Ellen Kohl, assistant professor of environmental studies, recently partnered with Ridge Elementary School to secure a $5,000 Chesapeake Land Trust grant to implement an outdoor classroom at Ridge Elementary School. The grant and plans for the outdoor classroom were developed as a partnership between students in her “ENST 490: Environmental Keystone Seminar” and students and staff at Ridge Elementary School.
Kohl and St. Mary’s College students partnered with Ridge Elementary School to transform an existing outdoor garden into a functioning outdoor classroom. Kohl’s students conducted background research on outdoor classrooms, environmental education, science communications, and inequity in science education, and incorporated that research with garden drawings made by Ridge students. SMCM students also interviewed Ridge teachers and students about the project.
Despite disruptions and challenges due to the transition to online learning, SMCM student groups created unique proposals that were presented to Ridge Principal and SMCM alumna Honora Batelka '97 and other members of the Ridge green school team. The SMCM students’ proposals not only included designs for the outdoor classroom but also ideas and suggestions on how teachers could integrate lessons on the health of the Chesapeake Bay in the development and implementation of the outdoor classroom.
Kohl worked with SMCM alumna Connie Reynolds '10, a third-grade teacher at Ridge, and Batelka to integrate the ideas from the SMCM students’ proposals into one coherent grant that would meet the school’s needs. The grant was submitted in July to Chesapeake Land Trust resulting in the $5,000 award.
SMCM students involved in the project: Jack Brandenburg, Dylan Brown, Jacqueline Harriot, Anna Lapoint, Elizabeth Marts, Allison Shulman, Ben Sturmer, Ellyse Sutliff, Jacob Wilkins, Serenity Wolf, and Joseph Clark.
