Taking the classroom outdoors

It’s full STEAM ahead at Tiguex Park, with nine new installations forming an outdoor classroom. 

A collaborative effort between the city of Albuquerque Parks and Recreation Department and Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum focuses on science, technology, engineering, arts and math. 

David Simon, director of Parks and Recreation, said when he became director in 2018, he came in with the goal of implementing an outdoor classroom. 

“I’ve been very passionate about the concepts of outdoor classrooms and how important and how beneficial it is for kids to have hands-on experiential educational opportunities that directly connect the educational requirements to learning outside,” Simon said. 

Plans and conversations were underway when the pandemic hit, putting a halt to the project. However, in early 2021, they began again. 

“Explora relit the fire because they saw an opportunity in the form of a grant opportunity,” Simon said. 

Explora applied for a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and received $250,000 to build the exhibits, and the Parks and Recreation Department matched it. 

Explora wanted to keep the plans going after hearing from the community. 

“We talked in particular to one group, Fathers New Mexico, and they said, ‘We’re going to the park. We’re doing these things, but we wish we had more tools to bring it to life and help our kids learn,’” Joe Hastings, co-executive director of Explora, said. 

The installation consists of nine exhibits, each focused on a different STEAM aspect, with several having direct ties to New Mexico, including a poem by former Albuquerque Poet Laureate Hakim Bellamy. 

“He wrote a whole series of poems about this project and about the park,” Hastings said, “and we worked together to pick one, and we then turned it into a panel of steel and had the poem laser cut out of the steel.”

“With the sun shining through, it comes to life every day,” Hastings said, “and it’s really about the park and about Albuquerque.”

“Shadow Wall” is etched steel that casts the poem onto the ground when light passes through it, creating shadow effects. 

Other exhibits include: “Perspective Illusion,” stylized building facades that appear to change shape and orientation;  “Wind Turbines,” illustrate how the difference in wind speed at different altitudes; “Reflection Tower,” mirrors reflect images of city buildings and geographic features, floating and morphing in the sky; “Solar System Scale,” illustrates the distances between planets; “Pebble Melodies,” utilizes small stones to create tinkling, wind chime-like sounds; “Heavy Tones,” a limestone block forms a litho-xylophone; “Sitting Stones,” stones from across New Mexico give visitor’s a place to relax; and “Parts of a Whole,” a basketball court painted with decimals and fractions illustrates information about proportions and percentages. 

“I do think it represents something much, much larger, which is like that every park can and should be an outdoor classroom that blends serious learning with play,” Simon said.

Simon wants to keep implementing these projects around the state. He said he believes New Mexico could have one of the best outdoor environmental learning programs in the country. 

“We want our parks to be inviting. We want them to be exciting. We want them to be activated,” Simon said. “And seeing the public engage and use these exhibits is really rewarding.”