Curriculum Work
I am working at Griffin School, in a middle school classroom taught by Eric Temple. It is a biology enrichment class, as they call it, and it's first thing in the morning. It's a lot of fun, and they do many hands on activities.
The class is going to participate in the GREEN conference, where they will be investigating a local watershed. As Schneider creek goes right near the school, they are going to be doing some monitoring, including water quality testing and plant observations. We are planning to do a model of a healthy creek and one of an unhealthy creek as part of their presentation at the conference. Eric was inspired when I gave him a postcard of my art show, and was interested in using natural materials such as lichens and barks and pebbles to create their models.
| Schneider Creek Estuary | Dirt Core taken near headwaters |
| Headwaters of Schneider Creek | A mid-point of the creek |
The students collected data at each of the areas pictured above. I legally cannot put photos of them on the website, but I have some good ones that I'll include in my presentation.
My space in this classroom was not so much as a leader, but a collaborator. Therefore, I don't have a specific activity which I "led", but instead have contributed to many of the things that went on during my time there.
One thing is for sure: The kids really loved being outside, and collecting and analyzing the information. They really thrived. The hands-on activities they did really seemed to help them learn. In this class, there were no real 'lectures' that I saw, but collective thinking and discovery.
