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Red Creek School, Alcova, WY
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A one-room schoolhouse is plenty large when the outdoor serves as a supplementary classroom.
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Hazel Scharosch has taught at Red Creek for more than 17 years. She never expected to stay that long. Over time, she has seen how environmental education and outdoor learning can meet the needs of such diverse ages.
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Here are a few ways her students learn outside:
Fifteen minutes at the bird feeder: Students spend 15 minutes a day observing activity at a bird feeder. They record the number and species of birds that show up and enter their data into a Cornell University database.
Comparisons over time: A prairie area and a pond have been set up as outdoor learning areas. Students collect data on how the areas have changed. Many of the samples they refer to are older than they are. Many bring their parents to the areas outside of school hours.
The world beyond: Every year, students and their families go on a major field trip. These trips bring to life the concepts studied in the classroom. Before visiting Yellowstone, they learned about the plants, animals, and thermal features they would encounter. The biggest trip of all, which took three years of fundraising, was a trip to the Pacific coast of California. As Hazel reasoned, how can kids learn about tide pools if they have never seen one?
A teacher in a one-room school has a unique opportunity to contribute to children’s lives--Hazel sees the same students for as many as seven years. But many of Red Creek’s outdoor learning activities can fit in schools of every shape and size.
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Resources
Download many bird-related materials and programs for teachers at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/).
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