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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Rapids aims to make the outdoors ‘part of the classroom’ at local schools as a Nature Everywhere Community
The City of Cedar Rapids received $50,000 for the first phase of the project, which will involve Cedar Rapids schools, Indian Creek Nature Center
Mar. 28, 2025 5:30 am, Updated: Mar. 28, 2025 7:50 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Throughout her 18 years working in children’s education and three years working with Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids, Marcy Fratzke has seen the ways that exposure to the natural world helps children’s development.
That’s why she’s excited to be involved with the designation of the City of Cedar Rapids as a Nature Everywhere Accelerator Community. It’s an initiative born out of the Children & Nature Network, a nonprofit that works to make nature more accessible for youth across the country.
Through the designation, a core committee of Cedar Rapids leaders will spearhead the local initiative, which is to bring more greenery to school yards across the city.
With the designation, the city is receiving a year of strategic planning, technical support and startup funding to develop green school yards.
Why focus on green school yards?
Sara Maples, sustainability program manager for the City of Cedar Rapids, said the team chose to focus on green school yards because of the role nature plays in children’s development.
“Young people need access to outdoor settings in nature that are safe but also provide complexity and interest, so students can explore, learn and really challenge themselves,” Maples said. “These outdoor spaces are going to be places where students can explore the natural world and engage in unstructured play, which are activities that are vital to child development. There's going to be a lot of just benefits for our whole community.”
The “greenery” on the school yards and playgrounds could be anything from nature — like putting down more grass or installing a garden — to building infrastructure that’s stormwater and flood resistant and incorporates heat protection.
“Green playgrounds provide children with extensive mental and physical health benefits,” Maples said. “We know (that) spending time in nature, especially in an urban setting, reduces stress, provides physical outlet and really builds a sense of neighborhood pride.”
Fratzke said it is important that this initiative is happening in Cedar Rapids, specifically, because of the natural disaster events the community has endured, including the 2008 flood and the 2020 derecho.
“I think we can all agree that Cedar Rapids is a community that has had a lot of impact from natural events, and so sometimes we don't spend the same amount of time outdoors as we used to,” she said. “We understand at the Nature Center that we can't get everyone out to the Nature Center to enjoy our property, but we want to make sure we're giving everyone the opportunity to get outside, to interact with nature and to just reap the benefits of what 10 to 15 minutes outside can do for us as humans.”
Which school yards will see added nature?
For the project, the core team will home in on school yards in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
Chris Gates, buildings and grounds manager for the district, said there are about 40 playgrounds across the district, as many schools have more than one to cater to different ages and abilities of students.
Gates said there will be an analysis of all school yards and playgrounds in the district to identify which spaces have the highest need. This survey will be done in partnership with the City of Cedar Rapids and Indian Creek Nature Center.
“Through this process, (we’re) really hoping to identify our top five needs, like which buildings have the highest need, and where can we get started on this,” Gates said.
Fratzke said it isn’t an “all or nothing” project and that pieces of the funding could go toward many different playgrounds.
Gates said incorporating more greenery into school yards — both in terms of nature and climate sustainable infrastructure — is important because many kids in Cedar Rapids don’t have adequate access to the natural world beyond school playgrounds.
“A lot of our kids in our schools live in apartments and they don't have access to a lot of nature or outdoor spaces. One of the things that I hear about in the district a lot is having the opportunity for kids to get outside, to play, to run around, to just be a kid and have fun. Some our schools have a very large immigrant population, so they just don't have that same opportunity as other places,” Gates said. “It's really important for our school yards and playgrounds to provide as much diversity as we can, for them to have different play options, whether that's swinging on a playground set or climbing over some logs and playing in a garden, or just playing in the dirt and having fun.“
Many of the Cedar Rapids school district’s parks and playgrounds are “pretty old,” so most of them are not sustainably made, or they don’t incorporate climate-resilient structures.
While some of the 35 Nature Everywhere Accelerator Communities are focusing on green school yards, others — including Dubuque — have chosen initiatives like nature smart libraries, nature in public spaces, and early childhood nature connection.
What’s next?
Through the program, the City of Cedar Rapids will receive a $50,000 grant from the Children & Nature Network to support the work.
Gates said the money will be used for surveying the existing parks. After the core team has identified the improvements they want to implement for each schoolyard, they will turn to other benefactors for grant funding.
As of now, other future funding partners for the project have not been identified, Gates said.
“We have not done that yet, so I don't want to drop any names, but we are definitely pursuing those that would be interested in helping us to finance this,” he said.
Fratzke said one of the requirements to have a Nature Everywhere Community designation is having another organization from the “greater community” be involved with the process, in addition to the school district and the city itself.
“Indian Creek was kind of the perfect match for this, as we are the leaders in outdoor education in the area, and we're all about connecting as many people with nature as we possibly can,” Fratzke said.
She said the Nature Center was approached by the city in August last year to collaborate on the initiative and they were “happy to join them.”
In addition to helping identify potential future partnerships, one of the key ways Indian Creek Nature Center will be bolstering the program is by helping the city and the school district make decisions on design elements. Fratzke said they will help specifically with safety concerns, what will engage youth, and what to avoid.
“We are that guiding piece when we get to that point, helping teachers figure out how they can use the spaces and how they can have nature as a co-teacher, and not just outside time,” Fratzke said. “We're not looking to just pick a school and make a shiny, pretty outdoor space, we're looking to really drive this as a systemic change and a way to start looking at incorporating more green spaces and having the outdoors become part of the classroom for some of these schools.”
Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com
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