SIUE is a vibrant, growing metropolitan university with an enrollment of nearly 14,000 students offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in Arts & Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering and Nursing; as well as professional degrees in Dental Medicine and Pharmacy.  The campus encompasses 2.660 Ac. of rolling hills, woodlands and lakes in the Greater St. Louis area.

The School of Education at SIUE is unique in its combination of undergraduate and graduate professional programs that prepare individuals for a wide range of careers; preparing not only highly-qualified Pre-K thru 12 classroom teachers and administrators, but also professionals trained in exciting and high-need areas such as sports management, community relations, clinical psychology, speech/language pathology/audiology, and instructional technology.  Each of these academic disciplines reflect the School’s mission to prepare professionals to serve the citizens of southwest Illinois‘ communities.  SIUE’s School of Education prides itself on its commitment to excellence, which reflects the School’s goals of offering high-quality programs for its students, providing exceptional service to the surrounding community, and performing cutting-edge research that informs policy and practice.  To those ends, the School is dedicated to forming partnerships with a variety of educational, service, and business entities; in order to advance research and the development of innovative research and practices across a broad spectrum of professions and types of organizations.          

SIUE Early Childhood Center and Outdoor Classroom

The Center provides early childhood education programs and services for toddlers, pre-schoolers, and school-age children of the University community.  The staff provides a developmentally-appropriate, child-directed learning environment in which a child can construct their own knowledge through teacher-guided hands-on experimentation and exploration.  The Center also recognizes the importance of family in every child’s development and welcomes the involvement of parents and other family members.

The SIUE Early Childhood Center recently received a grant from the Arbor Day Foundation to replace its traditional playground with an outdoor classroom/playscape that reflects the prairie and woodland setting of SIUE.  This grant  provides for staff education, the services of a professional designer (who collaborates with staff, faculty, parents, and members of the community to develop a facility development/construction  plan, and funding to purchase the necessary materials and other resources for the playscape.  The completed Nature Explore Classroom, combined with the currently-ongoing, LEED-quality expansion of the existing Early Childhood Center building, will create an exemplary facility for early childhood education/development that also supports SIUE’s commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability.  The outdoor classroom will also serve as a “bridge” for our children, families, students, and staff to connect with the many natural elements of the SIUE campus.

The new facilities will also provide an excellent “training ground” for the more than 250 undergraduate and graduate students who visit the SIUE Early Childhood Center each year.  SIUE’s School of Education maintains strong partnerships with faculty skilled in teacher preparation, biology, kinesiology, theater/dance, and art therapy.  All of these disciplines will contribute unique perspectives on early childhood education uses for the outdoor classroom.  SIUE students will then gain valuable knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm for serving as advocates  for the value of daily experiences designed to reconnect children with nature.