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Shaded by the forest's canopy, fifth-grader Troy
Moran peered through a magnifying glass at the grayish-purplish lichen
creeping up the side of a tree. "It looks like
seaweed," he declared, while three of his classmates crowded around.
Each busily recorded their observations in stapled packets of papers. Throughout the year, the
fifth-graders at As part of the Big
Backyard program, started at the school 10 years ago, students are given the
opportunity to practice inquiry-based learning as they study plants and
creatures living around the school. "Instead of learning
about it in the classroom, we get to see it. Instead of learning about
animals and their hibernation, we get to see it. It's a better way of
learning," said Matt Tambor, an Estabrook
fifth-grader. His classmate Pooja Kumar, 11, said the students look forward to Big
Backyard excursions. "I've learned
something new every time we've been out. I've learned about the plants and
animals," said Kumar, who started at Estabrook this year. Prior to the recent walk
through the school yard and woods, the students listened to a 20-minute
presentation by parent volunteer Linda Arnow. "Here in While walking through the
forest, volunteer Pat Magrath Abel, the parent of
an Estabrook fifth-grader, stopped the group of four she was leading to give
a short talk about skunk cabbage. She asked each student to pull a couple of
leaves, rip them up and smell. "Eww!
It smells like skunk," squealed the two girls, while Moran and Tambor ripped leaves and remarked over the plant's look
and smell. Farther down the path,
dotted with wooden planks to save people from trudging through the mud, the
students stopped to examine turkey tails, a fungus growing on trees and
fallen logs. "I find that as they
get older they're more comfortable expressing themselves. They seem to be
generally interested," said Magrath Abel, a
program volunteer of five years. "To be able to go out and explore
nature and to have this nature in their own
backyard, it's fantastic." The start of a Big
idea "My incentive for
starting the program was I saw kids studying it (science) in class, and I
looked outside and saw most of our elementary schools are surrounded by
beautiful conservation land, woods and playgrounds. It seemed like the
perfect connection," said Fran Ludwig, elementary curriculum specialist
in science for Lexington Public Schools. Each of Through the school
district's membership in a regional educational collaborative, Ludwig was
able to contact Bev Morrison, a "Her (Morrison's)
premise is to open kids' eyes, nose and ears so they become observers. That
generates questions," Ludwig said. In the beginning,
Morrison, who designed each nature walk, provided training for the parent and
community volunteers. The goal was to train parent leaders so they could
eventually take over the program. Through the years, this has happened. "I've had parents who
have told me how much more fun it is to go out in the woods with their kids
because they have learned so much," Ludwig said. "I think we really
need this [program] because the kids get so far away from the Earth - they're
watching TV or playing computer games. Many of them don't know where their
food comes from or the relationship between plants and animals. That's really
a life skill." Morrison, who was recently
honored with the "Secretary's Award for Excellence in Environmental
Education for 2004" from state Secretary of Environmental Affairs Ellen
Roy Herzfelder, hopes children learn to care about
the world through the program. "We're not focusing
on teaching facts, we're focusing on the kids being self-learners - to be
better stewards of the world, to keep on learning throughout their adult
lives," said Morrison, who will retire form the Wellesley program next
month. She has already retired from the A legacy of learning While the content of the
program is similar at each school, the unique features of each school's
surroundings are incorporated. The Lexington Education
Foundation provided initial funding when the program began at Estabrook.
After LEF's support at several other elementary
schools to assure program success, current funding is provided by the
Lexington Public Schools for materials, printing and volunteer training. If the upcoming
Proposition 2 1/2 override fails, money for science supplies will be cut in
half. Ludwig's position would also shift to a part-time position, leaving
little time to devote to Big Backyard. "It's one thing to be
on a list of these cuts, it's another to see the impact," Ludwig said. Throughout the years,
Morrison has been impressed by the "They (the
volunteers) don't have to know a lot of science to be a nature walk leader.
They just have to be curious and that's one of the greatest things they can
show kids - that they don't know everything and they want to keep on
learning," Morrison said. Trina Waters, a former Big
Backyard parent coordinator at "Her point of view
(Morrison's) is to focus on what is right there and not to focus on the
lions, tigers and bears," said Waters, who has science and research
training. "It's the things kids might take for granted, but what the Big
Backyard does is show them these little wonders." As a parent volunteer,
Waters has witnessed the children's excitement and sense of wonderment
first-hand. "It's just amazing to
see," she said. "Their little eyes peer into what they're looking
at. You know they've made the connection." |
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