Nature isn’t just a part of the name of the Tennessee Nature Academy or even just a component of the new public charter school’s curriculum.
When the academy opens in August, students will have a true nature-based classroom in the woods next to their school in Nashville’s Caine Ridge community.
Executive Director Jay Renfro says the school’s students helped choose and build the outdoor classroom they’re calling the “Rockitorium.”
“This is a classroom space where teachers will be able to bring their students out here and they can learn about things in nature or they can just bring an English class to do some writing,” said Renfro. “It doesn’t have to necessarily be related to the outdoors. It’s just a different kind of learning environment that opens up the mind, builds creativity, and fosters a good community.”
Renfro is planning multiple outdoor classrooms for the Tennessee Nature Academy to help get students outside as much as possible.
The concept allows teachers to make connections for children between what they’re learning and what they can see around them. It’s a key part of the school’s nature-based curriculum.
“Whenever possible we try to make it inquiry or project based. So, it’s connected to something that’s in the real world, it doesn’t just end in a worksheet or a test. It goes beyond the standards to get the kids outside of the classroom.” Said Renfro. “The goal is that during a unit, there are multiple touch points with problems related to sustainability, or agriculture, or natural resource management, or conservation. Something real that the kids can really engage with.”
The school will open with an initial class of 81 fifth-graders and 81 sixth-graders. The plan is to eventually grow to serve high school students as well.
Establishing a School, No Walk in the Park
Renfro says he first started working on the nature-based concepts that are the foundation of the Tennessee Nature Academy when he was a traditional public-school teacher and realized his students could benefit from spending more time outside.
He started an outdoor club to give students an opportunity to play and learn outside and began integrating nature into his science class.
“We started to do camping trips. We started to grow pumpkins. We started to do some citizen science projects at the school,” said Renfro. “Ultimately realized that a program that existed inside of a school would always be bound by the confines and the schedules of that school.”
Renfro felt the public charter school model offered the best path forward to establish his school concept.
He successfully applied for a Tennessee Department of Education charter expansion grant and began researching “forest schools” in Finland and Norway before applying for a charter with Metro Nashville Public Schools.
A crowd of parents and speakers showed up to the Board of Education meeting in July to speak in favor of the proposed school including one student who took part in Renfro’s previous nature programs.
“We did things like going camping, hiking, and growing pumpkins,” said the student. ”A school like Tennessee Nature Academy would be great for our community to let kids learn about nature and they world around them.”
The board narrowly voted 5 to 4 against the application. The vote was controversial as supporters of the proposed school argued board members used inaccurate information from the district charter review team to make their decision.
Renfro appealed and the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission overturned the MNPS board decision in October, clearing the way for the new school to open this year.
School leaders chose a church building near Lenox Village in Cane Ridge for the location of the academy and its proximity to wooded land wasn’t the only benefit.
The 37211 zip code is among the most diverse in the state and fits the Tennessee Nature Academy’s “diverse by design” concept.
Renfro says a big part of what his school is all about, is helping break down barriers for communities that don’t always have access to the great outdoors.
“There’s this stigma or this perceived barrier of who belongs in the outdoors and when you look at statistics for things like national parks, its predominantly old white people that go and visit these things,” said Renfro. “That’s one of the things that we’re trying to address is providing a nature-based opportunity in a part of town that’s lacking in those opportunities.”
