Search Results
Beebe Recycles
Beebe Environmental and Health and Science K-8 Magnet School in Malden, MA took advantage of an early opportunity to forge …
Questing for the Heart of the Hamlet: The Village Quest Project
Throughout the rural landscapes of America are vestiges of small villages, once-thriving hamlets recognizable now by perhaps a small cemetery, …
Community-based Learning Takes to the Streets
In Littleton, NH, having students learn by addressing local community needs is a hot idea. Literally. Littleton High School physics …
Healthy Neighborhoods / Healthy Kids
Shelburne Farms launched the Sustainable Schools Project (SSP) to support schools in using place-based education tools to improve teaching and …
Trail Magic - In the Classroom
These were a few of the phrases flowing across a banner presented to teachers at the opening of the Trail …
Chickens in the Classroom: A Lesson in Multi-Ethnic Place-based Education
Angela McGregor, an educator with Shelburne Farms’ Sustainable Schools Project, was teaching Lawrence Barnes first graders a lesson about chickens …
Songbird Welcome Center
Elementary students in Kansas restore songbird habitat at the Marion Springs Environmental Center. High school shop students, biologists, and a local artist help students construct birdbaths, benches, and feeders, and selected soil amendments. A fourth- and fifth-grade recycling program partially funds the project. Success is measured by monitoring use of the plot by birds, students, and community members.
Gorham Town Forest
Gorham High School students work with the town forester and the Appalachian Mountain Club to develop experiences that immerse students in the town forest. These include a freshman orientation, an ecology-based experience for sophomores, a water chemistry experience for juniors, and a support structure for the seniors to do projects based in the Town Forest that promote the forest’s preservation.
Mapping McCabe
Fifth graders explore and map the flora and fauna of McCabe Forest. Art activities, field and book research help them create maps that are scientifically accurate and aesthetically beautiful.
River Check
Students design scientific experiments and take field trips to a local river, water treatment plant, and wastewater treatment plant to learn about local water pollution. They study stormwater runoff, erosion and deposition, nutrient overloading, groundwater, acid rain, and limnology. Students present their findings and suggestions for improvement to the affected counties, the city, and the State Department of Agriculture.
Reading the Forested Landscape
Eighth graders explore the community and land surrounding their school to uncover clues to human land use over the past 300 years. Students create a series of "Quests," self-guided treasure hunts that take followers on an educational tour of local points of interest. The Quests are published in a student-designed booklet and on the web, so that they can be used by families for years to come.
Reclaiming the Land
Ohio's Mill Creek School is surrounded by reclaimed mining land, including a 250-acre tree farm and a 2,600-acre wildlife area. Students visit these areas to examine the history and impact of coal mining in their area and environmentally sound options for reclaiming the land. Students document their discoveries in journals and conduct public presentations for the school and community.
Air & Water Quality Program
High school students monitor local air and water quality in the Connecticut River Valley to deepen their understanding of the importance of clean air and water. They report their findings back to the community through a student-built website, slide presentations to senior citizens, and production of a television program aired on local television.
Groveton Heritage Project
The Groveton Heritage Project was designed to improve school/community relations and foster student learning through place-based education. Students put together oral history of Groveton. They interview community members, study historical photos, and work with local musicians to compose music to accompany their project.
Sutton History Questing Project
Elementary students collaborate with the local historical society to investigate their town’s history. Students conduct interviews with selectmen, the chief of police, the town historian, and storytellers, and explore their community’s architecture and physical features. The study culminates in an art show and the creation of a “Quest” -- a treasure hunt that highlights the town’s history.
Air Quality Sleuths
U-32 Jr/Sr High School relocates its drop-off area for buses. Students concerned with air quality team up with AirNet to survey the air quality at the bus stop. They gatherer chemical data, and identify and map lichens as indicators of air quality. Students are asked to develop recommendations to improve air quality based on their findings, and report their conclusions to the school board and community.
Urban Rangers
The Urban Rangers program uses bicycles to teach that just as a bike can be repaired, a community torn by neglect and violence can also be repaired. Youth work with a professional bike mechanic to refurbish bikes for resale. Participants gain skills in conflict mediation and take part in community service projects such as designing a wildlife habitat garden.
Welcome to Gorham
Third-grade students work with a local author to write a children’s book about Gorham’s past, present, and future. Local artists coach students on how to make their drawings consistent and effective. They publish the book in full color and distribute it throughout the community.
Florida Habitat Garden
Students create outdoor classrooms that focus around habitat for box turtles, lizards, butterflies, and native flowers. The fifth-grade gardening club maintains the outdoor classrooms. They participate in the Monarch Watch program and establish a student-run company to raise and sell monarch chrysalids. They have received hundreds of orders from teachers and students.
Bread Baking Oven and Business
Alternative program students construct a traditional, wood-fired Quebecois bread oven on the school grounds. A student-run company bakes bread in the oven and sells it. Working with the fire department chief, local artisans, and business people, students get a full immersion in the challenges of making a living.
Navajo Gardening Project
Students at Navajo Mountain High School construct a greenhouse and plant a garden that emphasizes Navajo cultural history and provides produce to the community’s elders. The interdisciplinary project includes a mentoring component between high school and middle school students.
Antrim Center Project
In response to a request from the Antrim Conservation Commission, sixth- and seventh-grade students and teachers take on the responsibility for surveying a 15-acre piece of land. They communicate with adjoining landowners, plan a trail, design trail signs, and work with a graphic artist to design a trail brochure. This previously unused town land now serves as a local park.
Neighborhood Renewal Project
Inner-city elementary students participate in the improvement and renewal of their school and community. Through partnerships with neighborhood organizations, students restore the adjacent school garden and adopted a city block. Field trips to local nature centers and suburban areas allow students to compare different neighborhoods and spark restoration ideas for their own communities.
Field Study Program Design Project
Middle and high school students at a residential school for at-risk youth work with educators at an on-campus natural history museum to create a three-hour field study program for local schools, senior centers, and community organizations. As a service-learning project, students assist in designing and presenting the program, and collect materials for the museum.
Snowmobile Trail Mapping
As a part of their physical education and health classes, middle school students learn how to use GPS units and mapping software to create maps of local snowmobile trails. The old maps were dangerously vague. New maps produced by students include written descriptions, and are distributed for public use.
Technical Science Writing Project
A local hardware store provides unassembled wheelbarrows to a local junior high school science class. The students put the wheelbarrows together, critique the assembly directions, and then write letters to the company indicating how they could make the directions more user-friendly. This synthesis of practical science and writing help the hardware store while improving student skills.
Fellsmere Pond Exhibits
Students work with the local metropolitan parks department to design educational interpretive exhibits for an urban park. They develop a walking tour, accompanying brochure, and two Quests that lure local visitors to explore the pond and park. The Quests include artificial rocks crafted through the school’s partnership with the local zoo. Students are also doing habitat restoration projects at the park.
"Living Machine" & Wetlands Restoration
Seventh- and eighth-graders learn how wetlands function through a service-learning project with the Department of Environmental Protection’s Wetlands Restoration Unit. Students construct a “living machine,” a self-sustaining, integrated, four-chambered ecosystem in which the waste from one chamber becomes the nutrients for the next.
Four Towns History Museum
Seventh-grade students create an in-school museum to tell the stories of Antrim, Bennington, Francestown and Hancock, New Hampshire. Students explore five core geographical concepts at a local scale to prepare them for studying more distant places. The following year, teachers coordinate exhibit development with the historical societies in the four towns.
The Power of Worms
Students use worm bins to recycle lunchtime food waste into fertile soil. Students write a children’s book about the life of a red wriggler, calculate reproduction rates of the worms, and create a play about soil organisms and decomposition. Students visit other elementary schools to share what they had learned, and use the soil to build community gardens.
Xeriscape Gardens
Preschool and kindergarten children work with teachers, parents, experts from a local nursery, and peer mentors from a nearby elementary school to landscape their school grounds using xeriscaping. Plans included butterfly gardens, composting, and educating the community about water conservation and wildlife.
Prairie CPR
High school students from throughout the metropolitan St. Louis area convened at the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center (LREC) to participate …
Environmental Art Sculptures
Middle school students bring together art, culture, and science to create ceramic sculptures depicting current environmental issues. Students research environmental problems, interview local businesses and community leaders, and then devise plans to symbolize their ideas. These symbols are used to create environmental art sculptures modeled after the totems of the Northwest American Indians.
Backyard Sanctuaries
Students research, design, and build "backyard sanctuaries" on school property, including bat and birdhouses and a butterfly garden. Students plan and finance the project after soliciting donations from local businesses. They produce brochures for self-guided tours of the garden, and present their work at an Earth Day symposium. Students collect wildlife monitoring data and send it to agencies such as Bat Conservation International New Hampshire Audubon Society and Monarch Watch.
Wilderness Arts & Literacy
Students in the Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative participate in academic courses that use outdoor experiences as the integrating framework. Hiking and camping trips expose inner city, low-income students to wilderness areas they may never have visited otherwise. They connect these experiences back to students’ city lives through projects such as habitat restoration at a neighborhood park, a school recycling program, and environmental education presentations to other classes.
School Yard Design Project
Students work with community organizations to create a master plan for their school grounds. They start with trail enhancement, parking lot bio-filter revitalization, outdoor classroom construction, and wetland system investigation. They create a vision for the property that integrate the interests of school and community
Footprints in the Desert
Sixth grade students gather data on local flora and fauna, post their findings on the World Wide Biome Project website, and create digital field guides to be post on a class website. Students also study how the growth of the Phoenix metropolitan area has affected the Sonoran desert. They examine their personal water use, and how to incorporate sustainable practices into their daily lives.
Urban Ecology Project
Students are involved in all stages of design, construction, study, and maintenance of planter boxes, birdhouses and feeders, a weather station, and a vermiculture station for their urban school. Inmates at Riker’s Island prison constructed planters. Staff from the Horticultural Society of New York's Apple Seed Program help design curriculum.
Cross-Rivendell Trail
Through the CO-SEED Summer Institute, an interest emerges to create a 40-mile long trail that links the four towns comprising this school district. An advisory council is formed to plan the trail and integrate it into the school curriculum. The project attracts funding from both the states of Vermont and New Hampshire. The land is close to being secured for the trail, and multiple classroom initiatives have been implemented.
Salamander Mark and Recapture Study
This study looks at longevity, growth, and dispersal of five species of salamander. Volunteer high school and college interns live capture salamanders in the study area. Salamanders of a certain size are marked with an injected marking devise, weighed, and measured. Interns work with visiting middle school and high school groups to catch and study salamanders.
Fungi Map
Volunteers make observations of 50 easily identifiable species of fungi during their hikes in the park. Park staff use visitor reports to better understand where and when these species of fungi can be found in the park. These programs focus on involving volunteers in hands-on learning while providing valuable data for actual park research projects
Yellowstone Adventure
Students from a one-room elementary school on the Wind River Indian Reservation visit Yellowstone National Park. Trip organizers hope to build an understanding of, and appreciation for, environmental preservation, and bridge the gap between the students and the tourists who travel through the students' community on their way to the park each year.
Urban Garden
Students in Lackawanna, New York design and plant a school garden. Educators hope the experience of creating and caring for a garden counters the negative forces of substance abuse, violence, and truancy. Teachers integrate the project into math, science, language, and fine arts curriculum. A four-week summer program extends the project and provides a safe alternative activity for youth.
James River Study
Students from six high schools in a South Dakota watershed conduct water quality tests along the James River and electronically share data with each other, university students, and with local and state agencies. University students post questions for students to research. Students conduct a fish survey, study the Native American heritage of the river, and learn water resources issues.
Living on Earth Radio
High School students research local environmental issues and produce radio programs to be broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Living on Earth” show. Students interview local officials, experts, and citizens, and are trained to translate scientific evidence into “newsworthy stories” that inform the general public about local and global environmental issues.
Chimney Swift Homes
High school students plan and construct a nesting tower for chimney swifts that frequent a communal roost in the school’s chimney. Students study the natural history of chimney swifts through direct observation, research, and communication with experts around the world. After construction, students monitor nesting activity and contribute data to the North American Chimney Swift Nest Site Research Project.
Birds on the Move: Migration Studies
Fifth- and sixth-grade students learn to identify birds, map their school grounds, and landscape the schoolyard to encourage migrants to nest, rest, and feed on the school campus. Students study the cultures and economic situations in countries where neotropical migrant birds overwinter, and the reasons for habitat loss. They then communicate with a Guatemalan organization working to conserve bird habitat.
Gesu Community Green
After the State of Michigan condemns the playground at Gesu School, the school, parish and neighborhood organization in Northwest Detroit collaborate to transform the asphalt schoolyard into an area of gardens, grass, and trees, complete with safe play structures, drinking fountains, benches, and a labyrinth for meditation.
Closing the Loop on Proctor's Food Cycle
Proctor Academy is working to close the loop on their food production/food waste system by expanding a fledgling organic garden and composting food scraps and napkins from the school kitchen. The project provides fresh vegetables and reduces the school's wastes, and serves as an educational model for small scale, low-input sustainable agriculture. Students, teachers, kitchen staff, and the maintenance department are involved in various parts of the cycle.
Bird Banding Internships
High school and college interns help to run a bird-banding station in the Great Smokies National Park. At sunrise, students open nets and catch birds for six hours. They measure, identify, band, and release the birds unharmed in an effort to better understand the population dynamics of species using the high elevation habitats found at Purchase Knob.
Malden Recycles
Under a challenge from the Mayor of Malden, Massachusetts, a student leadership group is working on plans to implement a school-wide recycling program. The City of Malden presently has no citywide recycling program. The Mayor is looking to the students to create first a school-wide program that can then be used as a model for other schools and businesses. Students start by surveying the school to understand the waste sources, and will then create a plan for how the recycling will occur.
The Greening of Henniker Goes On
For a Leadership Grant project, students at Henniker Community School create an environmental learning center for the school and community. They had two main goals: to increase the Town of Henniker's recycling rate and to lower energy costs for the town and school buildings by reducing oil and electricity consumption. The center trains seventh- and eighth-grade students to be leaders for younger students.
Teachers in the Forest, A Practitioner's Take on Forest for Every Classroom
Michael Quinn, a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Hartford Middle School in White River Junction, Vermont describes the …
Trustees of Reservation Quest and Then and Now Project
The Trustees of Reservations partnered with the Holyoke, MA Boys and Girls Club to offer place-based activities for youth, who …
Middle School Teachers Kick off the Year with Interdisciplinary Study of Dana Hill
Four Woodstock, Vermont Middle School teachers kicked off the 2006 school year with an interdisciplinary unit exploring their community’s cultural …
Hinesburg Students Rock On!
The middle school science and social studies teachers at Hinesburg Community School teamed up to develop a student-based investigation of …
Danville: A Show of Hands
A community celebration artist worked with the K-12 students to create community art. Students interviewed community members about the social history of their community. They created 800 clay "handprints" of their neighbors. The handprints were hung from an old maple tree on the village green, creating a local landmark and a visual chronicle of interconnectedness and change.
Students, Art, and Amphibians!
A local nature center worked with art, science, music, and English teachers at an elementary school to develop an interdisciplinary unit on vernal pools and migrating amphibians. Students learned about vernal pools and the diversity of animals who live in them, with a particular focus on breeding amphibians. Students visited vernal pools, scooped for critters, and made murals of the habitat. They made posters of amphibians crossing a road that were used by the nature center staff to advertise a series of trainings for community members. Community members learned about amphibian migration and how to help the crittesr out during migration.
City of Stories
A City of Stories is a unique book arts project that encourages middle school students to use personal connection and …
Bringing Back the Butterflies: Kids for Karners Service Learning Program
The Kids for Karners program was initiated in 2000 by the National Wildlife Federation with their Keep the Wild Alive …
Vermont Historical Society Community History Partnership Program
In 2001, the Vermont Historical Society (VHS) launched an innovative place-based education program, the Community History Partnership (CHP). K-12 students …
Tunbridge Students Create Community Documentary
Eighth graders at the Tunbridge Central School are working with the Tunbridge Historical Society on an oral history project in which they will interview and photograph elders in the community to document the history of Tunbridge. For the final project, students will produce a documentary video in which they will talk about the Tunbridge resident that they interviewed, show photographs of the individual, and utilize sound clips from the interview. This video will be shown to the community at a public celebration.
Village Questing
Students in the 7th and 8th grade at Flood Brook School are working with the Peru, Landgrove, Londonderry, and Weston Historical Societies on a week-long history institute. During the institute, students will learn about the history of the different communities through hands-on research that is guided by both the classroom teachers and historical society members. By the end of the week, each student will create a village quest that other community members can follow to learn about the history of their town.
High School Students Partner with Land Trust
Students in mixed-age (grades 7-12) service learning class at the Vermont Commons School are working with the South Burlington Land Trust on a project documenting changes to South Burlingtons landscape over the past century. Students are using GIS maps to analyze changes in the landscape. In order to get a social context, students are interviewing community members about these changes. The product of their research will be a documentary video about South Burlingtons changing landscape.
Belmont Barns
As part of the Vermont Reads program sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council, third and fourth graders, their parents, and other community members in Belmont, VT read "As Long As There Are Mountains" by Vermont author Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. Students met with local elders, toured historic barns and productive farms in the community, and met with state wildlife biologists to learn about local habitat. They also met with members of the Mount Holly Community Guild the Select Board, The Planning Commission, and The Barn Preservation Association to discuss the book. Students created educational posters showing how a barn is raised, a quilt representing different barn styles for display in the community, and posters with drawings and descriptions of plants referenced in the book.
Twinfield Students Dig into Dams
Eighth grade students at Twinfield Union School may have figured out how to save their school while at the …
VT FEED: Food, Farm and Nutrition Education at Orange Center School
Vermont Food Education Every Day (VT FEED) is a unique approach to food system change in a rural state through …
PLACE: Junior High Students Investigate Rivershore Park
Camels Hump Middle School students inventoried local flora and fauna, geology, soils, and historical use of land in a local rivershore preserve. Using GIS, they mapped the trails, and produced a brochure for trail users. Since it was published, hikers, bikers, and wildlife watchers have increased visitation to the Warren S. and Ruth Beeken River Shore and Nature Preserve, one of several Richmond Land Trust preserves. Their project caught the attention of the governor, and won the 7th and 8th grade team the 2005 Vermont Governors Award for Environmental Excellence. PLACE is a project of Shelburne Farms and the University of Vermont. To learn more go to www.uvm.edu/place/
Louisiana Voices: Middle School History Club Takes to the Streets
For middle school social studies teacher Greg English, weekends are for student trips into the heart of Louisiana. Once he became involved in Louisiana Voices, a professional development program designed to engage students in authentic experiences in their region and their heritage, he knew he could not be confined to the regular school day. His well-organized and well-attended field trips bring students into New Orleans and out to neighboring parishes, where they sample local foods and music, visit historic plantations, churches, and even haunted houses. Students interview elders, take field notes, create artwork related to their research, and share their work with others at http://www.geocities.com/parish_photogy/cubbyholes.htm.
STAR Students Research Native Seeds and Plant Traditional Gardens
As part of an independent science project, a student at STAR school, a charter school just outside of Flagstaff, Arizona studied seed corn. He compared traditional indigenous seeds with with commercial seeds. He discovered that the heirloom seeds had better germination rates and contained more nutrients. He went on to win a regional science fair contest. As part of the daily academic curriculum, he and his fellow Navajo students continuously explore the region, and research traditional and experimental techniques for sustainable gardening. http://www.starschool.org.
AP Class Releases Oral Histories of Lummi Elders
Freshmen and sophomore students at Windward High School in Washington State dont learn history and English from books alone. The eighty students spent six weeks researching local history and learning how to conduct oral histories. After much practice, they worked in small groups to interview 25 Lummi Nation members. Once their work was complete, they hosted a community celebration honoring the elders and released a bound volume of the histories, titled Echoes of History: Lummi and Early Whatcom County History.
New City River Kids: On the Move and Making Waves!
Teachers at the New City School, an independent school in St. Louis, Missouri, have been building strong connections in their …
Southern Vermont PLACE Programs Spur Community Involvement
"After the public events, I saw the community enriched on so many levels. Now trail work is being planned on …
Students Interview Community Educators
Fourth grade students were asked "Who are teachers in our community? What do teachers in our community teach and what can we learn from them? How are we teachers in our community? What do we want to share with others? What do we dream for the future of our towns?" To answer these questions, students interviewed parents, grandparents, the local hardware store owner, a fireman, daycare teacher, musicians, and others. They used what they learned to create a slideshow, a mural of the community, and house sculptures that honored the community members. They will also be editing audio recordings of their interviews. This project emphasized to students that community members taught them many things: how to hunt and fish, play music, cook, sports, learn academic subjects, and possible career opportunities. This and similar projects can be found at the Vermont Folklife Center website.
Dane County Cultural Tour 2002
Fourth and fifth grade students spent a year studying the cultural history of Dane County, Wisconsin. The student-driven project culminated in a four day, 370 mile road trip of the county. They visited a cheese factory, a Cambodian Buddhist temple, three farms, and a fiddle maker. They also interviewed folk artists, musicians, and community historians. An impressive collection of projects like this, including student work and curricula, can be found at the Wisconsin Teachers of Local Culture website.
Hmong Cultural Tours
Theres no better way to learn about a culture than to see it first hand. Fourth and fifth grade Wisconsin students did extensive classroom research on the history and culture of the Hmong. At the end of the unit, they conducted field work in seven Hmong cities throughout Wisconsin. They learned how to dance, how to make egg rolls, visited a butcher shop and a funeral, and interviewed shamans and other community leaders. They considered music, occupations, the clan system, social customs, and the stresses and complexities of current Hmong life in the U.S. After their tour, they helped the Madison Children's Museum create a touring exhibit, "Hmong at Heart." Go to the Wisconsin Teachers of Local Culture website to learn more about this and a host of other resources and projects.
Louisiana Voices: Local Food the Louisiana Way
Elementary students in Louisiana interview family members about their food traditions. Aunts and uncles, and grandmas and grandpas, share how they make everyday fare and foods for special occasions. Students compile recipes and produce a community cookbook, preserving their familys rich food traditions. The project develops meaningful experiences with family members, and celebrates diversity in cooking traditions. At the end of the project, family members and students gather for a potluck featuring the meals in the cookbook. This is a Louisiana Voices Folklife in Education Project. For more information about this and other curricular ideas, go to www.louisianavoices.org.
Louisiana Voices: Students Share their Experiences of Katrina Using Kamishibai
Students in Louisiana used "Kamishibai", a Japanese storytelling tradition, to share with their classmates their personal experiences of Katrina. They drew illustrative pictures on several large pieces of cardstock. Upon completion, each student used the cards to tell their story to their classmates. The project was healing for students, and helped to unify classrooms of displaced children. Go to www.louisianavoices.org for hundreds of ideas for place-based curricula.
Louisiana Voices: Naming Traditions
What do first and last names tell us about ourselves and our neighbors? How do parents and cultures name their children? After the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, thousands of children found themselves in new schools. Classrooms that may have been primarily one ethnicity were now a mix of cultures. Educators used activities that focused on the students and their heritage to develop a cohesive classroom culture. Louisiana Voices offered numerous curriculum materials and resources to educators, including an activity in which students researched how they were named, what their name means, and the names of their family members. Students shared their stories with one another, developing a greater understanding of each other. This is a project of the Louisiana Voices Folklife in Education Project.
Local Games Lab
Dozens of middle-school classrooms in Wisconsin study local places in the Augmented Reality Games on Handhelds project. Using handheld computers (triggered by GPS devices), students walk in natural and cultural communities, taking on real-life roles and encountering authentic challenges. They interview virtual people and access virtual photos, statistics, and other documents that augment the reality they experience in the ordinary world. Back in their classrooms, additional documents help them construct and present solutions to the game challenge. For more information go to lgl.gameslearningsociety.org
Here at Home: A Wisconsin Cultural Tour for K-12 Teachers
Wisconsin Teachers of Local Culture, in cooperation with the UW-Madison's Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures and the Wisconsin Arts Board, hosts educational tours for educators. The interdisciplinary,immersive eight-day tours take teachers around the state in an exploration of the diversity of Wisconsin's local cultures, their expressions, and the environmental and human forces that shape them. Sample highlights of the tours include visits with blacksmiths at the nation's only Hmong blacksmith shop in LaCrosse, an exploration of Wisconsin's Belgian and Czech settlement area, learning about Wisconsin's timber industry through interviewing and observing a contract logger and National Forest Service personnel at work in the Chequamegon National Forest, and hearing the Queens of Harmony performing a cappella gospel at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum in Milwaukee. For more information about the Wisconsin Teachers of Local Culture, and to explore curriculum developed by participating educators, go to http://csumc.wisc.edu/WTLC/index.htm
Outdoorsmen Tell Tales of the Woods
Inspired by the Northern Forest Center's Ways of the Woods traveling exhibit, students in the extracurricular Team Quest program from L.P. Quinn School in Tupper Lake, New York, got excited to explore their own community. The students, with their teachers and an educator from the Adirondack Museum, learned how to use a digital video camera, conduct interviews and edit the material. On a beautiful day in June, Jim and Butch, Adirondack outdoorsmen with decades of experience on hunting, fishing and building boats, paddled to a local park to spend the morning with the students, answering questions about their experiences, and how equipment and the landscape have changed over the years. The students and their adult mentors edited the document into a video for public use.
VT FEED: On the Trail of the Potato Puff
In an effort to purchase local food for the cafeteria, connect school children with community members and the local landscape, and enrich the curriculum with hands-on activities, Waitsfield School joined forces with Vermont FEED. Students used hands-on activities and field trips to a local mine and quarry to learn how geologic forces shaped the mountainous landscape and fertile valleys. These same forces played a key role in shaping the Mad River Valleys agricultural tradition. Students studied the history of agriculture in their region, and met farmers who were starting to grow grew greens and produce poultry for the lunch program. Cafeteria staff learned how to cook with local, seasonal food, and students visited a local mine and granite quarry. At the end or the geology unit, the community came together for an evening of local food and shared learning. The school continues to purchase food from local farmers. To learn more about Vermont FEED, and explore dozens of unique FEED curricula, go to www.vtfeed.org
VT FEED: Alburg's Bread and Butter
Alburg, Vermont is a rural town in the Lake Champlain islands. Thanks to Vermont FEED, an innovative farm to school education program, parent volunteers, and a staff of talented teachers, the school has a rich farm-based educational curriculum. Kindergarten students spend part of their first year of school learning about their local community and how to make healthy food choices. The class visits a dairy farm, makes cheese, grinds wheat berries, and helps a local bakery make bread and letter pizzas. The students wrote cookbooks and involved their families in their eating adventures. They wrote a culminating play with songs, invited their families and served healthy student made foods. For a full outline of this curriculum, and other by VT FEED educators, go to www.vtfeed.org
VT FEED: Grains: Grow, Process, Utilize
How do grains of wheat, rye, corn, oats and rice nourish us? How do you grind flour and use it to bake bread? How did the Abenaki people who were indigenous to Hardwick, Vermont use the grains they grew? How do grains fit into a healthy diet? To answer these questions, first grade students visited a nearby farm to see how grain was grown, ground their own corn and make "hoe" cakes, and learned about life cycles of local farms and woodlands. Students presented food and recipes to their families as a culminating activity. For a full description of this curriculum and to learn more about Vermont FEED go to www.vermontfeed.org
VT FEED: Cycles of Life in Starksboro
Life cycles in the community become the framework for a first grade class in Starksboro, Vermont. Students investigate the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, and compare the caterpillar and the butterflys food needs to their own. They study the cycles of the seasons, the moon and the stars, visit local vegetable and dairy farms, adopt a cow and track its growth over the course of a year, grow tasty greens, and learn how to make healthy food choices. Inspired by regular nature walks throughout the Lewis Creek Watershed, students keep a journal, write poems, stories and paint watercolors. As a final culminating project, students create an Earth, Sun, Moon Seasons booklet, and a Cycle of Life Wall Hanging. To read the entire curriculum, and to learn more about Vermont FEED, go to www.vtfeed.org
VT FEED: Food Education Every Day
Vermont FEED, the leading Vermont Farm-to-School program is works with Vermont communities. In Spring 2006, the Vermont legislature passed Act …
Of Mines and Men
The Adirondack Ecological Center and Adirondack Museum collaborated to present an in-depth on-site hands-on study of the technological, social and …
Sustainable Schools Project: What Does it Mean to be a Citizen in Our Neighborhood?
When Lawrence Barnes Elementary School teachers Amy La- Chance and Deirdre Morris developed the year-long essential question for their 2nd …
Sustainable Schools: Living Machines
An Interview with Betsy Patrick, with Susan Bonthron, Vermont Community Works SSP documentation partner Near the table where I sit …
Sustainable Schools Project: Legacy Card: A Community Passport
By Emily Hilliard, A*VISTA for Burlington Legacy Project Third, fourth and fifth grade students at Champlain Elementary embarked on a …
Students discover link between wood burning and poor air quality
High school science club students teamed up with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to monitor local air quality. Two students utilized computer generated data to monitor the site, and through the analysis process identified a correlation between wood burning and air pollution in the region. Students outlined the issue using informative PowerPoint slideshows that they presented to high school classes and local community groups. They went on to present their findings at the 2006 EPA air quality conference in San Antonio, TX.
Students use lichens to monitor pollution
As part of the grade 11-12 "Ecology of the Northwest" course, students conducted a study of lichens in the region, comparing the diversity and health of lichens by a road side with those deeper into the woods. As part of the regions Youth Network for Health Communities program, students created a PowerPoint of their findings to share with other students.
Students discover link between high asthma rates and illegal burning
In conjunction with the Youth Network for Healthy Communities, high school students researched the cause of high asthma rates in this small, rural community. They discovered a possible link between asthma and the rural communitys high rates of illegal burning. They conducted a public awareness campaign, alerting families and neighbors to the issue, and encouraged them to start recycling and taking waste to the transfer station.
Mean Green Team discovery cleans up poor air quality
With assistance from the Earth Day Network, the high schools Mean Green Team conducted indoor air quality assessments, and found poor air circulation issues at the school. They presented the issue to the school board, along with recommendations based on research for what they could do to ameliorate the issue. The school administration bought plants that had air purifying qualities to distribute throughout the school. They also installed new air filters and are committed to ongoing maintenance to ensure that HVAC ducts continue to work.