On Thursday, Feb. 23, more than 100 seventh-graders from Pleasant View K-8 School made the first of four planned visits to the Watershed Center for every seventh-grader at Pleasant View, Carver Middle School and Reed Academy this spring.
"The Watershed Center Spring Pilot is an initiative to see how this learning opportunity works with this age group," said Dana Webb, director of summer learning and student experiences. "So we invited three of our schools that already have an outdoor learning environment on their school grounds to participate in the Greener Green Space course at the Watershed."
The six-week course for seventh-graders immerses them in 12 interactive and different hands-on activities at the Watershed Center. Jeff Birchler, Watershed Center coordinator and retired SPS science teacher, has worked with the SPS curriculum department since last fall to develop a very engaging and interactive curriculum for students.
"SPS partnered with the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks to host this really exciting, educational learning experience at Valley Water Mill Park," he says. "It was really a collaborative process with SPS, developing this program. And I've always enjoyed the creative process of putting together a big educational project like this, scaffolding learning to meet students' needs and hit certain goals in content."
This isn't the Watershed's first time hosting a large number of SPS students at the Watershed Center. Last summer, the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks partnered with SPS to host Splash, a hands-on course for third-graders to visit the Center weekly while learning about the interconnected nature of Springfield's waterways.
Seventh-graders will spend six weeks in the Greener Green Space course learning about how our environment is deeply interrelated. The science, English Language Arts and social studies concepts students learn at the Watershed will combine with a culminating project at the end of the course.
Students at each school will work in teams to research, create, develop and pitch ideas for how to improve the green space near the school. Students then will vote on their peers' designs to select a winner at each site.
"The approach we took was a project-based learning unit for the students," said Birchler. "The kids have a problem to solve, and we're empowering them to be a part of a solution."
At the conclusion of the course, Springfield Public Schools will award the winners $500 to fund the student-proposed improvements at each school. Webb hopes this culminating unit, as well as the pilot experience, continue to build on the district's commitment to providing more field experiences districtwide.
"The Watershed's mission of educating our community about our streams and waterways aligns well with our mission of expanding more, rich learning experiences for our students," she says. "We have a passion in this district for providing learning experiences that truly are engaging, relevant and personal. We want students to know they're part of the community and that they can be part of the solution to the problems that they see. When they know that, they know they can do anything."
Springfield Public Schools and the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks will learn from this initial offering to potentially scale out a similar experience districtwide next school year.
Spring means break for students and staff
School will not be in session for students on March 10 so that staff may participate in work day. Schools will be closed March 13-17 for Spring Break. District offices will be closed Mar. 17.
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