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Red Hill Restoration. Project and Meadow Learning Lab Robin Moran Red Hill Elementary School. What is being restored, why, and who will do it?.
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Red Hill Restoration Project and Meadow Learning Lab Robin Moran Red Hill Elementary School
What is being restored, why, and whowill do it? • The school yard has suffered from erosion and runoff for years. The county’s solution has been to plant Bermuda grass . A good choice being “America’s Sport turf grass", except the soil must drain well. Our red shale does not. • As a result the lawn is starting to die in places that are constantly wet/moist. • The runoff ends up in the creek that runs behind the school and along the farmland. • This problem provides the purpose for this project. Who will take it on? Our students thrive when they are engaged in solving a real world problem. They will collaborate on a solution. It will be there design implemented by them with the help of parents, teachers, and community volunteers. ( For the purpose of this presentation, we will use my design). • Funding will come from grants, funds generated by student fund-raising ideas, and hopefully community business donations. • This is the area as it exists now. A very low area in the Red Hill School topography. Gym E East view facing the back of Red Hill School
Proposed Meadow Learning Labarea located behind the school and playgroundThis moist wet area will be restored by planting a wetland meadow .A wetland meadow is a grassy field composed of grasses and perennials that thrive in wet/moist soil conditions. It will be planted using native Virginia plants and seeds that include perennials, grasses and trees. This meadow will be used as a learning lab; a classroom without walls, where all students will use the meadow to enhance classroom learning, it will provide wildlife habitat, and address the erosion problems we have had. 5ft drop in slope Meadow Learning Lab Area
How will this help my son/daughter?An outdoor meadow learning lab will provide the opportunity for students to:1. explore their questions about the environment2. measure , study geometry, apply math processes3. document statistics in research and in the natural sciences4. weave grasses that are native to Virginia into baskets 5. write about the natural world they learn to observe6. record blooming time for different plants, grasses, and trees Hands -on learning activities will address the curriculum standards mandated by the Virginia Standards of Learning. They will extend learning in the classroomStudents become stewards of this school, community, and planet, when they take on the challenge of a problem and work together to solve it. • The Research of Liberman and Hoody (1998) suggests that 98% of those students engaged in outdoor science demonstrated increased engagement, and enthusiasm in science as well as in their other classroom subjects.
Meadow Environmental Learning Lab ( MELL)Design Switch grass –Panicum varigatum Sedge – Carex x buchananii Log & Stone seating Wet meadow plants and seeds Weeping willow Weeping Willow Ironweed – Vernonia fasiculata Joe Pye Weed – Eupatorium atropurpureum Weeping Willow Vervain - Verbena x peruviana Rush – Juncus effusus Log and stone seating Common Sneezelweed Helenium autunnale ‘Helena Gold’
Project Goals and OutcomesRed Hill Elementary School Environmental Evaluation and Restoration ProjectCreating and Building a Wet MeadowLearning Lab • The goal of this project is to have students design and develop an outdoor learning lab for the school community that addresses the erosion problem at Red Hill Elementary while restoring an area of the schoolyard. Red Hill is located in the hills of North Garden, Virginia in a farming/mining community that is known for its highly praised apple orchards. This project will improve student learning, community/parent involvementand teacher leadership.
Students meet their goals by working together , listening to each other, self assessing and reflecting alone and most importantly as a group. What will they do to accomplish this?
About this Project This project is created and implemented by the students with strong leadership from the classroom teacher and help from the local community. The students plan, make contact with all professionals, write their own proposals for grants, make recommendations for field trips that enhance their learning, and present their final project designs and documented restoration to the county and local community. They grapple with a real life problem and revel in the unknown as they construct their solutions to a problem that exits locally and manifests globally. They will be addressing Standards of Learning in math, life sciences, chemistry, writing, communication and art. This project can be implemented appropriately at any grade level. The timeline for this project, from design to implementation, would be one school year. Students call on local professionals that address the North Garden watershed, the geologic and local history of this farm community, and local farmers that work this soil every day to establish background information that will help them conclude that we have and erosion problem at Red Hill.
The Meadow Environmental Learning Lab integrates learning across the curriculumthat can be evaluated through portfolios, student participation and presentations, tests and quizzes
Humankind has not woven the web of life.We are but one thread within it.Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.All things are bound together.All things connect.Chief Seattle, 1854 Humankind has not woven the web of life.We are but one thread within it.Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.All things are bound together.All things connect.Chief Seattle, 1854 Wetland Meadow, Huntley, VA.
