It is a beautiful day and most students are lamenting the fact that they will spend the next six hours or so cooped up in a classroom.

Students in Nichole Wonderle’s science classes at Mount Airy Middle School no longer have that fear. When the weather is nice, they can take advantage of the newly completed outdoor classroom that sits behind the school.

Fun, cool and awesome are the words most used by students to describe their new space, which was completed by Zach Hull for his Eagle Scout project.

For Jesus Cortez and Lou Lor, being outside is the highlight of their day. The change of scenery helps to break up the day and keeps them focused.

Even with all of that fun, the students are learning as well.

“It’s been a great experience. We’ve worked on a lot of different things,” said Logan Holder. “You get to study a lot of stuff out here. You get to work with your friends and have fun.”

“It’s fun. You get to see all of the nature stuff. We’ve looked at plants to tell which kind they are,” said Dominique Joyce.

The outdoor classroom area started out with two small greenhouses. Thanks the Hull’s work and Wonderle’s vision, it is now a fenced off area complete with a stone path, wooden benches, a small pond and flower beds.

“It’s fun to see it all come together. Last year it was just a lump of dirt and now it’s a really pretty place,” said Halee Radcliff. “We’ve learned about the greenhouse effect and global warming. We’ve learned a lot about recycling and compost piles that we can get started in the community and around the school.”

Students in Wonderle’s classes have planted flowers including pansies and North Carolina wildflowers in the plant beds to study.

They also have completed a weather unit. Students built their own weather instruments which they set up in the outdoor area and observed every day during the unit. Students were also able to study clouds from the outdoor classroom.

Wonderle also uses the space for other class work, having them head outside to do some projects such as sketches from the textbook to break up some of the monotony of the day.

Hull started work on the project shortly before the beginning of school in August.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.