A conversation about outdoor classrooms and Glover’s Ledge with Antioch Environmental Studies faculty member Peter Palmiotto.
Peter Palmiotto believes that outdoor classrooms can be much more intentional than the cliché of students enjoying a sunny day out on a manicured quad. Instead, he says, outdoor classrooms can be designed to work in any weather—and the natural world can be a key part of the learning they facilitate. Peter should know: he has spent the past dozen years building Antioch’s 80-acre teaching forest, Glover’s Ledge, into a highly functional and much-used outdoor classroom. In this conversation, he talks about the decisions made there, the vision for the future, and how other schools might cultivate their own outdoor classrooms. As Peter says, “The dialogue and the dynamic of a group moving through a outdoor classroom is totally different than students sitting in a classroom.”
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Visit the Glover’s Ledge website to learn more about Antioch’s premier outdoor classroom. Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the MS in Environmental Studies and the PhD in Environmental Studies. You can also find the expanded press release about the recent $1.5 million dollar gift supporting Antioch’s Environmental Studies department and Glover’s Ledge on Common Thread.
Further listening: a previous Seed Field Podcast interview with two education faculty that asked, “To Reopen Schools, Teachers Took Their Students Outside. Should They Stay There?”
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This episode was recorded January 27, 2026 via Squadcast and released February 11, 2026.
The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University
Host: Jasper Nighthawk
Editor: Nastasia Green
Producer: Karen Hamilton
Work-Study Assistants: Dani LaPointe, Odin Rasco, Rylie DeGarmo, and Shayla Kerr
Additional Production Help: Amelia Bryan, Jonathan Hawkins, and Laurien Alexandre