Classroom Earth: Teach Conservation By Going Outside

The Flint River Project: An Exemplar Whole-School Project

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

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If I had one wish for the classrooms of the world, it is that we would all leave the four walls and enter Classroom Earth. In Classroom Earth we will study nature in nature. We will take measurements that matter as citizen scientists. We will study and record history. As a result, we can train young leaders who appreciate the awesome stewardship they will inherit.

This post is part of Cathy Rubin’s Global Search for Education. This month’s question is “Our Planet has a Plan – Climate Change and the depletion of natural resources present a global challenge.  What is the Role of Education?” The top global teacher bloggers will weigh in. This post is my reflection on this topic.

You can’t teach conservation in a book. Well, maybe you can, but not in a memorable, life-changing way, I think.

As a farmer’s daughter, I grew to love the land. As my hands worked the soil, I noticed the seeds growing. As my toes wiggled in the mud from Dad’s drip irrigation, I appreciated the water supply from the underground aquifer on dry, dusty days. A heart for conservation is best born outdoors. For this reason, the Flint River Project was the best project my school ever created.

Students took water samples at a variety of locations on the river and presented their results at a community meeting.

The Flint River Project: A Whole School Studies a River for Four Days

In this project, students got on the river. Some of them collected and counted macroinvertebrates. Others took water samples. Some visited and documented historical sites, while others wrote poetry and read literature.

As I consider this project, I’m struck by the incredible results. One of the students, Casey Cox, moved home. Casey is now the Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Conservation Districts.

When she was a student on the project, she wrote,

By opening up the river to the students of Westwood, we are not only creating a unique learning opportunity but also a burgeoning appreciation for the natural resource we are so very lucky to have here in south Georgia. The river will be an integral part of my future, as I intend to double major in business and conservation at the University of Florida, and I anticipate returning to this area to preserve the beautiful Flint. I hope my fellow high school students now recognize the importance of the river to our local economy and ecosystem.

Community experts were interviewed as part of the Flint River Project.

These students come back and often say it was the most meaningful project of their high school years. While many of them go outdoors, the Flint River Project was a true outdoor classroom experience. To learn conservation, we must not only dig our hands in the dirt, we must join hands to protect the earth.

Farming is in the DNA of our community here in Mitchell County, Georgia, USA. Our work as stewards of Earth’s resources may be celebrated on one day but every day is earth day. Additionally, every single classroom can attend Classroom Earth, we only need to go outside and start teaching and learning.

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