The 2010 Environmental Project Based Learning Institute took place August 16-19. Below is the second of three installments about the Institute. Come back tomorrow to read the final installment.
The Institute did not stop with only the 22 hours of learning during the day. Evening events took place every day as teachers participated in archery, bat monitoring and visiting the observatory. After dinner on the first evening everyone gathered to experience archery first hand. Fox River Academy brought their archery equipment and Sandy Vander Velden, certified to teach archery, guided everyone through the safety of archery. The feeling is incredible to place the arrow on the bow, pull back your arm (remember to keep your elbow up and use your shoulder) and watch as the arrow sails through the air and hits the bulls eye. O.K. in my case some arrows may have hit the board behind the target, but it was a great experience never the less. As dusk fell on the campsite, the gathering continued at the campfire. Not being a girl scout myself, I was a little hesitant in my ability to start the fire. Luckily others had more experience and gathered the twigs and placed one piece of paper under the twigs. “It will only take one match”, insisted one of the teachers. In my past camping experiences one match was never enough, but I was willing to try. I lit the match and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it did take only one match. As we stoked the fire, a whippoorwill called to us to announce its presence. The evening ended with everyone recounting his or her first teaching experience. The dedication of these teachers never ceases to amaze me.
The second night allowed for everyone to participate in hands on acoustic bat monitoring. Volunteers survey the bats and the ultrasound calls through a hand held system that records the bat calls. Combined with a global positioning system (GPS) and personal data assistant (PDA) volunteers capture bat calls in real time. The final night allowed for observation of the night sky at Hobbs observatory. Unfortunately, it was a little foggy, so we did not see any passing comets, but did glance at an amazing view of the moon. Each person took his or her turn at the telescope waiting for the clouds to pass and I wish I recorded the excitement in each person’s voice as the clouds slowly shifted and the moon came into view. The ‘wows’ echoed in the observatory. You can see here my view of the moon, as I was able to capture it through my camera. As I learned that night the telescope and digital camera are both afocal, allowing for images from the telescope to be recorded on a very simple digital camera.
The Environmental Project Based Learning Institute became more than a place to learn about projects for students. As I asked one high school teacher what brought him to the Institute, he responded that at first he only wanted to become familiar with Project Based Learning (PBL). However, he has changed his goal and would like to see how he can fit PBL into his high school as a whole. The key is to bring these ideas to the teachers not attending the institute, and find a way to incorporate PBL into the professional development and use different ways to evaluate students. The final outcome for him at the Institute was designing the course for a nine week Green class. The course will include for these students group work (such as rodent tracking), then teacher directed time on using GPS and service learning with a final individual directed project. Another middle school teacher was looking for further ways to use the resources that surrounds the school. The school has a school forest, water test kit, land fill and rock sites. The goal is to find projects to engage students in these resources. One school was also looking into community involvement with project-based learning. They want to provide students with service learning and a hands-on cross-curriculum learning style. Teachers walked away with a framework to infuse a small project and integrate it across curriculum.
The teachers that attended the Institute are not all teaching in charter schools. There were many teachers from schools searching for a chance to meet others and gather ideas to bring into their own classrooms. This is a primary goal of charter schools. Charter schools focus on the areas of critical thinking, creativity, and innovation, and serve as a “testing ground” for new curriculums and teacher methods. These methods are modified and developed into successful models that are then rolled out to non-charter public schools. This Institute served as a good example of three different charter schools (one elementary -Fox River Academy in Appleton, one middle school –River Crossing in Portage and one high school –Wildlands in Augusta) sharing their experience of project based learning and allowing other schools (charter and non-charter) to use these projects within their own school.
One main focus I took back from the Institute was that project based learning created a method of excitement and enthusiasm for the students. As Jeff Nania stated, a volunteer at River Crossing and retired Executive Director from Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, “There’s a rock skipping, frog catching heart inside very child. Teachers are the ones that make this come alive”. Students look for meaningfulness in science. They are not looking for busywork, but a place where what they do and learn makes a difference in their community. The Institute was a great experience because everyone wanted to be there and everyone wanted to learn.
Come back tomorrow for the final installment of the Environmental Project Based Learning Institute
