Environmental Education "Workshop", Zip lines, and Sobel's Design Principles

This week I went to an "Environmental Education Workshop". It was a huge let down. It was a group of Teaching Fellows at the Sertoma Center in Westfield, NC. I thought we would be discussing how to "do" environmental education in our classrooms. A lot of the people there were not science majors and didn't really think the stuff we were doing applied to them... Mainly because the way it was presented it didn't. We had way too much free time - like 7 hours a day. AND THERE WERE NO RECYCLING/COMPOSTING FACILITIES AT AN ENVI ED THING!!! Blerg! We worked with students for like 2 hours a day "teaching" lessons at local elementary schools. My partner and I taught a lesson on pollinators. I liked our lesson but I felt like the students were being baraged with information and probably retained very little of it. They had 7 stations per grade.These are the cards I drew - students had to sort themsleves into pollinators and non-pollinators.
This is the "Super Pollinator" I designed - the Hurricat. It blows wind and water. It has wings and sticky fur :-). I would post student designs but I didn't have waivers. I saved a bunch of them though.

Things I did enjoy: 1) Doing a really high zipline - I had to climb up a 50 ft pole and then just let myself fall (granted, I was totally harnessed in so it wasn't a real risk... :-). The pole shook. I was freaked out. But I decided that although it was "Challenge by Choice" I'm about to embark on a 28-day Outward Bound course that I chose to do so I need to start getting used to that fluttery feeling that you get when you are doing something that scares you...
2) I also REALLY enjoyed meeting more Teaching Fellows from around the state. I went on an adventure with a group of TFs from WCU. They were awesome.
3) I went for a LONG run in the hills. Hopefully some good OB training :-)
4) Talked to other TFs who really made this trip much more fun. Its neat to hear what people are passionate about.
5) There were two awesome TFs from LRU who went on a food buying expedition with me. One is doing an education internship at the aquarium. SOOO COOL!

So how did this experience tie to the outdoor classroom project?

-It might be a good idea to check if any students at McDougle do things like 4-H, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts. Getting those groups on board may be a good way to facilitate long term maintenence.
-Even with almost no supplies, you can do cool things! (make bracelets with a bead for each serving from each food group you are supposed to eat, pollinator card game...)
-Games, food, and design projects can be effective teaching methods.
-With all the reading I'm doing, I'm becoming a "Place-Based Ed." snob. I really felt like we should take the kids outside and look for pollinators, find erosion, test soil... :-)

On another note, I've been reading another Sobel book - Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators. LOVE IT! Here are the principles he expounds upon:
1) Adventure
2) Fantasy and Imagination
3) Animal Allies
4) Maps and Paths
5) Special Places
6) Small Worlds
7) Hunting and Gathering

What I think is really cool is that with the current outdoor classroom plan, we've already incorporated some of these ideas. We want to have a rock trail and do mapping activities. We want there to be an area students can manipulate to see how water works and how humans impact the enviroment. I also want there to be an area where their are loose parts and students can create shelters like the ones Native Americans would have made. The possibilities are endless!

I'm so excited about the rest of the summer!

UPCOMING:

This week and next week:
-leading a group project at McDougle in Ms. W's class - the goal is to have the students design the outdoor classroom
-keep reading
-follow up with teachers about aspects they want in outdoor classroom and what they want to contribute (if they want to)
-contact NC Botanical Garden about picking good plants

Next Week:
OUTWARD BOUND!!!!!! I will be gone from June 9 to July 8. I'm taking a bus to Asheville, then going on a 28 day Outward Bound course and then taking the bus back. I'm super duper excited but also nervous. No showers, lots of backpacking and rockclimbing... Honestly, I'm already looking forward to the first shower after the course :-)!

Sorry for the traditionally long post!

Question:
Did you have "environmental education" in school when you were younger?

Teacher Focus Group Follow Up

Yesterday's Teacher Focus Group was fantastic!

I spent the day in my coordinating teacher's classroom as the students worked on a project about adaptation, specifically in bears. Its a really cool project. I've learned a lot - for example, some bears make nests in trees.

I think one of the greatest things I am learning from this project is how schools work and a bit more about what its like to be a teacher.

Anyway, here is a summary of the focus group:

Six teachers came: Technology, Language arts, Math, and 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Science teachers

Almost all of the teachers have done things outside. The language arts classes have not done so yet, but ALL of the teachers want to do more outside. YAY!!!!

Things that the teachers have done outside include:
-launching rockets
-Math Olympics
-testing soil
-learning about motion and forces
-Orienteering to learn about angles and mapping
-learning about mapping (two teachers did a 3-D mapping project that was presented at a National Science Teacher's Association conference!)

Teachers also take students outside after testing to socialize and be active.

Things the teachers could see doing outside:
-learning about civil engineering
-learning about how the landscape is impacted by human development
-teaching a regular lesson in a new setting
-mapping

What does the school already have?
-A courtyard
-AMAZING and interested parents/guardians, teachers, students, and administration!!!!!
-lots of connections and skills (building, painting)
-a working weather station and read out screen
-compasses
-AND the school is getting a rain garden!!!

(Note: The picture is a dated picture of the courtyard. I will try to get newer ones.
http://www.chccs.k12.nc.us/mcdmidl/virtualtour1/DSC15_JPG.html)

What do teachers want in an outdoor classroom?
-places to sit (not neanderthal style rocks or chigger infested bricks :-)
-a board to write on
-clipboards
-storage
-shelter
-water access and drain
-ability to move around/have a change in scenery
-safety/low risk of vandalism
-ability to teach normal lessons outside
-some where to launch stuff

Issues:
-keeping student attention
-will their be new construction at the school that will affect the outdoor classroom?
-vandalism
-disturbing others
-usefulness

SO...here is our current idea:
The current plan is to have a multi-part outdoor classroom. There will the the rain garden that the eighth graders and people from State are working on, a revamped courtyard, and a rock garden around campus. Having the rock garden around campus will enable teachers and students to move around and explore mapping and the geology of North Carolina. Having the courtyard will serve as an art studio, classroom, and "living lab". It will be a safe location.

This is an insanely long post. So, if anyone reads this, I have some questions:
What would you like in an outdoor classroom?
How would you take care of the classroom long-term?

Forts, Focus Groups, and Gift cards

Tomorrow is the Teacher Focus Group meeting! I'm excited! I know that at least 3 teachers are coming.

In addition, student permission slips and interest forms have started flowing in. I'm ecstatic about the support!

I just read a fascinating book by David Sobel called Children's Special Places: Exploring the Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood. It talks about the importance of self-made places, specifically those outside that adults don't enter, in the creation of identity and participation in community and the foundation for a land ethic...

It made me think about forts and such I had as a child. I've noticed that on some, more highly read blogs, bloggers post an answer to a question and then their readers do to. I'm going to try that.

The question: Did you have a childhood fort? Describe it or when you went to it or who you went to it with.

Fort #1: The cherry trees at my grandmas house

Description: 2 cherry blossom trees near the road in front of my grandparents house
When we went to it: whenever the extended family was over, sometimes by myself to climb, sometimes to read
Who I went with: my big sister, little brother, and cousins. The older cousins got the better tree, with easily accessible branches. I was the fourth oldest, so I got the other tree. We had to use a stool to climb it. We had elaborate ritual to decide who got to come in. We always climbed up to our assigned branches in a specific order to avoid stepping on each other.

Now, I'm off to Starbucks to purchase gift cards for teachers at the meeting tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday!

SURFing into the Summer!

So... I found out that I got IRB approval yesterday! Over the past couple weeks I've been working on lots and lots of forms: permission slips, focus group guides, consent forms, informational/recruitment fliers...

This past week I spent a lot of time getting more involved in the community I'm partnering with by proctoring the EOGs. My goodness I'm glad I'm done with those. The students get unlimited time, but no snacks... So for the kids who decide to keep working I don't know how they can focus!

I proctored in my coordinating teacher's classroom. The students were fantastic!

As soon as I found out my stuff was approved, I talked to the principal and she signed off on stuff as well and then I made about a million photocopies of fliers that got sent out today!!

Next week my cooridinating teacher and I are going to figure out when I can do a design project with the students. I'm asking them to incorporate a local species into their group design and think about the factors it would need to survive. I want this to really tie into the ecology unit.

Yesterday I also started doing some book-based research on place-based education which is the "newest" fad in environmental ed. I think I want to go to grad school at Antioch University New Hampshire so I can take classes with David Sobel. Or in Portland, Oregon with Dilafruz Williams. They are AMAZING!

Today I started brainstorming lessons for all subjects in the outdoor classroom.

Upcoming:

-Teacher focus group on Thursday
-Scoping out the perfect location
(right now the location is going to be a courtyard with a friendly inhabitant named Dale. Who is a rat. I'm very excited about this...)

I'm adding a picture. Its not from McDougle, but this blog is BORING!

This is from a garden in France. I took it two summers ago.