Instilling a culture of caring and fieldwork in a Montessori adolescent program

by editor | Sep 20, 2025 | Conservation & Sustainability, Critical Thinking, Data Collection, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Inquiry, Place-based Education, Questioning strategies, Student research, Teaching Science

Instilling a culture of caring and fieldwork in a Montessori adolescent program

by Jonathan Erickson
Metro Montessori School
Portland Oregon

One thing that drives most educators is the hope that we are guiding students who will ultimately care about the work that they do and care about the world in which they do it. Remembering this should be a sort of thesis for all of the planning and action that follows. The work we do as teachers should help students develop into people who value themselves and the effort they put forth.

Through this writing I hope to answer the questions: “How do we best instill a culture of caring in the learning community?” and “How does fieldwork and ecology connect to other areas of social development?”

Teachers and Guides need to strive to create immersive social and scientific experiences for students, just as we would if we hoped for them to gain mastery a new language. We need to make space for students to dive deeply into valuable work so that they will not feel like “work” is just a four letter word, but will realize that it can feel good and serve a greater purpose.

We’ve all stumbled onto those perfect moments where we observe students in flow, where they are finding joy in their work and satisfaction in the process as much as the result. How can we make these moments more commonplace?

I am working towards a cultural shift at my own school. Saying it like this implies that the movement would be larger than one teacher and bigger than one class. After all a culture outlasts a tenure. I believe that we can intentionally plan and drive this change by designing and supporting long-term, project-based fieldwork rooted in discussions of current events and personal values.

Caring for natural resources and spaces

After completing a seminar reading about learning to see, this student was inspired to walk slow and carry a hand lens.

My students are adolescents. As such, they are beginning to view themselves as part of a larger world community, and they are getting more and more emotionally invested in what they see and hear from their peers, parents, social media, and the news. To be frank, what my students witness every day directly or indirectly is pretty frightening and truly merits mediated discussion. So we allow time in our learning community for students to debrief what the world is throwing at them. That said, as the adults in the workspace, we must impart a sense of hope for positive change, as young adults can easily fall victim to despondency and gloom.

The above paragraph could be a jumping off point for scheduling more service work, getting politically involved, becoming a “Green School”, discussing and understanding mental health issues, or countless other initiatives. Any work in the school that is inspired by hope for a better future is meaningful work, and hopefully we can make time for all of it. When it comes to the environmental crisis facing our world however, the entry point is in ecosystem experiences. Students will care for what they understand, and they will move towards understanding with ecological field study.

Practical lessons for us all

How can ecological field study find a place in an already full curriculum? That is just one of the challenges that I and others have faced while trying to include big projects and studies in our yearly work cycle.

Working in an independent Montessori adolescent program means that there is an administrative and institutional commitment to deep work. In my case it also means flexibility since, while we are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, we aren’t beholden to state, district, or school board mandates. Dr. Montessori placed emphasis on following the innate interests and natural tendencies of children; which we’re doing when we take them outside and ask them to be curious. This is what we are doing when we allow students to take weeks or longer to study something that may not be discovered in a textbook or online.

A student discovering that moss isn’t just moss. Samples will be used to see if these mosses support different CO2 emitting organisms and which contribute most to the pH of runoff.

Onboarding

Student-driven projects of depth have always been a part of our students’ experience, so I don’t want it to seem like this piece is missing in our curriculum, but ecological field study is a new avenue, and I do not want it to seem ephemeral; I want it to run through all the work we do in a school year. Since I work as part of a team, it takes good communication and collaborative planning to pull this initative through.

We are not a large ship, but we are still a ship, and when we alter direction we need more than one person committed to the change. Because scheduling fieldwork will likely impinge on the plans of other guides and teachers, loop them into the work and get them excited about the possible application and integrations between science, math, and literacy disciplines. I think that most teachers like to get excited.

We are early in the shift, but I have arranged for co-teachers to join me in a field science professional development opportunity next summer hosted by the Diack Ecology Education Program and Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School. This 3-day workshop will give us the chance to do the work of our students; transforming our curiosity into a scientific question and collecting data and observations to possibly support our hypotheses. We don’t get to practice what we teach often enough in the classroom as we get bogged down in student management, record-keeping, and the like. It will be refreshing to feel the way our students feel when they are immersed in nature and are driven by curiosity. This workshop will also give the teaching team a chance to collaborate and find ways to make fieldwork a reality with our school’s unique situation.

How to plan

The culture of caring surrounds the individual work cycles like an atmosphere. Ensuring that the work cycle will align with the program goals, such as they were stated in the above thesis, means students will experience continuity in teaching philosophy and predictability in their work.

My teaching team plans “work cycles” not discrepant units, since they continue and flow into each other through the years. Students are already familiar with the ways that knowledge and skills find application across the work day. For example, understanding how plants rely on mycorrhiza and nutrients might inform the potting soil that they buy for the school garden. Understanding how human activity affects runoff might alter how students discuss environmental case studies in ethics.

Even with a willing culture and total buy-in from all the invested parties, time is still at a premium every day in the learning space and with its scarcity, there is a need for intentional planning. My goal with this schoolwide shift is to be able to have work flow into work in logical and obvious, though sometimes unexpected, ways. I want interrelationships between content lessons and activities to feel mutualistic in nature.

To be certain, there are countless ways that educators organize their ideas and put them into action; when I draft a learning cycle plan of this “big work,” I consider three periods or stages. The first period contains the key lessons and the important foundational content that the future work will build upon. The second period contains the independent student work and research, while the third period finds students presenting their work in some formal manner. All this is followed by professional reflection and the chance to begin again with a new cohort. Students also have the opportunity to continue inquiry work in our learning spaces for multiple years which allows them to build on and enhance their previous study.

Using tools that we have in our STEM space, students are inspired to analyze forest soil and compare with compressed soil of the trail. They will see if forest soil can host more nematodes, an organism that they are excited to have learned about.

First Period

Note to self: You know what’s best, but listen to student feedback as you enter into content lessons. If students get to be drivers of the learning, they are invested in the outcome.

This year, I wanted to begin with an extended amount of time just spent in nature, partially unstructured and casual: a sort of “site safari” to see what is and imagine what is possible. This was a time for work to call out to the student. These outings can be somewhat challenging for my school since we are located in downtown Portland, Oregon, but they are not impossible. It is worth it to take time to visit the outdoor workspace if just to remind students that these areas exist and need to be preserved.

This past fall, the entire student body came to the forest for journal work, readings, break-out groups with specialists, observations, discussions, chances to practice scientific illustration, etc.. We de-briefed the visit by creating a list of questions and curiosities. All of the students and adults ended the day getting something different, a personal mix of learning and asking. This was the jumping off point for content and skill lessons.

Following that initial immersion into nature I offer the following key lesson because they seem the most useful for students as they become more intentional about the direction of their work:
What is a scientific question? What is a variable?
What can be measured?
Biotic and abiotic factors
Interspecific relationships
Trophic levels and energy flow
Levels of organization; What is life?
Taxonomy and classification
Evolution and speciation

I like to clarify for students early on that our goal of inquiry in nature is partially to gain understanding but mostly to build appreciation and keep or develop a sense of wonder. Set a manageable goal since to fully understand what happens in nature is beyond our human capabilities. Appreciating the complexity of local ecosystems and acknowledging the minutiae of countless unfolding stories seems achieveable and leads to the caring that is our ultimate goal with students.

The value of the activities and lessons should be clear to the learners. When purpose is veiled for too long, student motivation and thus caring can quickly be extinguished.

Breaking an ecosystem into its components asks students to reconsider what life looks like. Sometimes it looks like witch’s butter.

Second Period

After the majority of key lessons have been given and the basis of ecology built, students can follow their personal interests into individual curiosity and research. Most students will need guidance as they start this process, and some will need it throughout. As the ego-bearing adult it can be hard to release control of these personal investigations because, inevitably, students are going to ask unanswerable questions of you and choose to take you down some untrodden paths, figuratively, maybe.

A Montessori Guide (teacher) can sometimes act as a teammate in this work, sometimes they are a part of the learning environment, and most often they are an observer of the child. Making observations helps the adult be what the child needs during a sensitive period, that is, a perfect moment for learning something new.

Students enter into this second period armed with a scientific question. Many times the scientific question leads down a rabbit hole, again figurative, maybe. If we had our way, these independent inquiries would run their full course and could unfold over months or longer. In reality, we sometimes have weeks and students might have to get comfortable with indefinity. Students will understand that some data sets will be left incomplete, and the work may fall onto the backs of others down the road. This is one point of having a fieldwork culture in place, so that picking up the reins on a long-term study becomes commonplace for students. Just like humans are part of ecosystems, students are part of the study of ecosystems for a limited time and and benefit from collaboration over time and with peers.

Students enjoy the unexpected things that they find in the forest, like this rootwad and nurse log, almost as much as they enjoy doing work side-by-side with friends.

Third Period

Whether an investigation runs its course or is interupted by circumstance, there needs to be a logical end-point so that students can move on to other purposeful work. The third period is all about sharing their work with others.

These days it seems that there are more ways for students to share their work with the world than ever before. Anyone lucky enough to work in a middle school will know that sometimes adolescents want to be pretty goofy with their final product. I remember when a group produced a carbon cycle music video in the style of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” Ultimately however, I ask that they also present their findings more formally, some of the following modes would work for me:

Produce a video
Present to the neighborhood
Publish an article
Produce a podcast
Create a blog
Send results to a professional for feedback
Organize an event with parents and families
Go to a science fair

Adolescents gain a sense of what Dr. Montessori has termed valorization from presenting to peers and others outside the community; they gain a feeling of capability that is a vital experience for those who are becoming adults. This is a chance to see the mastery of students gained through the work with real questions solved through observing in the outdoors.

The wrap

Our time outside is part of a pedagogy of place that implies that this experiential learning will lead to both empathy and action. So a culture of fieldwork and a culture of caring go hand-in-hand. As students begin to see interdependence in nature they better understand interdependence in their community and society. They may begin to see their impact on peers more readily after observing and measuring the impact of different ecosystem members or factors. They will at least have a framework for understanding impact.

We have to come to terms with the fact that we have all signed up for work that never ends. We can hope that it gets easier by building a culture where our work and the work of our students has purpose, meaning, and value. I find comfort remembering that with all the flaws in my planning and delivery of ecology concepts, students will always grow when they are outdoors making discoveries alongside their peers and with supportive adults. To see the best results in the students that we work with, we should put them in the learning environment that nature prepares for them. As Dr. Maria Montessori states in her book From Childhood to Adolescence, “When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength.”

Words as true as when they were written nearly 80 years ago.

Some Good Short Seminar Readings for Students of Ecology

“Clouds in Each Paper” from The Other Shore by Thich Nhat Hanh
“Learning to See” from Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Partnerships” from The Forest Unseen by David George Haskell
“Fungi and the Anthropocene: Biodiversity discovery in an epoch of loss” by A. Pringle, E. Barronn, and J. Wares
Selected excerpts from “Entangled Life,” by Merlin Sheldrake

Jon Erickson is a Montessori Guide and Middle School Teacher and has worked with adolescents in Alaska and Oregon for 15 years. He currently works with students in Portland and enjoys the opportunity for side-by-side learning and hands-on work. He teaches STEM and plans curriculum for classes with names like “Fisheries Management and Watershed Studies,” “Cascadia Rainforest Ecology,” “Bicycle Physics, Use, and Maintenance,” and “Makerspace/Woodshop Creations.”

Expeditionary Learning: Exploring Healthy Forests

by editor | Sep 18, 2025 | Adventure Learning, Conservation & Sustainability, Critical Thinking, Data Collection, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Forest Education, Inquiry, Student research, Sustainability, Teaching Science

Expeditionary Learning: Exploring Healthy Forests

By Val McKern and Greg Goodnight

What is a healthy forest? That is the question that Kettle Falls Elementary School fourth graders have been grappling with all winter. In order to examine this question, fourth grade teachers Sally James, Sydney Potestio and Judy Galli have designed an expedition with carefully scaffolded projects for their students. Through these in-depth, service-learning projects, students have been engaged in reading, writing, math, science, social studies and technology. In Kettle Falls we firmly believe that it takes a village to educate a child and we count on a cross curricular approach of teachers and many experts to make any expedition a success for our students. Our priority is creating engaging expeditions that have rigorous learning for ALL students.

Kettle Falls Elementary: an expeditionary learning school

An expedition is the format Kettle Falls Elementary uses to combine adventure and service with learning state standards. Each expedition has standards strategically embedded in fieldwork. The healthy forest expedition will combine many “I can” learning targets based on state standards, with snowshoeing, animal tracking, trail cameras and forestry. In the end, students will deliver PowerPoint presentations to the North East Washington Forestry Coalition (NEWFC) as an authentic audience for their service learning work product. The expedition will provide an exciting and adventurous outlet for student learning and assessments on rigorous state standards. As an Expeditionary Learning School, Kettle Falls Elementary believes that expeditions are the primary way of organizing curriculum.

The subject matter of a learning expedition is a compelling topic derived from content standards. Expeditions feature linked projects that require students to construct deep understandings and skill and to create products for real audiences. Learning Expeditions support critical literacy, character development, create a sense of adventure, spark curiosity and foster an ethic of service. They allow for and encourage the authentic integration of disciplines. (Expeditionary Learning Schools Core Practice Benchmarks p.8.)

This learning expedition began as all expeditions begin at Kettle Falls Elementary. The staff went through a careful study of the new Washington State standards and determined the “priority standards” at each grade level. The standards are then written as long-term learning targets. Once these standards were determined, teams researched case studies that could become the focus of the learning expeditions. The life science standards addressed focused on life cycles, animal structures and behaviors, food webs, ecosystems and human impacts as the center of the expedition.

Literacy is embedded with in the expedition. Priority learning targets are written based on the standards of reading and writing. Reading comprehension strategies and the traits of writing are the focus of these targets. A content map is designed that assigns long term learning targets to each of three expeditions through out the school year. Each expedition runs for eight to twelve weeks.

Learning targets are at the heart of our work. There is clear criteria for posting and referencing learning targets school-wide. Long- term targets, project targets, and scaffolding steps are organized so that students can track their achievement during the daily debrief. We emphasize “learning together, but assessing independently.” Anchor charts that hold the thinking of the class are posted near the targets. The anchor charts will collect information that makes the learning target clear, whether it is knowledge or meta-cognitive thinking. All students are independently assessed on all learning targets.

Kettle Falls Elementary as a 21st Century School

Expeditionary Learning Schools set an expectation for service and authentic work. Kettle Falls Elementary teachers create expeditions that foster service in authentic ways.

Benchmark 3: B. Authentic Audiences
1. Products often meet an authentic need and have an audience and purpose beyond families or the classroom teacher.
2. Some of the products are particularly motivating because in themselves they are acts of service.
(Expeditionary Learning Schools Core Practice Benchmarks p.13.)

We are a Learn and Serve Grant recipient, which has helped us focus on the service aspect of our expeditions. This grant gave teachers release time to write rigorous expeditions and make the community contacts necessary for authentic service. It also supported the expedition through fieldwork and materials for a new expedition.
We knew that this expedition was an outstanding opportunity to educate our students in sustainable education. It meets many of Jaimie P. Cloud’s EfS Frameworks:

Responsible Local/Global Citizenship — The rights, responsibilities, and actions associated with leadership and participation toward healthy and sustainable communities. Students will know and understand these rights and responsibilities and assume their roles of leadership and participation.

Healthy Commons — That upon which we all depend and for which we are all responsible. Students will be able to recognize and value the vital importance of the Commons in our lives, their communities, and the places in which they live.

Multiple Perspectives — The perspectives, life experiences, and cultures of others, as well as our own. Student will know, understand, value and draw from multiple perspectives to co-create with divers stakeholders shared and evolving visions and actions in the service of a healthy and sustainable future locally and globally.

A Sense of Place — The strong connection to the place in which one lives. Students will recognize and value the interrelation- ships between the social, ecological and architectural history of that place and contribute to its continuous health. (Cloud, p. 172-173.)

The North East Washington Forestry Coalition (NEWFC) agreed to partner with Kettle Falls Elementary School. This expedition reaches each of these components of Cloud’s framework. It is the basis of an expedition with an authentic purpose, service, purposeful fieldwork, multiple perspectives and rigorous content.

Kettle Falls Elementary Bangs monitoring project

Three KFE classes will be engaged in a hands- on learning experience that includes in-class preparation and learning and fieldwork designed to teach them about the life cycles of natural systems, sustainable resource management, and community collaboration. The project will include wildlife, tree, and plant monitoring within the Bangs Mountain Wildland Urban Interface project on the Colville National Forest, as well as presentations and instruction from school and community experts in the field and in the classroom, including members of the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition. The students will work with the Coalition to complete a final report in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, documenting their monitoring work and educational experience with photos and written reporting. The final report may be posted on the Coalition’s web site, and a final press release may be prepared for local newspapers to share the outcome of the project with the broader community. Derrick Knowles, Education Outreach, NEWFC.

NEWFC is a local organization that believes in demonstrating the full potential of restoration forestry to enhance healthy forests, public safety, and community economic vitality. Because Kettle Falls is community that relies on the timber industry to survive, we wanted to create an expedition that would have many viewpoints. We felt that NEWFC would have the multiple perspectives within the organization that would make our study to compelling to students and community members, since NEWFC is comprised of members who come from the timber industry to those in Conservation Northwest. Our students are seeing that there is not one “right” answer to their question of “What makes a healthy forest?”

Kettle Falls Elementary fourth grade expedition: the stories tracks tell

Case Study One: Indicator Species of Bangs Mountain

Our Learn and Serve Grant gave a team of six staff members the opportunity to participate in a SEA (Service, Education and Adventure) training this fall. This adventure included learning to track with Tom Murphy of Edmonds Community College and the LEAF (Learn-n-serve Environmental Anthropology Field) school. This so engaged the teachers that we were determined to give our students the same opportunity. Murphy was able to create an alterna- tive winter course that brought 12 college students to Kettle Falls for a week. During that time, the LEAF school taught the students how to recognize tracks and gaits of our local animals. The focus was on five animals: whitetail deer, turkey, snowshoe hare, lynx and coyote. These animals were chosen with help from the Forest Service because of their status as indicator species for the Bang’s Mountain area. Students spent time in the forest that week, learning to track, photograph tracks, and measure tracks. They also learned to set trail cameras along trails in order to capture photos of the elusive animals.

Students from Kettle Falls High School Wildlife class with teacher Jono Esvelt participated in each of these activities sup porting the fourth graders throughout this expedition. They also took on the task of writing “field guides” for the fourth graders to use in their work.

This project focused on the learning targets of

I can independently sort animals by the structures and behaviors that help them survive in their environment.
I can independently list 4 parts of an animal and describe how the parts help the animal meet its basic needs.
I can independently generalize from multiple forms of text to learn about forest animals.
I can independently elaborate using details and/or examples about one forest animal.
I can edit for capitals against the class capitalization chart.

Students learned about each animal through predicting structures and behaviors by analyzing a collage of photos and You Tube videos. Predictions were recorded before reading field guides and predictions were confirmed or not. Once the recording sheets were completed, the students wrote expository papers on the survival structures and behaviors of each animal. These were combined to create PowerPoint slides that will be included in their final product, some with actual photos of the tracks or animals that were photographed at the Bangs Mountain site. The good news was that some animals were captured by the trail cams, but some remained elusive!

Case Study Two: Food Webs of Bangs Mountain

This project really focused on the interdependences within the forest ecosystem. Learning targets in this investigation focused on giving students the knowledge to be able to complete the narrative prompt:

You are a wildlife biologist researching animals on Bangs Mountain. One of your jobs is to report to the community of Kettle Falls the stories the animal tracks of an indicator species told you while doing your fieldwork. To do this you will need to describe where the tracks were found and your inferences of what the tracks are telling you about that animal’s daily life:

I can describe the interdependences in a forest ecosystem.
I can explain how a forest ecosystem impacts animal population.
I can independently generalize from multiple forms of text to learn about forest ecosystems.
I can write a narrative with a clear beginning, two events and a clear ending.

In order to make this narrative realistic students needed to understand the actual role of a wildlife biologist. Learning about careers while in engaging expeditions opens our students’ eyes to the world of possibilities. Students continued their fieldwork, checking their trail cams, snag counts (their first monitoring experience), searching for tracks and other sign of life in their plots and were prepared for snowshoeing (though there simply wasn’t enough snow for them this year). Using the reading skill of “generalizing to understand” helped student comprehend the interdependence of the forest and was built through reading, photography, experts, media, data and many simulation games. After each activity students recorded “new learning” on anchor charts that build the content schema. They also recorded their use of the skill “generalizing” on anchor charts to show their ability to be meta-cognitive about comprehending new material. Students were able to use the information gathered from the multiple sources to write their narrative.

Case Study Three: Bangs Mountain as a Changing Ecosystem

Now that the students have developed a level of knowledge about the interdependence of forests they are ready to move on to the changing ecosystem. This is when they really become experts and begin to look at the many stakeholders of the forest. Their fieldwork becomes very data based. Through skill building in P.E. they learn about pacing. Each child is responsible for pacing off 104 feet, using a compass to keep their lines straight, they determine a half acre plot for their team. They use a tape to measure their accuracy after pacing and the corners are marked on the GPS so that their plot can be found on Google Earth. Students are now collecting data on the canopy by measuring open and covered areas. They have learned to use transect lines during their monitoring. This data is part of the baseline that will be used in the study. They identified three plants in the understory and did a plant count of their plot. Their study of the animals in their plot also continued, with data from tracks and trail cam photos. The most common track and photo taken was squirrels, though they are not one of the indicator species. Students found little evidence of the lynx at their plot. Animal population changes will be one indicator of increased health of the forest over time.

During this project students learned about many changes that can happen to forests over time. The learning targets for this project are:

I can independently describe how onepopulation may affect other plants and/or animals in the forest ecosystem.
I can independently evaluate one population in different forests, determine which will thrive and give clear reasons.
I can independently describe three ways that humans can improve the health of the forest ecosystem.
I can independently assess the author’s effectiveness for a chosen audience.
I can independently organize my writing.

This means:

I will write an introduction, supporting details using examples, and conclusion in an expository writing.

Each day of this project focuses on a change in the forest ecosystem. Some are changes that have taken place at the Bangs Mountain Project and some are changes that could eventually happen. All students receive the same reading each day, but they read the articles for a different purpose: natural or man-made changes, population changes, or gradual or rapid changes. Each student becomes an “expert” on their article. The students then “jigsaw” their articles once they have recorded the important information. The student experts then share out in small groups, creating a real need for students to comprehend and analyze their text. Special Education and Title I students are pre-loaded with vocabulary and content before the article increasing their ability to fully participate while in class. Once the information has been analyzed students come together to complete anchor charts where they record the changes and determine if human impact was positive or negative. They also determine the author’s purpose and if the author was successful in delivering their message.

By the end of this case study they have a thorough understanding of thinning, prescription fires, recreation management, forest flu and other healthy management issues.

We believe that reading is only one vehicle to understanding new ideas. Fieldwork, media and experts are also key components to creating powerful learning tools. Experts from the timber industry, Forest Service, Conservation NorthWest, and Department of Fish and Wildlife have all volunteered to work with our students, ensuring that students are learning realworld applications of the knowledge. Each of these experts will not only share their expertise on managing forests and their per- sonal perspectives of what makes a healthy forest, but also about their careers.

The students will complete this project with a simulation from Project Learning Tree, “The 400 Acre Wood.” Students will determine the actions taken to manage a forest much like their plots on the Bangs Mountain Project. This project has a balance of Vibrant Economy, Healthy Environment, and Equitable Society, as recommended by The Sustainable Design Project Teacher Manual. (Wheeler, Bergsman, Thumlert 2008.)

The Final Presentation of “What is a Healthy Forest?”

The final project is a culmination of all of the data that the students have collected while completing this project. Data is compiled in a variety of ways. The ani- mal monitoring is a graph of the sightings caught on the trail cams, the plant monitor- ing is a graph as well, both done on Excel. The canopy is drafted on graph paper, indicating the cover and open space. There is also the map from Google Earth, indicating each plot for future reference and to gauge changes over time. This work is gathered in a Power Point to be presented to NEWFC at a future meeting.

Kettle Falls Elementary: expeditionary learning and 21st century intertwined

Our students had the opportunity to become engaged in their local forest, gathering a respect for the land, observing the interdependence and understanding the decisions made by others that use our forests. Students were able to meet rigorous learning targets and assessed independently on each target. They collaborated to create authentic projects that reach beyond their school walls.

The expedition included many different modes of learning during this project that are key to Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ Tenets for Purposeful Debate leading to Content Upgrades:

• A personal and local perspective is developed and presented in the content area, where natural and viable.
• The whole child’s academic, emotional, physical and mental development is thoughtfully considered in content choices.
• The possibilities for future career and work options are developed with an eye to creative an imaginative directions.
• The disciplines are viewed dynamically and rigorously as growing and integrat- ing in real-world practice.
• Technology and media are used to expand possible sources of content so that active as well as static materials are included. (Jacobs p 31).

Through compelling expeditions students at KFES achieve many 21st century outcomes. Students build strong habits of work, through both performance (traits that enable students to perform to their potential) and personal relationships (traits that enable students to be good people and community members). They are motivated to learn. Students believe that they have the ability to meet their targets, have clear targets that they can self-assess their progress against, and are connected to their school through the work they do. We believe that academic achievement is increased when students are engaged in learning. Through authentic expeditions like “The Stories Tracks Tell” students build life and career skills. Real world problems increase students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills. The use of technology opens the classroom to wider world, with meaningful examples of the work our students are doing. Our students increase their understanding of 21st century themes such as environmental literacy. (Hulleman, Hartl & Ciani 2009). Through compelling expeditions our students are engaged, supported and held accountable to high standards.

References
Hulleman, C., Hartl, S., & Ciani, K. (2009). Character, Motivation, and Engagement in Expeditionary Learning Schools, Review of the Relevant Literature and Available Measurement Instruments. Nellie May Education Foundation. Expeditionary Learning Core Practice Benchmarks (2003). Garrison, NY: Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound.

Jacobs, H. H. (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Wheeler, G., Bergsman, K., and Thumlert, C. (2008). Sustainable Design Project Teacher Manual. Olympia, WA: Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Greg Goodnight is superintendent at Kettle Falls School District.
Valerie McKern is principal at Kettle Falls Elementary.

Making Science Engaging at Camp

by editor | Sep 17, 2025 | Data Collection, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Inquiry, Marine/Aquatic Education, STEM, Student research, Teaching Science

Making Science Engaging at Camp

Connecting art and science helps students find STEM classes more engaging and enjoyable

By Elli Korthuis

4-H is a youth development organization that focuses on helping members, ages 5-19 years, grow as individuals through their mastery of their passions, referred to as their spark. The more traditional 4-H program offers clubs in projects such as sewing, presentations, and livestock. However, 4-H reaches a broader audience through its non-traditional programs including camp and in-school instruction.

We attempt to offer a broad range of classes at our 4-H camps including those in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). One of the reoccurring themes we see in 4-H camp evaluations is that the science classes are “boring” while the craft classes have remained highly popular. With the growing need for STEM education, we needed to find a way to make these classes more engaging and enjoyable for the youth.

Over 2017, my colleague, Robin Galloway, and I developed a camp class to teach aquatic science, microscope skills, and basic nature terminology. To engage the youth in the STEM themed class, we incorporated art lessons since this was where their interest resided according to past evaluations. It was initially to be taught at the Oregon 4-H Center in Salem for campers in grades 4 – 8 along with their camp counselors. The facility is in a forested region with camp cabins, several buildings for lessons, and a pond.

During the class, we started indoors with a discussion of what organisms and materials could be found in the pond. I opened by asking which youth would want to drink the water from the pond. To my surprise, nearly half the class agreed that it would be safe to drink the unfiltered pond water. Several more said they wouldn’t because it was “gross” but didn’t have an explanation for their answer. We talked about the flora and fauna that may leave their traces in the water all the way down to potential microscopic organisms. Terms were explained along the way but there was nearly always at least one youth that could define a scientific term for the class. It was also an opportunity to gauge how in depth their knowledge was of water particles from different sources.

After our discussion, we went as a group to the pond and they could compare their discussion to what they were seeing. We got a bucket of pond water for a water sample and the youth had the chance to identify some of the particulates. Clipboards with water color paper and a pencil were given to each youth and they were asked to draw the macroscopic world they were seeing on the top half of their paper. The drawing time gave us the opportunity to delve into how some of the organisms present could affect us if we drank the water and what other organisms and materials may be present at different sources such as the ocean, a river, or a swimming pool.

The class finished their drawings and we took our supplies and the water sample inside. I put a drop of the water sample on a microscope slide, making sure to include the particulates that had filtered to the bottom of the bucket. We had brought a digital microscope that included a small LCD screen to view the slide. In a larger group setting, this microscope could have been attached to a projector to show a greater audience. With our water sample under the microscope lens, we identified the materials and organisms. One of the highlights was when we found a mosquito larva and were able to use the highest magnification to view the blood platelets flowing through its open circulatory system. It wasn’t an original part of the lesson but an added bonus. Although some youth were disgusted by what they saw, the majority were fascinated and wanted to continue in the discoveries. The class was then asked to draw the microscopic organisms and particulates they had seen on the bottom half of their paper. We wanted to encourage the scientific fascination so after a quick explanation of how to use a microscope, the youth were free to continue searching for other organisms if they wished to during the allotted drawing time. We also discussed how some of the organisms they had seen impact our health and environment.

Although many of the youth were comfortable drawing what they saw, there were a few in each class that didn’t feel confident in their drawing skills. We encouraged them in different ways including saying perfection was not the goal and joking that it could be called abstract instead. The time constraint also helped encourage the youth that weren’t as confident drawing because they understood high quality drawings could not be expected in the given time.

Water color pencils were distributed after the initial drawings were done so the campers could fill in the color. While they were coloring, I poured our water sample into several cups and passed them around with paint brushes. The youth then created the water color painting by brushing the water sample over the water color pencil areas. While painting, they remarked on how the particulates from the pond water changed both the texture and color of their painting. We talked about how the results would be different if they had used another water source and they were overflowing with ideas.

Their views on whether they were willing to drink the pond water were drastically different from when we started the class. Not one camper wanted to drink the water and many were quick to offer their explanations why.

We ended with a quick evaluation to gauge how their opinions about both art and science had changed after taking the class. Some of the highlights from the evaluation include:

• 71.11% agreed or strongly agreed science is not boring after taking this class.
• 76.09% agreed or strongly agreed they want to learn more about science as a result of this class.
• 63.64% agreed or strongly agreed they would do more art in their free time because of this class.

The evaluation method was also an experiment for our program. We were trying to encourage higher levels of participation since regular paper survey evaluations are turned down by a large percentage of attendees normally. Instead, we had larger flip chart papers with each evaluation question stuck to the wall with columns for strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. Each youth was given a set of numbered stickers to share their opinion. This made the evaluation more engaging while remaining anonymous and encouraged more honest opinions. It was an extremely successful evaluation method that I will continue to use in the future.

After successfully conducting the class with 4th to 8th grade youth, we decided to offer it at a day camp for youth ages 5-8. The concepts were simplified but the class was still a high level science lesson for youth in this age group. They still discussed what the water sample contained, defined terms such as microscopic and macroscopic, learned how to use a microscope, and exceeded our expectations for their ages. These youth were not formally evaluated but from my individual conversations and the group discussions, I observed that the youth were engaged and excited about the entire class.

Since conducting the classes, this concept has been taught at the American Camp Association (ACA) 2017 Oregon Trail Fall Education Event where camp staff and directors from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho all enthusiastically agreed that they would like to incorporate it in their own classes. It will also be taught at the Western Regional Leaders Forum held in San Diego, CA in March 2018.

I am excited to expand this lesson into several 4-H camp STEM classes in the future. I believe that bridging the gap between art and STEM has proven itself to be a sound method for teaching “boring” science concepts to campers in an innovative and engaging way.

Elli Korthius is a 4-H Youth Development Educator for Benton County, Oregon.

Bringing the Ocean into the Schools…and Schools to the Ocean

by editor | Sep 16, 2025 | Environmental Literacy, Marine/Aquatic Education, STEM, Teaching Science

Bringing the Ocean into the Schools…and Schools to the Ocean

By Catherine and Joachim Carolsfeld

“I like the discoveries of the sea tank each time I look at it.”

(10 year old Elementary School Student)

“Some specimens in our tank that are local I didn’t even know of, and I’ve been around the oceans since I was really little.”

(Grade 11 student)

A few years back, a group of elementary school students in Victoria noticed an empty salmon tank in their classroom. They wondered: could it be used to study a marine ecosystem?

Those students didn’t stop too long to wonder. Instead, they became the driving force behind setting up and caring for a chilled, saltwater aquarium in their school. Parents and other community volunteers, some of whom were marine biologists and divers, helped find the chiller, pump and other supplies they needed to build a prototype tank. Then they obtained the necessary permits to stock it with plants and animals from their local shorelines, and students began to study their new ocean ecosystem.

Six months later, they decided to share what they had learned with the rest of their community. They chose a school assembly to make their presentations about the plants and animals they had been getting to know, and invited their parents to listen.

Jamie, a grade seven student who had been loathe to engage in classroom learning, spoke with passion and enthusiasm about a nondescript marine animal called a sea squirt for which he had gained new-found respect. A parent sitting in the audience commented, “That can’t be right. They’re just creatures, not animals!”

Creatures as Teachers

By the end of the assembly, that parent knew that creatures like the lowly sea squirt were animals, and they were teachers too. Students, staff and parents had already begun to think about their world in a different way, thanks to the passion and commitment of those grade six and seven students. We began to understand the power of our youth as educators, and the seed for Seaquaria was planted.

British Columbians are all proud of the marine and freshwater habitats that help define our province and our identity. Yet many of us under-value the aquatic wealth at our doorsteps, and are unaware of how our activities affect oceans, rivers and lakes in our own communities. As population growth continues to stress aquatic ecosystems, British Columbians who care about maintaining their waters for future generations need to be aware, to be concerned, to act. How can educators help?
As educators, we have a duty to create opportunities for our youth to discover the beauty and complexity of their world for themselves. Only then can we expect them to begin to understand and value their world, and to want to take the steps needed to protect it.

How do we create this desire to change how we think and behave? The example of those first “Seaquaria pioneers” back in 1999 showed that the school system can be very effective, and on two levels: by reaching youth during their formative years, and through ‘vertical learning’ where these students, as loveable messengers, take their lessons home and to the general public. However, careful thought has to go into how we engage students as messengers. While there are many excellent educational resources and programs that can be utilized in British Columbia (Snively, 1998, 2001; Arntzen et al, 2001; Boire et al, 2003; Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2002), many schools still rely on the “three Ps”: Passive teaching, with Printed materials and Preserved specimens. This approach sparks little enthusiasm and often uses examples far removed from the local environment (Orion, 1993; Orion et al, 1997). Common problems with the “three Ps” approach include lack of a local “hook” for the students, lack of continuity with other materials, and the scarcity of integrated and easy-to-use formats.

Seaquaria in Schools is one successful example of a more effective approach that we call “active learning” (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). In active learning, students are involved in discovery through field trips and “place-based learning” (Gruenewald, 2003) that begins right in their own classrooms and communities (Cummins & Snively, 2000; McBean & Hengeveld, 2000).

Why Seaquaria?

In 2000, a group of southern Vancouver Island environmental educators decided to combine water-themed programs (e.g. “Opening Minds with Water”) into a more integrated package that stressed ecosystems. They produced an integrated package of field and classroom activities which is called “Living Watersheds.”

At the same time that “Living Watersheds” was starting out, WestWind SeaLab Supplies, a local biological supply company, decided to take the idea of aquaria in schools beyond the freshwater salmon tank that the previous year’s students had put to such good use. Freshwater tanks had long been used to raise baby salmon as part of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ “Salmonids in the Classroom” program (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 1998), but Westwind decided to go a step further: –to place chilled seawater aquaria (“Seaquaria”) in schools.

WestWind’s first Seaquarium was just a seasonal conversion of a salmon aquarium, but the marine creatures were so popular that an aquarium designed specifically for saltwater was soon built, stocked with a local marine ecosystem, and maintained throughout the year by the students.

A new showpiece for the school had been created; ever since, students have been able to study the ocean environment “almost as if they were a part of it,” and have eagerly shared their learning along the way.

“Seaquaria in Schools” is about enrichment of education. In each participating school, the Seaquaria tanks are permanent fixtures that afford a unique window into the local marine environment. Because the aquaria are continually available to the students, they can be used to weave environmental awareness into the students’ everyday lives – no matter what the season. Learning outcomes are met easily, in an ever more engaging fashion. They are also a springboard to new learning opportunities; their impact is limited only by the imagination of the children and their teachers.

The marine ecosystem in Seaquaria is ever-present and ever-changing, an exceptionally effective catalyst that draws students into hands-on learning. With aquaria over 60 gallons (240 litres) in size, the systems are remarkably stable, each evolving their own character over 3-6 month periods. As students care for their aquarium, they build an understanding and respect for the organisms in their care, and they develop the stewardship skills essential for the preservation of our natural resources.

Husbandry sheets for the different organisms and the aquaria themselves are continually evolving, with student and teacher input. As students learn to deal with everything from slowly changing conditions to sudden spawning and other unexpected emergencies, they also begin to formulate personal, ethical values and develop important problem solving skills. Related programming helps them recognize interconnectivities, and to link their insights and skills to the real world. In so doing, the aquaria foster a passion for learning and critical thinking in many areas of the students’ lives, which is anchored in responsible environmental stewardship.

Cummins and Snively (2000) link success in learning to the availability of opportunities that are personally meaningful to students. The Seaquarium is an excellent real-world example of their findings: it has been described as a “gateway” to community-wide learning initiatives, with many “hooks” that help achieve successful learning. These hooks include local context (creates a “sense of home”), opportunities to interact with living organisms (adds a feeling of personal connection), a venue to observe the novelty and complexity of nature, and endless opportunities for acquiring and sharing special knowledge. In addition, the basic “user-friendliness” of Seaquaria means they have come to be appreciated as manageable tools that remove some of the ‘fear of science’ at the elementary and middle school levels (Carolsfeld, 2001).

Increasing awareness of environmental issues in the Asia Pacific Region suggests that these countries of immense marine riches may be another natural fit for Seaquaria – especially at a time when the marine environment is increasingly stressed. In Japan, for example, numerous new environmental initiatives involve school children (www.japanfs.org). An Asia Pacific-Canadian exchange based on Seaquaria would introduce an open-learning tool into a non-Western society. The experience would afford rich opportunities for research, helping us to better monitor, evaluate and define the most successful common approaches to meaningful environmental education.

Victoria West Elementary School Marine Team gathers together to help celebrate the unveiling of the Victoria West Visions map.

Mentoring in Action

Here, we introduce a few representative classroom and field programs that illustrate the basic framework for our approach. You might think of them as open-ended recipes—each with a unique flavor that reflects individual teachers, classrooms, schools, communities and ecosystems.
Project by grade 6 students, Lansdowne Middle School, Victoria, B.C.

1. The Marine Team

The phone rings at work and the voice of an anxious elementary school student greets me. Their beautiful Painted Anemone has a death grip on their lumbering but lovable Sea Cucumber. What should they do? I suggest that they wash and rinse their hands well, so that they don’t introduce any harmful chemicals into their ecosystem, reach into the tank, and gently remove the cucumber from certain death. “No…” they say, “we need Joseph,” a younger, but experienced student who they have identified as their first line of contact in times of emergency. They say that they will take care of it and I ask them to call me back.

Thinking like an ocean.

Ten minutes later the phone rings again. The cucumber is safe. Joseph has gently rescued their team mascot from certain death and with skill and compassion, placed the anemone into a bucket of seawater and into the refrigerator. They wonder if they should send their anemone to the WestWind seawater system. They think it is too big and aggressive to live in their Seaquarium. They recognized that the Painted Sea Anemone, a high level predator with stinging tentacles, was tipping the balance point of the ecosystem in their tank.

These eight to ten year old students have taken their job as Seaquarium guardians very seriously. Just as Cummins and Snively (2000) have documented, they are learning to work co-operatively, to learn at a deeper level and to hone their leadership skills as they encounter problems that need to be solved—largely because of the deep emotional tie they have developed with the animals and plants in their Seaquarium.

We begin our classroom studies by introducing our stewards to the job at hand: caring for an ecosystem full of plants and animals that share many of the needs the students have, but who have to meet those needs for food, shelter, protection, and nurturing in very different ways than we do. In this way the students also begin to think about how different creatures are adapted to the world they live in, and to appreciate the diversity of life. The conversation includes their responsibility to care for these unique neighbours and to share their new knowledge with others in the community.

In this way, the students begin to notice and understand how these creatures meet their needs, while also honing their observational skills. They also become very adept at troubleshooting and recognizing signs that the system is not working as well as it should, so that it can be fixed before any problems arise. The discoveries made during these routine checks prompt many interesting discussions, and often lead to new projects and announcements that help the rest of the school benefit from what they are learning.

Together, we set up teams of students who are responsible for monitoring the health and well being of their Seaquarium. Then we set up a marine team log book with data sheets, a feeding schedule and a list of community contacts in case of emergencies. Each day, they record the group name, date, time, temperature, salinity, water colour, water and air flow, whether the tank has been fed and any other observations that they think are important (for example, the behaviour of the animals).

Before we know it, links to nearly all areas of study, including science, language arts, social studies, math and personal planning, begin to emerge. As students meticulously log information each day, their observational skills are honed and they begin to notice connections. Soon they begin to submit articles to the school newsletter, make announcements on the PA system, offer guided tours to teachers and younger students and start training the next teams, so that the entire school community becomes aware of the exciting events happening in the aquarium.

2. A Picture Book Project

Picture book projects have been very successful and powerful learning tools at all grade levels, because they allow students time to carefully observe, gently touch, and get to know animals and plants from their seaquarium, in a very personal and respectful way. Only after doing their own observations do they begin their research about the natural history of the creature they have chosen. They quickly realize that it’s not always easy to find answers to their questions, and that they might actually be the one to discover something that’s seldom, if ever, been seen before.

This particular project was especially powerful because students used their self-published books to teach others about what they had learned. In this way, the Seaquaria program also helped develop students’ leadership and reading skills. We still use these books as classroom resources, and can’t begin to count the number of adults who have read them when they are on display at public events. The most common comment is “I had no idea….”

3. Liaison with field trips

The fit between Seaquaria and complimentary field programs of the “Living Watersheds” was a natural one, and the two have worked together ever since. New networks of community partners have provided innovative expertise and resources that make the classroom presentations and field studies relevant and exciting.

The connections between the classroom and the outside world have parallels with the connections between the aquarium and the ocean, and bringing the enhanced sensitivity and knowledge of the Seaquarium teams into established field programs has remarkable synergistic effects.

4. Community Connections

The students primed by the Seaquaria are exceptional resources for contributing to environmental awareness in the community and even community planning. As one example, I received a phone call from the manager of our local Community Center who informed me that the center was planning its first neighborhood celebration. Since some of their daycare students were on the Seaquarium Marine Team at the local school, he wondered if we could set up a display at their event.

In short order, students, staff, parents and community educators worked together to refurbish and set up a Seaquarium at the Community Centre. Grade six and seven students then introduced several hundred visitors to the weird and wonderful creatures they had been studying all year. Our youth were the centre of attention. At the end of the day, one of the students commented, “I didn’t know how much I knew, until I realized that I could answer a lot of questions from adults who didn’t know as much as I did”.

Since then, Seaquaria displays hosted by university, high school and public school students have continued to draw enthusiastic crowds not only at Vic West Fest, but also at conferences and other public venues throughout Victoria.
A second example is the development of important links between schools and their neighbourhoods, which often extend into the global community. We had been working with local teachers to develop a simplified mapping project which would help our students become better acquainted with their neighbourhood and to share this knowledge through their maps. As they walked the shoreline in their community, they recorded observations about features ranging from the temperature, salinity and turbidity (suspended particles) of the seawater at various locations, to aspects of Indigenous cultures and natural history along the waterway, and determining compass direction based on local land features and the position of the sun.

At the same time, the local community centre was embarking on a “Community Mapping Project”, in which local residents identified assets and areas of concern in their neighborhood as a basis to determine a long term vision for their community. They wanted to involve students at the local elementary school in the process, and get their input. After talking to the teacher and seeing the high quality work the students had done, the community association invited students to a community mapping workshop to teach adults about the important work they had been doing.

The result: on a beautiful spring day potentially full of other fun activities, several students presented their work to a gym full of adults from their community, proudly led them on a guided tour of their shoreline community, and highlighted the important features they had discovered on their journey that year.

Some of their work has been incorporated into the “Victoria West Visions Map,” now prominently on display throughout the neighbourhood, and published by Ground Works (www.lifecyclesproject.ca/reso urces/map_vic_west.php). It is a glowing example of the networks that open up as we offer opportunities for our youth to become engaged in the natural world around them.

Assessment of Seaquaria in Schools

When we began our journey, our basic premise was that the simple learning of facts does not necessarily translate into knowledge or passion. We were convinced that the actual process of learning is much more important to the successful development of life-skills than simple memorization. While the kind of rote learning that still prevails in many parts of the world has largely been discredited, we wanted to go a step further: to show that teachers need not even know or teach all of the facts in order to use a tool like the Seaquarium. ‘Knowing all the facts’ might even be viewed as an obstacle to success

We found the Seaquarium to be a model of open-ended learning; as teachers became more comfortable with it they began to find more ways to promote a spirit of enquiry and personal involvement in their students. Teachers now tell us this open-endedness has been one of the key components of the improved learning taking place in their classrooms. They also feel strongly that their students are acquiring the skills to make informed decisions about complex environmental issues, and understanding that such decisions cannot be made in isolation from social and economic realities. As a final bonus, teachers find that, by engaging so many of their previously reluctant learners, they are meeting their prescribed learning outcomes with less stress.

How do we know the Seaquaria program is working? First, students are eager to learn. Second, they are beginning to ask questions about connections in the world around them, using vocabulary like organism, habitat, predator-pry, food chains/webs, ecosystem, decomposition and bacteria, in a knowledgeable and understandable manner. These questions are formulated in a logical, scientific manner, often with novel insights. Finally, they are finding novel ways to share their learning with both local and global communities.

The Importance of Partnerships

Thanks to very active partnerships between teachers and other professionals in the community, there are now Seaquaria programs specific to elementary, middle and secondary schools. Seaquaria have clearly demonstrated the value of a focal tool or anchor that is relevant to communities – in this case the B.C. coast. But the same approach of local content, recognition of knowledge and enquiry, and active participative learning can be used with other aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems anywhere in the world, using tools that are relevant and practical within the particular environment. The possibilities – and the partnerships – are endless!

For example, our first overseas initiative involved trials with communities along inland waterways in Brazil as part of a CIDA-funded sustainable fisheries project (www.worldfish.org). Chilled marine aquaria were not appropriate for this location. However a combination of mapping of personal environmental spaces, local field trips, and watershed models worked well in the context of poor fishing communities on a Brazilian river, also providing opportunities for place-based, active and interactive participatory learning. The two programs operated in dramatically different situations—different languages and significantly different ecosystems. Nonetheless, the results were gratifying and eye opening as the Brazilian students responded to the Seaquaria approach just the same as Canadians.

In both Canadian and Brazilian projects, valuing personal knowledge and enquiry of the local environment enhances self-esteem and confidence, which leads to improved learning and emotional ties to the environment. And the learning continues to go in both directions: not only have many of the lessons learned in Canada been adjusted to suit the situation in Brazil, we are also already bringing back experiences that help our local programs evolve to new levels. We believe that the networks that are thus being established will be part of the foundation for a generation of respectful, informed and pro-active global environmental ambassadors (NEETF, 2002).

All the teachers involved in Seaquaria agree that partnerships and community involvement have played critical roles in the program’s overall success. The most successful individual programs were established in schools in which everyone was involved in planning and implementation right from the start. A good example was Victoria West Elementary School in Victoria, where students, staff, administrators, parents and community facilitators worked together throughout the process.
But there is always room for improvement. We have continued to build new partnerships that create synergies between Seaquaria classroom activities and related field programs. There is now a teacher-driven effort to provide mentoring for new schools and teachers in the Seaquaria program, and to share learning, ideas, barriers and success stories. In this way, a powerful spontaeous network has begun to emerge, and we feel confident the program will soon be self- sustaining.

What are some of the concrete returns from these partnerships in learning? The list is long, but perhaps most importantly includes enthusiastic appreciation and respect for terrestrial, freshwater and marine organisms, their needs and stewardship care. Students begin to think about their world in a whole-ecosystem way. The relationships between these same organisms and humans become clearer, and this understanding promotes an enduring ethic of respect and conservation. Along the way, teachers witness increased interest in learning; improved utilization of existing educational resources; and improved academic performance.

Acknowledgements:
We gratefully acknowledge the continuing collaboration and support of Nikki Wright, of the SeaChange Marine Conservation Society; World Fisheries Trust; WestWind SeaLab Supplies; the Victoria Foundation; the Pacific Salmon Foundation; Don Lowen and Tom Rutherford –
Fisheries and Oceans Canada community advisors; and a multitude of teachers and students. Special thanks to Brian Harvey for his magical editing skills.
This work has been supported in part by the Centres for Research in Youth, Science Teaching and Learning (CRYSTAL) grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

References:

Arntzen, H., Macnaughton, D., Penn, B. & Snively, G. (2001). The Salish Sea: A handbook for educators. Parks Canada. Sidney, B.C. Canada. Arntzen, H., Macnaughton, D., Penn, B. & Snively, G. (2001). La mer des Salish: manuel de
l’enseignant. Parcs Canada. Sidney, C.B. Canada. Boire, J.D., Parsons, C., Ogden, D., Wilson,C., Smiley, B.D. & Francis, K. (2003). Junior shorekeepers handbook DRAFT: A National Working Document. Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Bonwell, C. & Eison, J. (1991). Active Learning: Creating excitement in the classroom AEHE- ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1. Washington, D.C.: Jossey-Bass. http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-4/active.htm

Carolsfeld, C. (2001). Seaquaria in schools: A marine think tank workshop. Workshop Report prepared for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Oceans Directorate, Coastal BC South Coast.

Cummins, S. & Snively, G. (2000). The effect of instruction on children’s knowledge of marine ecology, attitudes toward the ocean, and stances toward marine resource issues. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, (5), 305-326.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada. (2002). Salmonids in the Classroom: Intermediate, A teachers’ resource for studying the biology, habitat and stewardship of Pacific salmon. Fisheries and Oceans Canada. pp. 244.

Gruenewald, D. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3-12.
McBean, G.A, & Hengeveld, H.G. (2000). Communicating the science of climate change. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (5), 9-25.

Orion, N. (1993). A practical model for the development and implementation of field trips as an integral part of the science curriculum. School Science and Mathematics, 93, 325-331.

Orion, N, Hofstein, A., Tamir, P., & Giddings, G.J. (1997). Development and validation of an instrument for assessing the learning environment of outdoor science activities. Science Education, 81 (2), 161-171.

Snively, G. (2001). Once upon a seashore. A curriculum for grades K-6. Sooke, BC: Kingfisher Press.

Snively, G. (1998). Beach explorations: A curriculum for grades 5-10. Oregon Sea Grant Program. Corvallis, OR, U.S.A. and Washington Sea Grant Program. Seattle, WA, U.S.A.

Wright, N. (2007, In Press). Eelgrass meadows as teachers. Establishing Guidelines for Environmental Education based on Environmental Ethics, Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research, Konan University, Kyoto, Japan.

Homeschooling and the Establishment of a Research Forest

by editor | Sep 15, 2025 | Adventure Learning, Conservation & Sustainability, Critical Thinking, Data Collection, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Forest Education, Homeschool, Inquiry, Outdoor education and Outdoor School, Place-based Education, Questioning strategies, STEM, Teaching Science

A Natural Fit: Homeschooling and the Establishment of a Research Forest

by Jess Lambright

For those open to an alternative educational path, a classroom with no walls or desks but instead trees, meadows, and streams, offers abundant opportunities for scientific exploration. My journey in outdoor education started by home-educating my own children, but soon expanded to include other students and families. Although making everyday a field day comes with certain challenges—such as very wet, cold winter days—it has also shown me how adaptable young people are, and how many spontaneous and fascinating learning opportunities present themselves when you commit to regular immersion in the natural world.

I have come to appreciate the vast range of possibilities in which students can acquire knowledge. While some homeschooling families follow packaged curriculum closely and monitor carefully to make sure their children meet state standards each year, others chose a less structured approach called unschooling, rooted in a deep trust for kids’ natural tendency and ability to learn. This philosophy can free a motivated young person to dive deeply into an ocean of learning powered by autonomy, inspiration, and infinite possibilities.

Connecting to place and stewardship of land

A multi-disciplinary unit study called My Tree and Me, where each student was connected with a specific tree which they measured (diameter, height, age) conducted secondary research about the species, wrote poetry, and created art with materials from the tree. One student decided to give his final poster presentation from the branches of the Cascara tree he had spent so many hours with.

The first outdoor program I hosted involved an established group of kids spending an entire day outdoors, once per week, for over four years. Week after week and year after year we returned to the same 40-acre woods from the first days of fall through the start of summer. It was common for our group to wander through the forest, without a destination or agenda, letting our innate curiosity lead the way. Wandering freely, with open eyes, allowed us to get in touch with what excited us and created opportunities for true discovery (Young et al., 2010, 56).

It filled me with satisfaction to watch the deep connection to place that developed over time in each of us. Monuments and landmarks, like a circle of giant old moss-covered stumps towards the southwest corner of the forest, acquired names and memories and provided comfort and familiarity when they were encountered. We would experience the wet meadow as a place that requires rubber boots to traverse in the wet months, a beautiful explosion of white flowers and soft grasses that dance in the wind in the summer, and a sea of delicate purple camas flowers in the spring. One year we returned to the same sit spots week after week, recording changes in our journals as spring brought all the growing things to life.

Students pause to examine a pile of feathers they discovered while exploring the woods on a rainy day. The group came up with a series of questions about what happened and brainstormed ideas about how they could investigate further to potentially find answers.

Spending time on a particular piece of land, through the seasons and years, inevitably leads to a sense of kinship and creates an urge to protect and enhance the natural environment. It’s been rewarding to teach students about which plants are non-native and potentially harmful to the local ecosystem, then see them step up as guardians of the land. When we wander through the woods, sometimes they spot a pocket of invasives and if we’re lucky enough to be carrying long-handled loppers, the team of weed warriors can quickly level a patch of Himalayan blackberry. In addition to studying and exploring, offering students an opportunity to actively participate in land management elevates their sense of purpose and deepens their connection to the natural world.

Full Family Learning

Homeschooling naturally leads to multiple ages and families all learning together. In the early days of our homeschool outdoor program the adults often observed activities and supported logistics. But over time it became clear that we truly were a mixed-age group of learners and explorers. Treating everyone as learners equally can have the effect of empowering young people. Sometimes kids master skills quickly. teaching what they’ve learned to adults. And sometimes the best exchange comes not from experts, who have a deep and longstanding understanding of a concept- but those who have recently experienced the gift of insight.

Mixed age learning is a mutually beneficial relationship fostering growth in multiple ways. Adults sometimes shelter in the security of topics they already understand and avoid venturing into areas less familiar. Conducting scientific inquiry in nature is ideal for having a high ceiling and a low floor: everyone knows something, and no one knows everything! Cultivating a growth mindset, by creating an atmosphere where mistakes are celebrated as learning opportunities, and where having a question is as valuable as having an answer (Boaler, 2015, 11), pairs beautifully with immersive study in nature.

A team of researchers determine the percent meadow knapweed present in a one-meter plot square by examining each of 100 smaller squares for the plant of interest.

Authentic Curriculum

Each day that I meet a group of students in the natural world, I come prepared with a plan for that day. Sometimes my plans are elaborate and detailed, and sometimes they are less specific and open to input from my fellow adventurers. But without exception I am mentally prepared and openly delighted to be upstaged by the unexpected. Whether it is locating a dead porcupine after noticing an unusual smell, being suddenly pelted by large hail, being startled by the arrival of the cacophonous noise of a murder of crows, or being circled by two deer so distracted in their mating dance that they fail to notice us; being fully present for nature’s dramas is my top priority.

After waiting over a year for the soft tissue to decompose, students collect and sort bones from a deer that died of natural causes near the Bear Creek Wilderness.

One day, just as the families were arriving at the Bear Creek Wilderness, a truck with two wildlife professionals pulled up to examine a deer laying in the horse pasture adjacent to our meadow. Curious, we gathered to ask questions about what might have happened. When they offered to let us keep the recently deceased animal, we gladly accepted- and spent the day dragging it across the meadow into the woods, securing it with paracord, and setting up our two trail cameras to watch what would happen.

Each week we checked on the deer, and everyone brave enough to venture near got to experience first-hand what decomposition looks and smells like. The camera footage revealed a series of fascinating dramas involving a bobcat, opossums, neighborhood dogs, and finally turkey vultures. A year and half later we carefully collected the bones and spent hours sorting and reconstructing a full deer skeleton. Finally, we tried our hands at making bone tools. In my experience, the best learning opportunities are not planned or expected. But when we build regular rhythms and practices, it is possible to “lay the groundwork for the outbreak of authentic curriculum” (Sobel, 2008, 81).

Cultivating scientific inquiry

Students work to match specific leaves to nature journal pages. Each student found a leaf while wandering through the woods, then recorded details of that leaf in their nature journals using words, pictures and numbers. The leaves were collected, then each student selected a new leaf and found the corresponding journal page.

Getting to know a place, including its seasonal changes, provides a useful perspective when it comes to asking research questions. An invaluable tool to record and remember discoveries, questions and observations is the field notebook, or nature journal. Developing the habit of collecting data with pencil and paper while exploring the natural world takes ongoing dedication, is deeply personal, and will certainly evolve through the years if one continues the practice (Canfield, 2011, 187-200). Nature journaling techniques that involve close examination of specimens in order to draw them, often reveal details that would have been overlooked with a quick glace or photograph. Indeed, to truly get to know a specific plant species it is hard to imagine an activity more educational than carefully drawing each of its parts.

Foundational to scientific inquiry is the research question, or asking questions within the realm of science. There are plenty of valid and interesting questions that one might ask while pondering the wonders of nature, and it’s important not to shut down inquiry when a question like, “Does it make this tree happy when I climb it?” arise. If limited to knowledge bound by science, one may miss rich worlds of philosophy, spirituality, intuition, and other ways of knowing. Still, once we are ready plot our scientific course it’s useful to remind students that questions should be measurable (Laws & Lygren, 2020, 90-93).

At the start of a student-led wildlife study, one researcher, who had taken time to carefully read the manual and test out the equipment, teaches the other students how to label their memory cards and set up their trail cameras. This project was made possible by a generous grant from the Diack Ecology Education Program.

Research Methods

When guiding young people into the world of field research it is helpful to start with basic techniques and big picture, cross-cutting concepts. Keeping track of important details in a field notebook and not forgetting to record obvious but key information like the date and location takes practice before it becomes routine. Collecting data can be time consuming, but sometimes trying to interpret sloppily recorded field notes can lead to tedious and frustrating hours at home. Finding a doable and interesting research question, taking into account confounding factors, and dealing with the disappointment if all the hard work to apply different treatments on an invasive plant all result in similar outcomes, requires a certain level of maturity and commitment.

Digging into a full-fledged research project requires determination, perseverance, and time, but it is possible to introduce students to the exciting and fun parts without getting bogged down by details. I recently taught a research methods class to elementary and middle school students with the goal of having hands-on experience with sophisticated research equipment without requiring data analysis or report writing.

We practiced collecting samples, and at first, we recorded in our field notebooks all the important metadata. Inspired by collection and observation, but limited in time, we then simplified the process to maintain interest and focus. For the rest of our forest walk we collected whatever samples caught our eyes- and mentioned what we would record if we were doing a research project- but kept it fun and quick so we still had time to investigate them at the end with magnification. Keeping data collection fun and exciting for younger students makes for a useful introduction to scientific inquiry and sets them up for conducting their own research in the future.

Students collect carbon dioxide and pH data from a patch of earth using equipment funded by the Diack Ecology Education Program during a research methods class with Wild Alive Outside.

Student-Led Research

In my experience, homeschoolers have a low tolerance for contrived activities, busywork and doing things for a grade. Any activity, assignment or project needs to be authentically meaningful. While it may be hard to force them to fill out a worksheet recording what we just discussed, they often thrive with open-ended activities and projects they can direct. It’s important to provide the appropriate scaffolding, and offer examples, but I have been impressed by how quickly and enthusiastically students construct their own research projects. As a mentor, I sometimes struggle with finding balance between requiring them to do something ‘right’ and encouraging critical thinking along with a safe place to fail, each of which are valuable learning experiences. Allowing students to take ownership in the learning process enhances the development of scientific thinking.

Once, a student created an elaborate plan to attract birds for his trail camera research project involving dead trees, peanut butter, and bird seed. There was tangible disappointment when the resulting images revealed many more rodents than birds, but it led to a new series of questions as well as an understanding about wildlife activity in that area. Field science is almost always iterative in nature, with new questions emerging from initial data and, ideally, the opportunity to inquire further and collect more data. With guidance and partnership students integrate information while maintaining natural curiosity.

Expanded Educational Support

Last year our outdoor program, Wild Alive Outside, received its first infusion of grant-funded scientific equipment. The Diack Ecology Education Program financed a set a trail cameras for our students to study wildlife activity at the Bear Creek Wilderness. Access to high-quality equipment has been a game changer for our little research group. Students felt empowered to design their own experiments by having full control over one of the trail cameras and two high-capacity memory cards. In addition to learning what wildlife passed through the area of the forest or meadow they selected, they gained experience with organizing and analyzing digital data. For some, it was their first exposure to spreadsheets, and others had to push their edges to patiently examine each of hundreds of photos. After months of data collection and conducting secondary research on one of the many wildlife species they discovered, they created posters to present their findings.

Students carefully measure the water in the rain gauge to determine rainfall over the previous week. Data is later reported to the CoCoRaHS website as part of a nationwide citizen science initiative.

For several years now, each day on the land begins with checking the rain gauge. Because we only visit once per week, we often have several inches of rain to carefully measure and record in the notebook. This simple ritual wakes up scientific thinking: “remember to look straight on before taking a reading,” connects us to what’s been happening while we were away: “no wonder there’s standing water in the meadow,” and gives us access to site-specific long-term data. At the end of the water year, shortly after the start of autumn, we can look back at the data we’ve collected, compare it to previous years, and make predictions for when the rains might come that fall. Additionally, we report our data through a sophisticated citizen science program called CoCoRaHS – Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network with thousands of other citizen scientists across the country. I have found students take data collection quite seriously when they know they are part of a larger community of scientists, all doing their best to produce accurate results.

After tackling a large patch of invasive blackberry bushes, the Weed Warriors celebrate their contribution to protecting the wet meadow in the Bear Creek Wilderness.

The Bear Creek Wilderness and Student Research Forest

My program design is to plant the seeds for creating a student research forest where young people will have ongoing opportunities to learn scientific methods of field research and contribute to an ever-increasing body of knowledge through their own efforts. Just as the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest welcomes graduate students and long-term ecological researchers and has amassed a wealth of knowledge and data about that site, we aim to support young emerging scientists with open minds and creative ideas to connect with place, nature, and make meaningful contributions to science within a community of knowledge seekers. Participants gain foundational skills together as they engage with the land, utilize scientific tools, grow as learners, and share knowledge with each other.

References
Boaler, J. (2015). Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential Through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching. Wiley.
Canfield, M. R. (Ed.). (2011). Field Notes on Science and Nature. Harvard University Press.
CoCoRaHS – Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. Retrieved January 18, 2024, from https://www.cocorahs.org/
Diack Ecology Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://www.diackecology.org/
H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/
Laws, J. M., & Lygren, E. (2020). How to Teach Nature Journaling: Curiosity, Wonder, Attention. Heyday.
Sobel, D. (2008). Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators. Stenhouse Publishers.

In 2019, Jess Lambright started a nature school for homeschool families where once per week kids and parents spend all day outside learning wilderness skills, exploring, developing naturalist knowledge, conducting field studies, and connecting with nature, themselves, and each other. She founded Wild Alive Outside in the summer of 2023 with the goal of getting more youth outdoors to discover wonder and inspiration in the natural world through science, outdoor skills, and wilderness connection.

Restoring a School Habitat as Project-based Learning and Inquiry

by editor | Sep 15, 2025 | Conservation & Sustainability, Data Collection, Experiential Learning, Inquiry, Integrating EE in the Curriculum, Schoolyard Classroom, Student research, Teaching Science

Scotch Broom Saga:

Restoring a School Habitat as Project-Based Learning and Inquiry

by Edward Nichols and Christina Geierman

Since the advent of No Child Left Behind, many schools have turned their focus inward. Students rarely leave the classroom. Teachers often deliver purchased curricula that attempt to make meaningful connections for students. Lessons may contain examples from the real world, but these exist only on paper and are not explored within a real-world context. This article describes how an elementary school (K-5) on the southern Oregon coast addressed a real-world problem– the presence of the invasive Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) plant on the school campus. It began as a plan to improve an outdated writing work sample but became a school-wide project that allowed ample opportunities for students to authentically practice research skills while developing a sense of value for the world around them.

North Bay Elementary School is located in the temperate rainforest of rural Oregon, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. It serves about 430 students, over 95% of whom qualify for free and reduced lunch. The property was purchased many decades ago when the lumber mills were booming and so was the population. It was built as a second middle school, and the grounds had plenty of room to build a second high school. But the anticipated boom never came, and the property eventually became an elementary school surrounded by a small field and a 50-acre forest. At some time in the past, an enterprising teacher had cut trails through the forest for student access. When that teacher retired, the trails largely fell into disuse.

The Seed of an Idea

In Oregon third-grade students must perform a writing work sample each year. The topic in North Bend, which had been handed down from previous teachers, was invasive species. The class would work together to write a paper on an invasive species found in Florida, then apply their writing process knowledge to produce a sample on an Oregon invasive. They were given three curated sources created by using a lexile adjuster on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website. This project existed in a relative vacuum– invasive species were not mentioned before or after the work sample. Its only connection to the rest of the curriculum was the writing style. The students were interested in the topic and produced decent work, but Edward Nichols thought they could do better. He had long noticed multiple patches of Scotch broom growing just off the school playground. This invasive plant out-competes native ones and does not provide food or useful habitat for other native species. He wondered if they could do something with this to enhance the writing work sample and turn it from a stand-alone project to something more meaningful.

Fertile Ground

That summer, Edward attended a Diack Training held at Silver Falls State Park. In addition to providing excellent professional development on how to perform field-based inquiry with your students, it is also a place where you get to meet other educators with similar mindsets.

A chance conversation with Julia Johanos, who was then serving as Siuslaw National Forest’s Community Engagement and Education Coordinator, led to the idea of having an assembly on invasive plants for all students at North Bay Elementary. Edward was also a member of the Rural STEAM Leadership Network, and he met Jim Grano in their monthly Zoom sessions. Jim is a retired English teacher who is now focused on getting students outside. He has helped several schools in the Mapleton area start Stream Teams, which got students outside restoring stream habitat and collecting data on salmon. He routinely led student groups into the field to remove English ivy and Scotch broom. Edward invited him to help lead a similar event at North Bay.

The Big Event

After weeks of planning, North Bay held a service learning day on March 17, 2023. The kickoff happened the day before when Julia Johanos led an engaging school-wide assembly on why invasive species are bad for our environment. The next day, the entire school participated in removing Scotch broom from the forest. The students came out one grade band at a time in 45-minute shifts. Each grade had a different task. Kindergarten students pulled the seedling Scotch broom by hand. Slightly larger stalks required “buddy pulls”, where two students worked together. Fourth and Fifth grades used weed wrenches to remove bigger plants. Alice Yeats from the South Slough NERR briefed each group on safety. And dozens of parent volunteers kept everybody safe. The Coos Watershed Association donated native plants, and the second grade came out at the end of the day to plant coyote bushes and red flowering currant, native strawberries, Oregon grape, and a variety of evergreen trees in the spaces the broom used to occupy. After school, Christina Geierman, a science teacher at North Bend High School, brought high school volunteers from the Science National Honor Society to help pull the biggest broom of all and clean up after the event.

Sustaining the Excitement

It is a tradition at North Bay to have a variety of fun activities for the last day of school. This year, in addition to the stalwarts of bubble soap, bicycles, and bounce houses, the event also contained a Scotch broom pull led by Jim Grano. Students could do whatever activity they chose, and many students chose to remove the broom from the edge of the playground. A representative from OSU Extension was also there, showing the kids how to make bird feeders, and folks from the South Slough NERR returned to lead nature hikes. The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUSI) also ran a booth and taught students about conservation and had them play a native game called nauhina’nowas (shinny), which involved using tall, carved sticks to pass and catch two balls connected by twine.

A second, school-wide Scotch broom pull occurred this past fall. Edward also started a Forestry Club at North Bay, which featured guest speakers from the Bureau of Land Management and had the students planting more native species. Plans are underway to have a school-wide pull each spring and a forestry club each fall to plant native species just before the rainy season hits.

Applying Their Knowledge

Students participating in the Scotch broom pull apply their classroom knowledge in various ways. In mathematics, they record and tally the number of plants removed, practicing authentic math skills. They observe and document the plant’s lifecycle during the pull, connecting classroom biology lessons to real-world applications. North Bay uses the Character Strong curriculum to address social-emotional learning, and the broom pull allows students to apply traits like perseverance, cooperation, and service. Students can immediately and directly see the results of their efforts when they go outside for recess. This gives them a sense of pride in their accomplishments. There have been many reports of students educating their parents about why Scotch broom should be removed from the environment and even a few tales of students removing invasive plants from their own properties.

While participating in the Scotch broom pull, the students met a variety of scientists and conservationists. They were able to make a connection between this sort of work and future job opportunities. Jim Grano showed them that, if you feel passionately about something, you can make a difference as a volunteer. Alice Yeats, Julia Johanos, and Alexa Carleton from the Coos Watershed Association showed them that women can be scientists and do messy work in the field just as well as men can. Although it will take many years to tell, we hope that a few students will be inspired by this work to pursue careers in natural resources management.

Into the Future

This past fall, North Bay was named a NOAA Ocean Guardian School. This means that NOAA will provide the funds necessary to carry this project forward and expand it. The grant is renewable for up to five years. This spring, a group of students from North Bay will host a booth at Coos Watershed’s annual Mayfly Festival. There, students will present their project to members of the public and urge them to remove Scotch broom and other invasives from their own properties.

This spring, the North Bend High School Science National Honor Society (SNHS) will partner with North Bay students for a Science Buddies Club that will take place after school. Thanks to a Diack Grant awarded to Christina Geierman and Jennifer Hampel, the SNHS has a variety of Vernier probes and other devices that can be used to collect data in the forest. In the first meeting, the North Bay students will guide the high schoolers down the forest trails and describe their Scotch broom project. The SNHS members will show them how the probes work and what data we can gather. The guiding question will be, “Why do Scotch broom live in some areas of the forest, but not others?” The students will come up with hypotheses, focusing on one variable like temperature, light availability, etc. and then work together to gather and analyze the data. Students will present their data in a poster at the Mayfly Festival and possibly the State of the Coast Conference.

Members of the North Bend High School Science National Honor Society and family volunteers have reopened the trails through the forest. Plans are underway to expand these trails and partner with the CTCLUSI to create signage. The forest is being used by the school once again. Classrooms that earn enough positive behavior points can choose nature walks through the forest as potential rewards. Dysregulated students are taken down the path to calm them. Increasing student and community use of the forest is one of our future goals.

Edward Merrill Nichols is a 3rd-grade Teacher at North Bay Elementary in North Bend, Oregon. Growing up on the southern coast of Oregon instilled in him a love of and respect for his natural surroundings. With over six years of experience, he fosters student growth through engagement and respect. Edward actively engages in STEM education, leading Professional Development sessions and extracurricular clubs. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Master of Science in K-8 STEM Education from Western Oregon University.

Christina Geierman has taught physics, biology, and dual-credit biology at North Bend High School for eleven years. She is a published scientist, a proud union member, a decent trombone player, and a world traveler. She enjoys spending time outside with her husband, Edward Nichols, and dog, Aine.

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