By Aubrey Hastings
Student Life Editor
The Senior Secondary Education interns have reached outside of the classroom to the outskirts of Kent County, taking education for their students to the great outdoors. They teamed up to create The Turner’s Creek project, a collaboration between Turner’s Creek, a Sassafrass Environmental Education Center, and the Washington College Education program.
In the last two years, The Sassafras Environmental Education Center has been a powerful partner in the preparation of WC’s pre-service teachers through research and curriculum design hosted at the Turners Creek site.
“We hope to give students a chance to experience their local ecosystem, heritage, and history and connect these experiences to their studies at school, giving their education a fun and meaningful backdrop,” said senior Darcy Klinedinst. “We hope that this collaboration will continue in the future and that the SEEC at Turner’s Creek will garner more awareness and appreciation for their programs through the work we’ve done together. We’re all very excited about the opportunity to create place-based lessons and develop new relationships with local organizations.”
The first students to go through this program were from the Radcliffe Creek School in Kent County. This local school was chosen based on location and its educational mission, “the cultivation of multi-sensory learning environments for its students, as well as the creative and adaptive dispositions of faculty.” This makes them a promising partner for this innovative form of alternative education.
Excited students participated in the engaging lessons of passionate and energetic student-teachers, a situation beneficial for all students involved. The feedback given on behalf of Radcliffe Creek School faculty on curriculum and instruction is also priceless to the WC senior education students.
So why take these students outside to learn what they could learn in desks and chairs? “Declining health and environmental literacy, and the absence of authentic outdoor experiences pose concerns for this generation,” said Dr. Robert Siudzinski, assistant professor of education. “Children spend less than half as much time outside as their parents did.”
Student-centered programs that engage learners in natural spaces that are relevant to teaching give educators hope for a change in these areas.
“The Turner’s Creek project is a valuable tool and model for educators, said senior Mandy Venable. “There is just something amazing about learning history while standing in an old house, or learning about biology while walking along a river that just can’t be replicated in the classroom. People remember exciting, amazing, or emotional memories much more than the Powerpoint in the classroom. When they have to recall a skill they learned while on their field trip it will hopefully be easier, because it will have stood out to them.”
Senior Jesse Speth taught a lesson to the Radcliffe Creek Elementary school students about ecosystems, ecology, and food chains. Taking a short hike through a trail around Turner’s Creek, students observed plants, animals, and wildlife of the area. Afterwards they talked about what happens if a portion of the food chain is removed. Taking the lesson a step further, Speth discussed conservationism with the kids, and how each student can do his or her part to prevent the negative aspects of habitat destruction.
“At the end of it all I actually had one seventh-grader walk up to me, shake my hand, and tell me ‘You should be a teacher.’ Talk about validating the entire experience in one sentence,” Speth said. “I’m stoked about this. It is a way for us as pre-service teachers to teach in a nontraditional classroom to students who may not have the opportunity to do this on a regular basis, if at all. We’ve essentially been put through the boot camp of teaching for an entire month, and this is a culminating project that lets us show what we’ve been learning.”
Turner’s Creek holds vital connections to culture, history, nature, and to the future. It is a rich resource for WC education majors to broaden their teaching experience. Here they learn about action-research and place-based learning by actually serving the local community. The hope is that this project will inspire years of hands-on learning for WC student educators and local students for years to come.