A two-acre field behind Keysor Elementary School will soon be gone and replaced by a fully-accessible, all-inclusive outdoor learning and play area.
Construction will begin in June on phase one of Project IDEA, which stands for “Imagination, Discovery, Exploration, Adventure.”
At a student groundbreaking on May 23, Bryan Painter, principal of Keysor, called the planned project a way to champion both the environment and the importance of play.
“It will be the first of its kind among metro St. Louis area schools, much more than just an accessible playground,” said parent Mike Knopfel, a Project IDEA volunteer. “It will take kids out of the indoor classroom and into a landscape for learning.”
As part of a garden lab, the school has purchased a greenhouse and science probes and sensors, Painter said. “So students can take real-time data on plants, air temperature and humidity, for instance, and later analyze it,” he said.
Brandie Martine, a parent who serves as Project IDEA cochair with Painter, said the site will have handicapped-accessible play equipment, trees, berms, rain gardens, a garden lab, a prairie, a small amphitheater that can be used by Keysor classes for classes and small performances, and two IDEA houses.
Painter said the houses will be for kids to play and learn in.
“We plan to have growing plants on trays on the roof of one house, so students will be able to do data collection,” he said. “For the second house, we’re working with companies to put solar panels on the roof to potentially power a pump that would take rainwater from a rain barrel to water the roof of the other house.”
Part of that second house will be underground with a Plexiglas wall so kids can look below the surface of the ground.
“The ideas is to plant plants outside the house with different root structures so the kids will be able to watch the root development of the plants underground,” Painter said.
Project IDEA is meant to help kids become better stewards of the environment, and it will be open to all area residents and groups. The first step in taking care of the environment, Painter said, is helping kids appreciate nature by being in it.
“For example, through composting, which we’ll do at the site, we hope kids will think twice about what they might otherwise throw away and think about whether it might end up in a landfill,” Painter said.
Planning for Project IDEA started about four years ago.
The original plan was to replace the school’s old playground with an accessible one, said Martine, the parent of a child with special needs. “But the idea grew from the get go,” she said, “and we decided we wanted to create a place where those of all abilities could come together to play and learn.”
Over four years, about $295,000 has be raised toward the goal of $335,000 for phase one.
By the end of phase one work this fall, much of the major landscaping and construction should be completed, including that of the rain gardens, a soccer field, play equipment, garden lab and one of the IDEA houses, Martine said.
The goal for phase two is an additional $100,000 to add the second IDEA house, the amphitheater and stage, and complete the final landscaping and irrigation. There is no exact timeline for phase two.
Funds are coming in through the Kirkwood School District, Kirkwood Parks and Recreation Department, private donations and grants from groups like the Christopher Reeve Foundation, KaBOOM!, Special School District of St. Louis County, and Cardinals Care. Monsanto is providing matching grants for employee contributions.
“Project IDEA will have zero boundaries, no place where a person in a wheelchair would hit a curb or barrier and need to go around,” Martine said.
Instead of mulch, it will have concrete and rubberized play surfaces. Robin Erhlich, a physical education teacher at Keysor who helped spearhead the project, said even mulch can be hard to walk on for someone with balance issues.
“It’s important to get kids and adults outside,” she said. “Nature helps teach people to be problem solvers, to be self-directed.”
Traci Jansen, who will start this fall as a kindergarten teacher at Keysor, is coming there because of Project IDEA. She’s completing her second masters degree in education and innovation with an emphasis on global sustainability at Webster University.
“Project IDEA is becoming part of my degree work, getting kids learning, through their interaction with nature, how to be stewards of the earth so it’s available to future generations,” she said.
The Project IDEA website is www.project-idea.com. The Keysor Facebook page has Project IDEA updates.
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