, North Carolina Botanical Garden
North Carolina Botanical Garden Allen Education Center Children’s Garden NLI facilitated design programming for the Allen Education Center, including an emphasis on children and families. Children’s ideas were generated via a design workshop at the...
Growing Up in Cities
Research NLI Growing Up in Cities By helping children to explore, get acquainted, and interact with the neighborhood (physical environment, natural elements, and people), adults can facilitate the process of turning the neighborhood into a childhood habitat....
Pathways for Play: Best Practice Guidelines
Research NLI Pathways for Play: Best Practice Guidelines The Pathways for Play: Best Practice Guidelines, Infusing play into pathway networks to encourage active lifestyles for children, families, and communities publication sponsored by PlayCore brought together many...
Nature Grounds: Best Practice Guidelines
Research NLI Nature Grounds: Best Practice Guidelines NatureGrounds: Creating & Retrofitting Play Environments Best Practice Guidelines, Designing play environments that integrate manufactured play equipment with the living landscape, is available for download at...
The Montessori School of Winston-Salem, NC
Project NLI The Montessori School of Winston-Salem, NC The Natural Learning Initiative (NLI) worked with the Montessori School of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to create a Design Program and Schematic Master Plan for the development of the school grounds.The mission...
Greensboro Children’s Museum Edible Schoolyard
Project NLI Greensboro Children’s Museum Edible Schoolyard The Edible Schoolyard at Greensboro Children’s Museum (GCM), designed by NLI, engages children and families in hands-on permaculture gardening and cooking, “from seed to table.” Betsy Grant, then museum...
Preschool Outdoor Environment Measurement Scale POEMS (2005)
Research Preschool Outdoor Environment Measurement Scale POEMS (2005) The objective of the instrument is to provide a valid, reliable tool for assessing the quality of outdoor environments and their use and at the same time provide guidance to childcare professionals...
Head Start Growth and Readiness in the Outdoor World (HS-GROW)
Research NLI Head Start Growth and Readiness in the Outdoor World (HS-GROW) The quality of Headstart and Early Headstart center outdoor environments is particularly relevant because this is where children can learn to be physically active, can be motivated to play in...
Wellesley College Child Study Center
Project NLI Wellesley College Child Study Center WCSC emphasizes the essential connection between human development and experience of the natural world. Responding to this philosophy, the new play and learning gardens contain a mix manufactured elements and natural...
Investigating Parks for Active Recreation for Kids (I-PARK)
Research NLI Investigating Parks for Active Recreation for Kids (I-PARK) A goal of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. When appropriately designed and managed, neighborhood sidewalks and streets, and local parks and...
Field of Dreams
Project NLI Field of Dreams The Field of Dreams Nurture and Education Center is located in the center of Baxter Village, a “new urbanism” mixed use development near Fort Mill, South Carolina. The Field of Dreams mission is: “To nurture children in an innovative...
Measuring Physical Activity Affordances in Preschool Outdoor Environments
Research NLI Measuring Physical Activity Affordances in Preschool Outdoor Environments Childcare and child development centers have become the places where the majority of young children spend most of their waking hours almost every day of the year. If enrolled as...
Clairmont Campus, Clifton School
Project NLI Clairmont Campus, Clifton School Two interlinked philosophies drove the design of play and learning settings and their implementation on the ground: permaculture principles, underpinning the ecological health and sustainability of the site and helping...
First Baptist Kindergarten Outdoor Environment
Project NLI First Baptist Kindergarten Outdoor Environment The First Baptist Kindergarten is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and licensed by the State of South Carolina. In 1989 the teaching staff began to study the...
