Detroit-With a few days away from the start of the new school year, schools across the country are eager to collect materials they never thought they needed: plexiglass partitions, piles of masks and Internet hotspots in order to communicate with students remotely.

There are other schools whose lists are more unusual.

The Detroit Waldorf School in Michigan is buying carriage bolts, berry bushes and 8,000 square feet of cedar wood.

The San Francisco Unified School District has been busy collecting tree stumps.

The five-town community school district in Maine is buying tents, yurts, and enough all-weather snow suits for each elementary school student.

These schools and regions are preparing for the transfer of at least some teaching to outdoor classrooms. They bet that the lower risk of spreading diseases in the open, and the extra space available for children to spread, can make it safer for students to receive face-to-face guidance, even as the COVID-19 epidemic continues to spread.

"Schools need to come up with a new solution, because the interior of the building is not the only solution, and online learning is not the only solution," said Sharon Danks, CEO of Green Schoolyards America, one of them. one. A group of environmental education organizations launched the National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Program to encourage schools to move students outside.

Many school districts, including some of the largest in the country, have announced plans to start the new school year with pure online teaching. This is widely regarded as the safest way to contain the spread of the coronavirus, but it poses serious financial challenges for parents who need childcare services to go to work, and can cause serious harm to children who need to socially interact with their peers. -Personal support from the school.

The idea of ​​moving the classroom outside—as some schools did in the last century against early epidemics—has become an alternative.

In New York City, parents and school leaders called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to close the streets near the school and take teaching outside. Elsewhere, parents have sent petitions urging their schools to consider outdoor learning.

"This is a gimmick," said Kristi Wilson, head of the Buckeye Elementary School District near Phoenix and president of the National Association of School Leaders.

"It's great to take advantage of this on a good day, but you can't plan for it," she said one day last week when the temperature in Phoenix reached 113 degrees Fahrenheit. "The weather is too unstable."

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She said schools that have spent millions in recent years to reinforce buildings with bulletproof glass to protect students from intruders may now be less enthusiastic about keeping children outside the parking lot. Many teachers question whether students with disabilities can enter outdoor spaces, whether students will be distracted, and whether some children will try to escape.

"In the spirit of innovation, you can't blame people for putting everything on the table, and of course they did their best, but I just don't know how realistic this is," Wilson said. "In theory, anything is possible, but let us focus on doing this in the right way and in a safe way."

Despite these and other concerns, Danks said that outdoor learning programs have been overwhelmed by inquiries from schools across the country and have been eager to put resources online. The organization is posting reminders to deal with hazards such as bugs or snow, and budget guidelines for supplies such as hay bale seats. The program also connects interested schools with landscape architects who volunteer to help turn campuses into classrooms.

"What if plan A is outside?" she asked. "If the weather is right, what if every class gathers in a naturally existing outdoor gathering and helps relieve everyone’s stress? When the weather is not suitable, you go to plan B, which can be online or inside. Why start with what you know it does not work?"

In a small private kindergarten to eighth grade college Detroit Waldorf School on the east side of Detroit, the plan to build 14 cedar wood pavilions to shelter outdoor classrooms went from a crazy idea to groundbreaking in a few weeks. Parents and teachers We said.

Brian Rebain, an architect with two children at the school, said that when the teachers presented the idea to the school's spatial planning and development committee in June, committee members acted quickly.

Rebain developed a plan for these structures, which will be open on three sides and have a "teaching wall" to hang blackboards or other materials. He said the school has not yet decided whether these structures should use wooden floors or coverings, or canvas walls that can roll down to block rain, wind, or sunlight. "When we figure out things, there are still a lot of headaches."

Another parent architect of the committee drew up a plan for the school's 4 acres of land, including flowering and edible plants that separate the classrooms. A parent with ties to the construction industry helped find equipment and supplies. And, in the past few weeks, as the school began to raise the $50,000 needed for materials, parents and teachers have stepped in and provided voluntary services. They are building fences, clearing bushes, and pushing pillars into the ground. These pillars will soon support the shelter.

"My child is ready to go back to school, and I know that many other families are ready to let their children go back to school," said Gregory Franklin, the father of preschoolers and kindergarteners who volunteered at school last week. Gregory Franklin) said. Disassemble playground equipment that needs to be moved.

Franklin is not sure how he feels about returning his children to this city that has been hit hard by COVID-19 and lost nearly 1,500 people, but the prospect of outdoor classrooms "makes me feel safer," he said. "If they are talking, coughing or even sneezing, the open air will help them leave faster than in a closed area."

Ben Linström, chairman of the school's health and safety committee, said the school does not plan to only take classes outdoors. But the students will be sent to the outdoor classroom in the morning. He said that if they need to enter the room or use the bathroom due to the weather, the class can stagger their schedule, so not everyone is in the corridor at the same time.

He said: “It is difficult for every school to determine how to open safely.” He pointed out that the infection rate and government guidance seem to change every week.

The Waldorf curriculum is based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian educator in the early 20th century, and has always emphasized learning in a natural environment. Linstrom said that even if there is no pandemic, his school will accept outdoor classrooms, but now wooden shelters will provide faculty and staff with more ways to cope with changing conditions.

"We will have more freedom," he said. "We will have more choices."

According to the North American Waldorf School Association, this summer, at least a dozen schools that follow the Waldorf model are building outdoor classrooms in response to COVID-19. But this idea is not only applicable to private schools where PTA has architects.

In Maine, the Portland Architectural Association sent a design expert to each of the 15 major buildings in the Portland School District to “determine the direct, low-cost interventions that we can take to help us Every school creates at least two outdoor learning spaces," Assistant Director Aaron Townsend wrote in an email, adding that architects are also helping schools find materials and labor.

Principal Owen Bradley said that in Vermont, White Valley Middle School is planning a hybrid model, where students study at home three days a week, and the other two days are in off-campus tents—at least until Thanksgiving.

Darien Clary, the sustainability manager of the Austin School District in Texas, said that in Texas, the Austin School District encourages principals to consider outdoor spaces when reconfiguring buildings to achieve social distancing. Educators are being trained to teach outdoors.

She said that the Austin area has long advocated outdoor learning to connect children with their environment and make them healthier. "What COVID has done is increased urgency."

In Seattle, although the school board was preparing to vote to start the new school year with distance learning, several board members drafted a proposal for students to spend at least two hours a day with teachers on campus or in a city park, each for four days. Week.

"You will learn morning math, [English language arts] or any other courses online, and then you will go out of school to meet with the teacher in person," Liza Rankin is one of them. The person in charge of the school said that behind the proposal. "This may be a nature walk. It may be working in a community garden. School counselors may come, or they may take drama or sports lessons outside."

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In the five-town district off the coast of Camden, Maine, Superintendent Maria Libby said that she is using the funds her school district received from the Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act or the CARES Act for her three Each of the schools purchased four activity tents for US$1,000, plus four heating yurts for winter classrooms for US$18,000. She also buys snow jackets, plastic chairs and outdoor storage boxes.

Over the years, Libby has been hoping to make better use of the beautiful natural resources in her area, including lakes, rivers and mountain parks. But the coronavirus turned an idea that might one day into the current idea.

In addition to finding a safe way to reopen, she also hopes to build nature trails and even rope courses in the woods near the school for students to use for many years.

"We are trying to take advantage of the moment we are in," she said. "We are trying to use this moment to make some investments that will be valuable to us after COVID-19. Our students can benefit from outside."

Correction (5:14 PM EST, August 5, 2020): The previous version of this article incorrectly stated the cost of event tents purchased by the five-town school district in Maine. They cost about $1,000 each instead of $12,000.

Erin Einhorn is a national correspondent for NBC News, based in Detroit.