The links between a school and the community in which it resides are often tenuous; rarely do students spend time exploring the community as a class, and likewise rarely do others make their way into the building. We are excited at Cedar Secondary to try to build more connections through place based education over the coming school year. With the support of SET-BC we have two projects planned that will help our students to appreciate some of the culture and landscape of our region, and help other people in the community to appreciate the efforts and abilities of our students.
The first project, which is quickly coming to fruition, will see an Earth Science and Photography class come together to create a resource and presentation which connects students to some local geological features. We will take a field trip throughout the region where Earth Science students will see some of the things they have studied in the real world. Photography students will produce images of select features, which will be combined with the research to create presentations. We are excited to share these, with the community at an exhibition of learning, with local grade three students in presentations to class, and with the world on instagram, using GeoStories through the Geological Survey of Canada.
The second project, which will take place mostly in the Spring semester, will likewise take students on a field trip through the community, this time following the Nanaimo Poetry Map, which has geo-tagged poems throughout the region. At the location, students will read and respond to the poems and begin to compose their own. Wherever students choose to set their place-based poem, they will also take a photograph of the location which represents that place to them. The poems will be submitted to the Nanaimo Poetry Map.
Both of these projects will provide opportunities for students (and teachers!) to stretch their creativity and spend an extended period of time doing excellent work. Students will be able to revise and improve their work, share it in a public way, and utilize new technology all while exploring our community and building new connections to it. Suffice it to say, we are very excited to see what they will be able to do!
