Working at a decommissioned middle school could, on paper, sound like the backdrop for a creepy, horror film. For Thea Van Gorp, it’s inspiring. She sees its potential to serve the rural Arizona community of Bisbee in a reimagined way, with the creation of a regenerative learning ecosystem unlike anything the town, or all of Cochise County, has ever seen.

The Backyard Project, as it’s known, involves a partnership with the Bisbee Unified School District and will create an inclusive space that promotes active participation across, among other features, five STEAM field stations. The vacant school grounds seemed like an ideal home base for the project, which will include access to the public library annex that houses tools and seeds for the community. 

“It seemed like a really good fit for us,” Van Gorp said of the middle school. 

As chief operating officer of the Bisbee Science Exploration & Research Center, Van Gorp guided the early planning for the center’s Backyard Project, which recently received a $150,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program. 

The Backyard Project will transform eight acres of unused land at the school site into a research, engagement and learning area for the entire community. The organization has invested a significant amount of time and funding into community engagement for the project, making sure the public is involved with every step of the process. Community feedback throughout the planning process has helped Van Gorp and her colleagues group public priorities for the space into focus areas that include environment, education, engagement and exercise.

“There is still some playground equipment there that gets used by the community. T-ball practice happens there. It’s really the only sort of outdoor communal space in this part of Bisbee,” said Van Gorp, who was raised in Bisbee. “Pretty quickly, we realized this needed to be community-led. We have talked to anyone and everyone who was interested.”

The goal is to develop field stations that provide the appropriate space and setting for consequential research while making that research accessible to teachers and students. Conceptual renderings suggest space for water harvesting, an eco-corridor, habitat protection and a water steam field station, among other ideas. 

Nearly three-quarters of the schools in Cochise County are designated as Title I schools. The lack of STEAM enrichment programs locally means that students would have to travel up to four hours round trip to participate in one, which is often a financial burden. 

“We have real research happening and we’re now figuring out how do we translate that to the community and students and how can they both happen at the same time?” Van Gorp said. “We want this to be a really innovative space and it needs to be adaptable.”

Its school district has an elementary, a junior high, and a high school, and the area of town where the Backyard Project will live is where most of the city’s younger families are found. Van Gorp said it seemed like a good space and a good time to connect environmental research with community stewardship in a truly interactive, tangible way.

About three-quarters of the schematics for the project’s design have been finalized so far. What’s certain is that it will include five research stations that focus on agrivoltaics, water, food, shelter and renewable energy. As well as plans for a solar river project that calls for solar panels to be installed over canals.

Thora Colot, who took over as project director this summer, will guide the next steps in this innovative, outdoor “exploration and research playground.”

Colot said Van Gorp was instrumental in leading large community engagement activities to gather feedback from residents. 

“They’ve now given their opinion, and we’re giving back what they told us they wanted,” Colot said. “I’m starting to veer into more specifics. We’re talking about these science stations and how they can not only demonstrate some of the leading scientific thoughts on that particular topic, but they’ll also show models of things that are in prototype or working form on the commercial market.”

The organization’s small but mighty team drew on inspiration from other innovative science centers across the country, including Arizona’s own Frank Lloyd Wright house at Taliesin West. But, the Backyard Project will likely be one-of-a-kind.

“I don’t think there’s anything else like this in the country,” she said, noting that Bisbee was just right for it. “There are so many projects doing cool work in communities, and we wanted to give it a spin for Bisbee.”

For more information, or to participate in the planning of the Bisbee Backyard Project, please contact Thora Colot at thora.colot@gmail.com.

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