Serving at Black Forest Academy: Experiential Learning Week 2023!

What is your fondest memory of a field trip or activity from school where learning was paired with a hands-on experience and fun? What core subject were you exploring?

In 4th grade, we were learning about the state of South Dakota and the lives of pioneer families as they moved west. I remember seeing a re-enactment of a wagon train and exploring everyday life of long ago as we heard how they had to make those essentials that we take for granted, like soap. It sparked an interest to make my own lotions, deoderant and toothpaste years later. I have not tried making soap yet. :)

Every year, our middle school students have the blessing and opportunity to explore learning outside of the classroom during a week in May. We call it our Experiential Learning Week or ELW. At least 2 teachers pair up per grade from 5th to 8th grade to plan field trips and fun learning activities for their students. The goal is to take what students have been learning during the year in their core classes and expound or go deeper in an area. While 5th through 7th grade engage in activities in our local area, the 8th grade class goes on a special trip for 4-5 days. When I first arrived, they traveled to Lugana, Italy but this year, they went to Amsterdam to see Corrie Ten Boom's home, where Anne Frank and her family lived in hiding (8th graders read her diary this year), windmills, an art museum and more.

I helped plan activties for the 7th grade class this year along with another teacher in the middle school. Following, I will share a short synopsis of what we have done and some fun photos. Enjoy!

On Monday, I planned a hike with one of our high school science teachers, Mr. Elkins, who teachers Environmental Science and is a fount of knowledge of the flora and fauna of our local area. We went for a 2 hour hike in our local woods, stopping often as he shared about local plants, trees, fungi and small animals. Students were provided with small paper journals where they could draw the plant along with the name and interesting facts they learned from Mr. Elkins.

After returning to school, we had a break then students chose a plant they would like to learn more about and researched it with a partner. After lunch, we watched a few episodes from a creation series I had received from a generous supporter a few years ago. It's called "Beyond Is Genesis History?"

After watching a few eposides, we chose small cards with different plants, fungi and animals (herbivores, carnivores, etc.) and students worked in pairs again to make a food web.

We finished our Monday with a trip to the local Eis Cafe (Ice cream shop) in Kandern and had some ice cream!

On Tuesday, Mr. Takano began the day with a fun game called '4 on the couch'. Each student was given a number that they could not share with others. They were sitting in chairs arranged in a circle that included a couch. Every other student had a penny on and one chair was empty. One student started by calling a random number between 1 and 16, not their own and that student got up and moved to the empty chair. There were a few other rules and the goal was to get 4 of your team on the couch.

After our fun game, Taco (the kids call him Taco) began our 'Career Day' by talking about what the word prudent means, shared a verse about prudence from Proverbs and shared with students the typical path of education from middle school to high school, then trade school or college or university (some of our students do a gap year or two), to a masters degree and possibly a doctorate. After his introduction, students completed a free career test online, then researched the top three careers that were chosen based on their results. For the rest of the morning, they investigated these career ideas, created a presentation and ended our morning by sharing their short presentation with the rest of the class. After lunch, we watched the movie, Ratatouille, then played in the gym until the end of the day.

Wednesday, had us traveling about an hour and a half to Winterthur, Switzerland where there is a phenominal hands-on science museum called Technorama. In this museum, there are three floors of small stations where students can explore magnetism, light, sound, optical issusions, and so much more! There are also options for classes to take for groups and I signed us up for a biology class where students explored looking through a microscope, how to focus, preparing a slide for the microscope and had options of different items to look at from rotting leaves to a pillow animal, small slices of vegetables, and more! After the class, we had lunch then students had the rest of our time at the museum to explore in small groups before heading back to Kandern.