A Forest For Every Classroom
Every classroom at NHS has it's own forest to utilize on Burleigh Mountain. Russ Brummer and I just finished our year-long workshop that focused on Forest Ecology and training teachers to integrate forest studies of local forest land into the classroom. The workshop has as its basis Place-Based Education which combines aspects of service , real-problem and inquiry-based learning.
The goal of PBE is to have students utilizing skills and knowledge out in the "real" world. More specifically, PBE strives to contextualize and lend meaning to the learning experience by connecting students to the land, history, culture, and other assets within their communities. Students contribute to their communities by utilizing knowledge, skills, and inquiry to solve problems that are meaningful to that community.
One of the outcomes of this workshop is that participants create a unit. Russ and I have been working on ours for some time now. The cover page appears below. If you desire to learn more about it, contact me at dswanson@newhampton.org
dave
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Great work guys - this looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to set up a download page over at the school's home page to host docs like your lesson plan for download.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep you posted!
First, Russ and Dave already are rich famous (and kind of a big deal).
ReplyDeleteSecond, I am planning on creating an ecology unit for the Month of May and would love to talk to you guys about using Burleigh.
Lastly, I love the new header on the blog. Very Snazzy.