When talking about teaching environmental and sustainability literacy in schools, we mostly mean educating students to be environmentally responsible. But there is a bigger, deeper meaning here. In order for our future generations to be fluent in environmental and...
At Natural Pod, we are deeply committed to creating better, sustainable education environments. Our goal is always to honor this by producing healthy, natural, and beautiful play and learning space furniture using environmentally responsible practices and methods....
I first fell in love with biomimicry while attending a county-wide science leadership meeting in February 2017. I was there in my capacity as science department chair at Oak Park High School in California’s Oak Park Unified School District. It was toward the end of...
Odyssey Charter Schools opened their second charter school, OCS-South, in Pasadena, California, last year. Their community presently includes transitional kindergarten through to 4th grade, with the goal of adding an additional grade each year until they include grade...
“We should be focusing on the youngest amongst us” was a statement a friend and experienced educational building architect said to me recently, and it really stuck with me. We were discussing the importance of early learning through the lens of the learning...
For students to thrive now and in their future they need to learn how to become adaptable lifelong learners. Their future will most likely entail having multiple jobs or careers, not one employment stream for life and we need to prepare them for that. In fact they may...
Across diverse contexts, I regularly meet students who are taking action to build a more sustainable future. Whether it’s first-graders designing a rain garden for their playground, middle schoolers educating adults about composting, or high school students advocating...
There’s been a lot of emphasis about creating student centered learning environments for a while now. Here we’re taking a deeper dive into how these environments are the gateway to student-led learning, why that’s important, what the intended goals are, what...
With all the global climate strikes that have been happening over the last few weeks, it feels like the perfect time to speak up about a sensitive and related issue. First, I’d like to acknowledge the incredible mobilization of nearly 7 million young people and...
Our design team and account managers are spreading their wings over the next week as they attend and present at two very different education and thought leadership conferences.First stop is the EdSpaces conference, held this year in Milwaukee, WI. This is one of the...
In education we talk a lot about 21st Century learning, and this term is linked to acknowledging we are now in a new era, ‘the Innovation Age’. It seems to be generally accepted that we are now moving on from the Information Age that’s governed the last 40...
What is One Stone? One Stone launched in 2008 as a nonprofit supporting after school experiential service opportunities for high school students (grades 9-12) seeking deep involvement in sustainable outcomes to improve the greater Boise, Idaho community. Co-founders...
Bridgitte, Natural Pods CEO, and Shannon, Director of Operations, recently returned from the LearningScapes conference that took place in California this year. Speaking with them post-conference, they shared they found it incredibly impactful. This is what Bridgitte...
We’d like to share with you this great letter we received along with the parents of the students of Oak Park Unified School District. It beautifully explains the intention and journey of Oak Park USD to create better learning environments that support their...
The education community, understandably, often tends to think about learning as a product of our education system, though according to research by Dr. Joshua Eyler, learning is, in fact, evolutionary and simply part of our genetic make-up. Therefore, schools should...
Every year an amazing group of people from across North America come together with the purpose of laying the foundation for the next strategic steps for the Green Schools National Network (GSNN). It is also a perfect time for us to break out of our day to day, deepen...
Did you take part in one of the climate strikes during the 20-27th September? Many of the Natural Pod team did, joining their children and marching alongside them this past Friday. It was quite an incredible day, with the impact of that action still be realized. ...
To build a more sustainable planet we need new perspectives. We need to reframe the global challenges of climate change, consumption, and waste, and develop ideas that can change the way the world functions. Design thinking is an incredible tool that anyone can use to...
As a sustainable educational furniture company that takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously, we are paying close attention to the upcoming Student Global Climate Strike happening between 20th and 27th of September.As a member of the Natural Pod team,...
Thank you to all of our amazing community members who shared their inspiring photo entries in our ‘Back To School Photo Contest’. It’s been such a pleasure to see your wonderful learning environments and the creative use of Natural Pod furniture in...
Indoor Air Quality: Why it’s Critical for Healthy Learning Environments + Young Learners
