Featured Teacher

Two teachers teamed up to create a unique learning experience

The Carmichaels Area School District has developed a unique project where high school students research and develop lessons and activities on various environmental topics and present those lessons to a group of elementary students. The project is called the Loop Trail or just The Loop!

Ask a group of senior Environmental Science students, "So how much do you really know about the environment?" They will tell you that they really learned how much they understood about the environment by teaching it to someone else-especially if that someone else is a group of sixth graders!

Ask a group of sixth graders, "So how much do you really know about the environment?" They will tell you they really learned a lot about the environment by being taught in an outdoor setting by their high school role models.

If you are wondering to whom to ask these questions, you might try asking Mr. Willis' Environmental Science II class at Carmichaels Area High School and Mr. Cole's sixth grade class at Carmichaels Elementary Center. For three days this fall, these two groups teamed up in an environmental science collaboration experience that encompassed various aspects of the district's natural area adjacent to the Elementary Center.

"I've been wanting to have my students develop a Nature Trail Guide since I started here!" sixth year Chemistry/Environmental Science teacher, Kevin Willis exclaimed. "I've seen some good trails and good trail guides, but I wanted my students to create something useful to the Elementary students along with the community." Mr. Willis' students had the opportunity to take a concept, research it, and develop an environmental science lesson to present to a group of sixth grade students. The objective was to provide enough background information for any elementary teacher or community group to take a group of students to the Loop Trail and present the lesson.

During each of the three days the sixth grade students participated in 5 stations along the Loop Trail. Day 1 stations included: Station 1-introduction, 2-the rotting log ecosystem, 3-senses, 4-poison ivy, and 9-Virginia creeper. Day 2 stations involved: Station 5-Black Cherry, 6-American Elm, 7-Black Locust, 13-tree measurement, and 14-tree rings. Finally, Day 3 stations introduced: Station 8-den trees, 10-a tree identification review, 11-vernal ponds, 12-lichen, and 15-artist conks. An Environmental Science student who had developed the lesson and the station activity led the stations. The station leaders presented their station background information to one of the five sixth grade groups who were guided by the environmental science students who weren't leading a station. One unique aspect of the Loop Trail Nature Guide was that the environmental science students all had outdoor names including: coyote, mountain laurel, and bumble bee. As the sixth graders! entered the nature area, they were entering the outdoors and they were instructed to respect the outdoors by remaining quiet and leaving only their footprints as they visited the animals' homes.

"The really exciting aspect for the students, though, is the station activities," Sixth grade teacher, Rob Cole, commented. "Each station incorporates a hands-on activity for the students to take part in following the lesson." These station activities ranged from a leaf rubbing to an artist conk scavenger hunt, to a forest floor investigation.

At the conclusion of the station activity, the sixth grade students had the opportunity to ask questions-and ask questions they did! They couldn't ask enough questions.

"Not only was leading a station a great opportunity, but also answering the students' questions was a great experience for my high school students," Mr. Willis remarked. "It's not too often that high school seniors have to rely on all their previous training of environmental concepts to answer these interested sixth grade students' questions without time to prepare or research. I'm really proud of how they handled that situation."

But don't take our word for it--Ask the high school students!

" It was a great honor be to able to share my knowledge with the children and touch there lives, in someway," Adam Martin shared.

"Teaching the 6th grade class was really exciting for both them and our class. It made us feel important, and I hope to do this activity another time," Kristen Judy added.

"Being able to go outside and actually use what we learned was a good experince, " Nick Weightman commented.

"I had a wonderful time teaching the younger kids about some issues relating to the forest and environmental science. To me, this is the most exciting thing to learn about in school," said Denny Balogh.

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