Since the beginning of the semester, the Project Management class in the College of Business & Economics has been working on a project to create a new outdoor learning environment for the UW-Whitewater Children’s Center.

Assistant Professors Andrew Ciganek and Christina Outlay teach the course, aimed at giving students hands-on experience in managing business projects.

This semester, the class is tasked with helping the Children’s Center create an outdoor learning center.  With the help of the Children’s Center Director Holly McFaul, the groups will turn what is currently an empty playground into an engaging, educational outdoor environment for the younger children to explore.

Ciganek said the idea for this project came from research that shows children are unable to explore the outdoors as they used to.

“The research talks about a nature deficiency among children today,” Ciganek said. “They really don’t have a lot of time like people had years ago of going and playing outside until dark.  [The Children’s Center] wants to make that playground their outdoor learning space where children can go out and investigate nature.”

There are plans to build a learning garden, a worm farm, and other types of things normally found in nature so the initiative will become an extension to the classroom.

Ciganek said he and Outlay have split their classes into small teams where they must come up with a way to help contribute to this project.

“There are a variety of different projects that are either for fundraising to help support the outdoor learning environment,” Ciganek said. “There are also other teams that are thinking of just helping to maintain the existing environment that’s out there.”

Project ideas among the different teams include organizing a benefit concert, selling candles, reaching out for alumni support, and doing construction work around the playground.

Katherine Travis, a student of Ciganek’s class, said this project is not only important to the class, but to the campus as well.

“There are so many students that have their children enrolled in this program, and [the Children’s Center] eases the financial burden on them,” Travis said. “Plus, it’s an actual learning environment for children [to get] a jump start on their education.”

Travis’s team has come up with a unique way to contribute towards the Children’s Center project.  They are doing a waste -free program called TerraCycle where they collect candy wrappers and send them in for money.         In addition, her group is helping the center put their garden to bed as winter approaches.  She said though the class is challenging, she feels it is a worthwhile experience.

“This class is really challenging, but I think that it’s a really good program,” Travis said. “It has been a very valuable experience.”