Nature-Based Experiential Education

If we could design our schools today, based upon everything that we know about how students learn best, would these schools look anything like the educational institutions that we currently work in? Unfortunately, the answer is likely no. So what would the ideal school look, sound, and feel like? How much seat time, screen time, or outside time would students have? And classrooms. how would they be different? Do we even need them?

My project is the development of the Paine Mountain Experiential Learning Center, which serves the schools and students of the Central Vermont Supervisory Union. For the past 8 years, I have been working in the STAR Program, an outdoor and experiential alternative program for Northfield Middle High School. In that time, I have developed and implemented a highly engaging, experiential curriculum designed to re-engage struggling students in their learning. The curriculum is totally integrated, as I weave together all four core subject areas through the lens of place-based service learning. Students, who often come to me feeling disenfranchised and frustrated, are empowered to recognize their potential to act as agents of change within the communities of which they are a part.

With the success of the STAR Program, our school district is launching an initiative to bring this type of highly engaging, highly relevant learning to more students. This project aims to utilize experiential and place-based education to connect more students with the various communities of which they are a part. This project will expand the capacity of our nature-based programming, availing it to more students within our district and the rest of central Vermont. We will also develop extensive mentoring programs between all grade levels in our system, especially as it applies to opportunities to connect with the greater Northfield and Williamstown communities. There is also a priority of creating teacher professional development and experiential coaching positions, which will extend more place-based practices into all classes in our district. Lastly, we will be launching the Paine Mountain Experiential Learning Center as a center for community and family learning, with workshops, courses, and certifications available to not only our students, but their families and other community members as well. Our aim is to give students the critical life experiences to be able to better understand themselves in relationship to the world around them.