At Denver Public Schools, education extends beyond the classroom to the school grounds thanks to the innovative landscape models of Lois Brink, associate professor of landscape and architecture at the University of Colorado Denver’s Downtown Denver Campus.
Brink, a faculty member since 1989, recently received the Award of Outstanding Educator in Landscape Architecture by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) for her work with DPS is designing the “Learning Landscape.” More than a playground or an outdoor classroom, Learning Landscapes are unique, and special education sites where children learn about numbers, nature, astronomy, geological processes, climate, plants and change.
Brink has enlisted her students, DPS, the City of Denver, Americorps, local landscape architectural firms and contractors, donors and citizens to help complete projects at 36 of 45 elementary schools. Learning Landscapes give children a place to develop motor skills and muscles; to learn sportsmanship and think creatively. According to a report by the Center for Research Strategies, the projects have resulted in a 78 percent reduction in student delinquency in the classroom and an increase of learning productivity in the classroom of 20 minutes per day. In addition, Brink’s team has amassed more than $23 million to fund the completed and planned projects, to more productively decrease delinquency in the classroom and to fund research to determine the effectiveness of these landscapes.
CELA is the premier international organization for academics in landscape architecture, with members from the United States and throughout the world. The award honors a national or international educator whose career is recognized as having made a significant contribution to the discipline.
The Landscape Architecture Department at UCDHSC’s Downtown Denver Campus has been recognized as one of the best in the country, receiving a score of 100 percent by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) at its last accreditation in 2004.