Lincoln Elementary School - Olympia, Washington

#2 Salmon Education Curriculum
Who We Are
We are a group of six college students who have been given the opportunity to educate a sector of our community about the fate of salmon.
Our Goals
1. We hope to work towards positive change in a non-political way.

2. We are each looking to gain a personal understanding of how salmon are important to many people and to be able to share that understanding with our community.

3. We also hope to reinforce our personal connection to salmon.

The Face of Salmon program at The Evergreen State College has given us a background in salmon ecology and in the politics that are associated with the decline of salmon. Similarly, the children that we were fortunate enough to work with at Lincoln Elementary School have been given a strong base of knowledge on salmon ecology and life cycle and on the relationship between salmon and Northwest Coastal Native American tribes. This project is a next step. It provides an avenue through which we can direct our knowledge towards positive change. This project provides a lens through which we could view our past and future learning.

Our group: Summer Anderson, Abigale Beeley, Ryan Gross, Claudine Reynolds, Annie Roberts, and Dobora Schwartz with cooperation and support from Michi Thacker and her eight to nine year olds at Lincoln Elementary School as well as our professors Chris May and Nancy Parkes Turner.

Our Project Plan
Day 1: Day 2: Day 3: Day 4: Note: This plan worked well for us considering the small amount of class time we had for this project, which was 6 hours. However, more time is recommended for a project of this size and content.
 
What Worked Well, What Didn't
We went into the classroom with the bare bones of a project. We learned a lot about what makes a good idea flow into meaningful work when working with children.

We would have benefited from working more closely with the teacher in order to shape the rhythm of the project to coincide with the student's own learning structures. We found that the students became very protective and nervous about performing their own skits, and many expressed the desire to have more time to practice them. Oftentimes leaving the students to work on their own proved not to be productive, and left them with a sense of disorder. We also feel that this could be due to their age (8-9 years old). It is important to establish a firm understanding of procedures and expectations within the core facilitators of the project.

Enthusiasm and trust among all members involved proved to be one of the most vital elements in making this a successful project. Starting out in a circle and sharing what our plans for the day included and what was expected of them and us provided needed structure. We found it helpful to come back to the circle at the end of the session to discuss what went on and what was learned. Communication was critical in reinforcing key concepts. Doing hands on work, having college students in the classroom and sharing ideas in a creative way was really fun for the children. Fun and excitement sparks curiosity and continued learning.