CUrriculum dEVELOPMENT
At Neal Smith NWR, I designed a field trip curriculum that included three lessons for each grade level, kindergarten through fifth grade, for the fall and spring field trip seasons. The lessons are designed to meet state standards and emphasize student-driven learning, inquiry, place-based education, multiple intelligences, and nature journaling. To read more about the curriculum, including overviews of the lessons and the curriculum goals, please visit here.
During graduate school, I worked full-time at Florida Atlantic University's Pine Jog Environmental Education Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.. Pine Jog Environmental Education Center has a unique partnership with Pine Jog Elementary School. They were built just feet away from one another and are surrounded by a 150 acres of pine flatwoods. As a graduate student, I taught twice a week at the elementary school and designed my own lessons using the pine flatwood ecosystems as a living laboratory for students to learn and explore outside. To read more about the partnership between Pine Jog EE Center and Pine Jog Elementary, please visit here.
During graduate school, I worked full-time at Florida Atlantic University's Pine Jog Environmental Education Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.. Pine Jog Environmental Education Center has a unique partnership with Pine Jog Elementary School. They were built just feet away from one another and are surrounded by a 150 acres of pine flatwoods. As a graduate student, I taught twice a week at the elementary school and designed my own lessons using the pine flatwood ecosystems as a living laboratory for students to learn and explore outside. To read more about the partnership between Pine Jog EE Center and Pine Jog Elementary, please visit here.
Service learning/ project-based eDUCATION
“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.”- Chinese Proverb
The best way for students to learn is to involve them in the process at the local level. For this reason, it is required that every school group that visits Neal Smith NWR completes a volunteer stewardship task such as collecting seed, planting prairie plants, and/or removing invasive plants. I have coached some teachers, especially middle school, high school and college teachers to take these small lessons and turn them into bigger service learning projects that could further assist with conservation management.
Now Neal Smith NWR has many schools participating in service learning projects. We have several schools and teachers that grow prairie plants for the Refuge in their classrooms using portable greenhouses. Students follow the life-cycle of a prairie plant by collecting the seeds in the fall, stratifying them in the winter, growing them in their classrooms during the spring, and eventually planting them at the Refuge at the beginning of the summer. In addition, high schools and the local community college have conducted a variety of surveys and stewardship work for the Refuge. Students work with Refuge staff and their teacher to design and execute the surveys. These schools have completed insect, plant, squirrel nesting, native trees and small mammal surveys for the Refuge.
4-H is also an organization that encourages "learn by doing". 4-H has many clubs and committees that engage with the community through service-learning opportunities. As a leader of my county's organization, I inspired volunteer club leaders to invest and learn from the community through service projects such as ditch-cleaning, visiting nursing homes, collecting cans and food for the homeless, and raising money for families and community organizations in need. In fact, under my leadership, our 4-H county's youth and volunteers raised $25,000 for a single family experiencing extreme medical bills from their young daughter's need of a heart transplant .
The best way for students to learn is to involve them in the process at the local level. For this reason, it is required that every school group that visits Neal Smith NWR completes a volunteer stewardship task such as collecting seed, planting prairie plants, and/or removing invasive plants. I have coached some teachers, especially middle school, high school and college teachers to take these small lessons and turn them into bigger service learning projects that could further assist with conservation management.
Now Neal Smith NWR has many schools participating in service learning projects. We have several schools and teachers that grow prairie plants for the Refuge in their classrooms using portable greenhouses. Students follow the life-cycle of a prairie plant by collecting the seeds in the fall, stratifying them in the winter, growing them in their classrooms during the spring, and eventually planting them at the Refuge at the beginning of the summer. In addition, high schools and the local community college have conducted a variety of surveys and stewardship work for the Refuge. Students work with Refuge staff and their teacher to design and execute the surveys. These schools have completed insect, plant, squirrel nesting, native trees and small mammal surveys for the Refuge.
4-H is also an organization that encourages "learn by doing". 4-H has many clubs and committees that engage with the community through service-learning opportunities. As a leader of my county's organization, I inspired volunteer club leaders to invest and learn from the community through service projects such as ditch-cleaning, visiting nursing homes, collecting cans and food for the homeless, and raising money for families and community organizations in need. In fact, under my leadership, our 4-H county's youth and volunteers raised $25,000 for a single family experiencing extreme medical bills from their young daughter's need of a heart transplant .