| Field
Trip |
Housatonic
River Canoe Trip |
Bartholomew's
Cobble Field Trip |
Bartholomew's
Cobble Service Learning |
Bear's Den Service Learning |
| What were the goals set during summer planning meetings? |
Experience
river in a positive way to overcome negative perceptions and provide team
building for eigth grade class |
Experience
history, science, math, and art perspectives on the Houstonic River and learn academic content in field learning context |
Contribute
to the health and wellbeing of local ecosystems. Understand problems w/
invasive species; monitor and remove a variety of species for TTOR |
Contribute
to the stewardship of local
ecosystems. Assist Sheffield Land Trust by mapping the topography of the
Bear's Den property adjacent to
SBRSD campus. |
| What were the highlights/successes of this experience? |
Exposure
to nature and river canoeing. Well organized. Positive teacher/student
interaction. Good weather. Plenty of adults. |
Active
components well received (water, art/math, soils). Use of props and great
storytelling by Ann Elizabeth. Rotation and flow worked well. |
Active,
hands-on aspect (e.g. plant removal) physically satisfying for some students.
Safety maintained well. Small groups-lots of staff. Applied 7th grade map and
compass skill for plant monitoring. |
Lost
almost 4 Numbers! Exposed students to surveying methods. Applied estimating
and integers. Hands on. |
| What were the challenges/downsides of this experience? |
Tough
group dynamics. At least one canoe group tipped over. |
Relevance
to classroom studies not understood by students. Too much (i.e. too many
station for for one day). |
Poor
weather-rained out both days.
Creating and teaching protocol as we went was less than optimal. Time
constraints due to weather limited learning and opportunity for rotation. |
Bad
groups. No interest. Lots of "why me?"attitude. |
| How could we change this experience to better meet the goals of the Housatonic River unit? |
Clarify
difference between pollution and non-polution so students aren't so freaked
out about water. Add a silent canoeing section. Perhaps try whole day (half
cobble, half canoe). Living history during lunch together. |
Connect
river water and watershed. Fewer
stations in one day. Lots more
content prep before field trip. |
Does
TTOR want this to be ongoing? Ideally TTOR would send brief letter requesting
assistance in advance that students would hear/read. Bigger community
projects would nice. More realistic and greater relavance (?) |
Is
this ongoing? Ideally SLT would send brief letter requesting assistance in
advance that students would hear/read. Community connections good, but could
be clearer. Greater relavance to watershed theme would be nice. Afterschool
work for those interested. |
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