BE CURIOUS: BRING THE OUTSIDE IN!
Like all educators, Kindergarten teacher Pam Lawlor realized that education during the pandemic required some quick pivots and creativity to keep students engaged and feeling safe during the new era of remote learning.
Positive feedback from parents, after Bellevue schools transitioned to a virtual learning model in March, surrounded Pam’s use of Nearpods. Nearpod is an interactive instructional platform that allows teachers to upload their own content, or utilize platform resources (slides, videos, etc.), to create lessons that support asynchronous learning (when the teacher is “in another room” with other students on-line). Conversations revealed that when Pam was reading stories aloud, parents were actively eavesdropping in order to have a shared learning experience with their young children.
While enjoying spending time outside this summer, Pam began brainstorming how she might utilize Nearpod technology to not only introduce curriculum, but to potentially offset feelings of isolation that accompany our remote lives. “I wanted to bring my students a common experience that would also take them out into their own community. As the main anchor of the neighborhood, Bridle Trails State Park seemed like the perfect place.”
Pam approached the Bridle Trails Park Foundation for video production and content development efforts to support her theme for the 2020-21 school year: Be Curious: Bring the Outside In!
Just a 10 minute walk from school, students are welcomed to the park and learn how it differs from other parks they might visit: No play structures, but over 28 miles of forested trails to explore - all with equal chances of running into a “bridle” or two.
Over the years, teachers at Cherry Crest have taken their students into the park for curriculum enhancement experiences. Inviting parents to safely explore this unique natural space together, holds possibility for family and community well being.
Pam meets “Boston” and learns equestrian & pedestrian safety while visiting the park during pet week. Pets come in all sizes! Foundation board member Mary Decher invited Pam to shoot 5 additional videos of her barn, animals, and how she cares for them.
The Foundation had just launched a new website to update and expand its web presence, adding environmental educational resources for families and remote learners of all ages. It was immediately evident that utilizing the park as a virtual classroom would be a successful integration of community and earth science curriculum (trees and weather) for Cherry Crest Elementary kindergartners.
The Foundation was able to assist with local flora and fauna identification, provide fun and informative guest appearances for videos, and support virtual adventures with additional still slides for Nearpods. Math manipulatives, hemlock cones and small shaped twigs representative of the natural world, were also purchased for these young learners that require hands-on materials to illustrate their understanding of math concepts.
A Squirrel Diner?
Students are encouraged to be curious and hypothesize what possible stories their observations might be telling them.
Pam used video of her own “leaf collection walk” to instruct students on an at home science activity, and then followed up with a compare and contrast lesson.
Tree identification is made relevant by focusing on common trees in the park. Two of these species became kindergarten “adopted trees” at Cherry Crest for students to visit & observe throughout the school year.
Response to these “live” communication and instructional efforts has been overwhelmingly positive. Pam recently observed a student run and yell to his dad that it was “Field Trip Day” when she shared that they would virtually be visiting a surprise location that afternoon (Mary Decher’s barn). And, after watching a park video about observing animals in the forest, another student was proud to share a caterpillar with the class that she discovered in her own back yard.
By encouraging curiosity and connecting science with such a positive learning experience during COVID, hope overflows for our future earth scientists. The enthusiasm is evident, along with three months of kindergarten science vocabulary: plant, stem, twig, trees, root, trunk, bark, branch, leaves, conifer, cones, hardwood, seeds, forest, observe, different, similar, property, compare, pattern, texture, shape, color, edge, circumference, adopt, and silhouette.
Pam has been an elementary educator for over 20 years, teaching kindergarten at Cherry Crest for the past fifteen. Videos appear on her private YouTube channel shared with students and their families via instructional Nearpods. Video planning and support are in the works for the two remaining science units of the 2020-21 school year: wood (physical science), and animals (life science).
Raven, Trillium, and Coyote Trail indicators: Pictures tell stories about who and what lives in the park.
Non-fiction reading in a peaceful, beautiful space. Surprise visitors included a busy pileated woodpecker and a curious native Douglas squirrel.
Park Safety silhouettes were used to introduce the important literacy skill of using pictures to gain more information.
Note to Educators: The Bridle Trails Park Foundation is actively seeking collaborative partnerships with local K-12 teachers. The goal is to enhance and support science curriculum and assist in the collection of data to document the progressive ecological health of Bridle Trails State Park.