Our job in this project was to collect data from students and teachers at our school, and use that data to design an outdoor classroom. From a survey that we designed, we found that most participants wanted a shady, quiet space with access to wifi. Using this data, we explored our campus and chose a place to begin our design. Our group decided to design our classroom on top of four metal crates behind the art rooms on campus. The crates were eight feet tall, in front of a four foot tall hill. We tested the top of the crates, noting softer spots or more weathered areas. The top of the crates had ditches and hills, which we decided would be an easy fix with sand and woodchips. Our main problem became actually being able to get people on the crates and into our classroom. We designed a thirty-foot ramp that reached the hill from the top of the crates. This became a large expense because it needed to be strong enough to support the people, but also long enough to have a wheelchair-accessible slope. After repeatedly trying to bring the ramp's price down, we decided that it would be best to let it be, and bring other cost factors down.
Another aspect of this project that turned out to be fairly difficult became communication. Because this project had so many aspects, our group struggled to fully communicate with each other. This created a rift between the two sides of our table, each working on a different aspect of the project. However, after discussing our problem with our teacher, it became apparent that we would be able to work better together if we remembered to tell everyone about every idea we had. Even though it seemed like discussing every single idea would be too much, we came to find out that it helped significantly.