More than once I have heard (and may have said) "my classroom is a zoo". For high school students at the School for Environmental Studies, their classroom is actually the local zoo. Located outside of Minneapolis, SES is a high school of choice for 400 eleventh and twelfth graders. This project based and service learning high school takes students outside and immerses them in pond life (11th grade) and zoo life (12th grade).
If you have an extra ten minutes check out the video. This school is a great example of an innovative school model, especially for those students who score high in Gardner's 8th intellegence~naturalist intelligence. I particularly like the idea that their data collection, technical writing, reports, etc... are assessed and used by the local community. These students understand their work has a signficant impact on their community. What could be more motivating?
www.edutopia.org/school-environmental-studies
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I really enjoyed viewing the video. I think that the design of the SES school really emphasizes the importance of centering the curriculum around the student and also the mentality people have of box classrooms. The video made me realize that schools need to be built around the curriculum and not have the curriculum molded into the school building. I like how in the area the student(s) studies and evaluates are actually being used by real professions in the world. It adds more credibility to whats being learned and students are seeing this credibility first hand. I know in my high school in the environmental science class they goes outside and study the pond that is behind our school and also study various plants around the school. I wonder how much students motivations would change if more classes starting educating outside the classrooms?
ReplyDeleteThis video reminds me about the 9minutes video posted in this week resources, where Linda Darling-Hammond shared her ideas about other countries in terms of international competition. We could see students outside of their classrooms experiencing the world in order to learn. It also reminds me about another 6minutes video (http://www.edutopia.org/south-grand-prairie-small-academies-video),where high schools students in a biology class in Texas were given the opportunity to get out of their classroom environment where they were able to put into practice what they have learned in class.It is definitly an evidence for me that one of the most important tools that we need as teachers for our students'education today, is to give them the opportunity to learn by experiencing the real world. Wether they are in elementary school or in a middle school level or in high school this way of learning applies for them and is still important at higher levels.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the video! I love hearing about schools that are thinking outside the box and are using kid's higher level thinking skills to get them prepared for the real world. When I think back on my high school education, there isn't much I remember about it accademically. I'm sure I would have remembered an experience like the "zoo school"!
ReplyDeleteThere is a teacher down the hall from me that reminds me every day that you can never be to innovative. One day I was walking down the hall when I peaked into the classroom and saw these students examining fish that they have caught to study mercury levels while another is calling out the coordinates of where their specific fish were caught. It was a zoo but the best kind of zoo.
ReplyDeleteI love teaching science because you get to be so out of the box and keep trying new things without anybody questioning you and if it fails it is just another learning experience.
"I love teaching science because you get to be so out of the box and keep trying new things without anybody questioning you and if it fails it is just another learning experience"
ReplyDeleteI love your idea Kelley. Especially the last part about failing which is just another learning experience. You are right and in fact would I be wrong if I say that there is a stroke of science in every subject?