In Scout’s classroom, students can learn nature’s lessons

Published 10:41 pm Friday, November 23, 2007

MUKILTEO — Brian Levandowski, 16, envisioned a classroom without walls or windows, where students would not be bored.

Amid maple trees and salmonberry bushes, the Mukilteo teen led dozens of volunteers to build an outdoor classroom at Columbia Elementary.

The project was Levandowski’s final significant hurdle toward earning his Eagle Scout rank, the highest honor awarded in Boy Scouts of America. The project was also a gift from the most recent graduating class of fifth-grade students.

“I’m hoping this will last awhile,” said Levandowski, a member of Troop 189 in Mukilteo. “Students can use it to learn about nature, and they won’t have to use textbooks.”

Over 12 weekends since July, Levandowski mobilized 38 volunteers to finish the service project.

The outdoor classroom is made up of six wooden benches facing a small podium for a teacher to either stand at or sit on. The classroom — which students used for the first time this past week — is in a small clearing down an embankment from the school’s play field.

Columbia Elementary principal Wendy Eidbo suggested the outdoor classroom as a possible gift to the school from last year’s fifth-graders. A parent relayed the principal’s request to Brian Levandowski’s father, John Levandowski, who is a leader in Troop 189. John Levandowski helps Scouts work toward their Eagle Scout ranks.

With Brian Levandowski doing all the planning, students and Scouts joined together to complete the project.

“It was just a fantastic turnout, their parents as well as the kids in the fifth-grade class helped,” John Levandowski said.

Volunteers cleared away a grown-over path leading to the clearing, laying down mesh landscaping material and piling on wood chips, pine needles and leaves to make it appear natural.

Brian and John Levandowski built the bases for the benches in their garage. After cementing the bases in the ground at the classroom site, volunteers assembled the benches and the teaching podium.

The cost of building the outdoor classroom is estimated around $1,000, but most of the supplies were donated by Chinook Lumber of Clearview and Lowe’s Home Improvement in Everett. Several parents also donated money to help pay for the project.

“I’m very happy; it looks very nice,” Brian Levandowski said. “I want to thank all the people who came out and helped.”

Levandowski, a junior at Kamiak High School, attended Columbia Elementary School when he was young. When he was in fourth grade, his name was put on a plaque at the school to honor his high scores in accelerated reading.

Now, his name is on another plaque at the school — this time on a post alongside the outdoor classroom.

“This is for the community, not just the school,” Levandowski said. “The gate is open.”

Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.