The world of education
is like an island where people, cut off from the world, are prepared for life
by exclusion from it. – Maria
Montessori, founder of the international Montessori education movement
Connecting classroom to community life is a core element of
educating for sustainability at New Roots Charter School.
The benefits to students are many,
well-documented in schools around the world:
learning is immediately relevant, students experience how knowledge is
applied in the “real world,” and students learn new capacities in themselves as
they stretch to engage in new experiences with their peers.
We want all students to enjoy the benefits of meaningful
community learning, so we offer extended interdisciplinary courses with
sustainability and justice themes that take students out of the building and
into the community for extended three-hour “learning expeditions.”
Freshmen take two “learning expedition” courses that
introduce them to our region’s land and people:
Cayuga Watershed and Local Ecosystems.
In grades 10 and 11, students choose from options focusing on local food
systems and farming, our region’s Haudenosaunee people and their culture, human
rights, natural resources, and sustainable entrepreneurism.
The perspective developed in these courses lays the
groundwork for their senior team capstone project, which requires them to
choose an issue of importance to the wider community and develop a
solutions-oriented approach to addressing it.
Here are a few recent highlights from learning expeditions
at New Roots:
OUR REGION'S ECOSYSTEMS
As part of a unit on topography, water, and soil
conservation, students learned to construct and use a method that farmers
around the world use to measure contours on the land: a simple but effective A frame. Once contour lines are marked, a swale is dug
using a hoe to create contours that slow and redirects the flow of surface and
groundwater. Over time the
previously-sloped landscape begins to collect rich organic material and slowly
transform into a series of terraces, increasing productivity and reducing soil
erosion.
OUR REGION'S FOODSHED
Students in "Discovering Our Region's Foodshed"
expedition had the opportunity to taste honey fresh out of the hive while on a
recent field trip to Three Swallows Farm, run by the Youth Farm Project.
The verdict was "it's delicious!"
HAUDENOSAUNEE CULTURE
Students broke into task forces to research and teach the
rest of class about a topic of interest using an active, hands-on learning
component. One task force researched the
significance of lacrosse to the Haudenosanee historically and today. They
presented their findings to the class and gave them a lesson at the park.
CAYUGA WATERSHED
New Roots students from the Cayuga Watershed expedition paired
up with second grade students from BJM to check out the Beyond Earth Art
exhibit, which included an opportunity to investigate the effects of oil spills
on sea creatures.
On a trip to the City of Ithaca's Water Treatment Plant, students
gained an understanding of how the water from 6 Mile Creek is treated and made
drinkable for the residents of Ithaca.
Our first-ever student-produced television show will air
this evening, Saturday May 10, 2014 at 7 p.m. on local channel 16.
Check it out!
