Sugar Sand's Classy Structure

Campers and students at Sugar Sand Park will soon be able to learn about nature while seated in the great outdoors.

Crews are completing construction of a covered outdoor classroom behind the community center which will be used for some new programming along with some that already exists. The classroom is expected to become operational in mid-December.

Dubbed the Chickee Lab – Chickee in the Seminole language means “house” - the classroom is a raised platform, with four cypress pillars at each corner supporting a Palmetto thatch roof.  Slightly larger than Sugar Sand's current indoor classroom, the Chickee Lab has no walls.

“We wanted it to denote that learning takes place here, but we want to keep the cultural significance ties to it as well,” Sugar Sand Science Center Curator Kate Lasher said. “We didn't want it to be too big.”

The Chickee Lab earns a “culturally significant” designation because there will be no power and no water utilities attached to the structure. Should programs get scheduled at night, lanterns can be brought to the Chickee Lab to provide needed light.

A teaching counter was one of the final pieces installed prior to opening. Children will sit on chairs that surround tables.

Freshly planted native plants surround the structure. Markers identifying the plants will soon be installed, and the native vegetation will be incorporated into some programs.

Prior to Chickee Lab's creation, Sugar Sand's camps and programs often used the pavilion near the Science Playground and carousel as a temporary classroom. With so many distractions in that area of the park, children often found it difficult to focus on their program.

Some of the current offerings expected to utilize Chickee Lab are the boy and girl scout badge  programs, a life cycle school field trip class, and earth based, nature themed programs held every April. 

Several new programs are in the works, and one is already underway. In September Sugar Sand launched the Family Gardening program in anticipation of the Chickee Lab's opening.

The Chickee Lab is not a reservable space for private gatherings, but the community will be allowed to enjoy the setting when it's not in use by Sugar Sand programming.