This unique location has provided the school site with extensive landscaping as a part of the building plan. Swift Creek runs through the back of the school property and is protected by fencing around the ball field. Access to the creek will be available to staff for instructional purposes. Yates Mill Elementary adopted an environmental educational approach for the students. Environmental education is a process aimed at developing a world population that is aware of and concerned about the total environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, attitudes, motivations, commitments, and skills to work individually and collectively towards solutions of current problems and prevention of new ones.
Environmental education has an emphasis on citizenship, problem solving and issues identification.
Individuals and communities are continually forced to make decisions that affect the environment. The goal is to help our children realize their responsibility to understand the ecosystem where they live and the impact humans have on the environment. Our children are responsible for making decisions that help us preserve or enhance a healthy environment. Children need to know what a healthy environment is and how to make good decisions. Yates Mill staff continues to develop outdoor education activities for the children, which incorporate the basics through the study of the environment.