Published: October 04, 2008 10:45 pm         

Students learn outside school walls

Eighth-graders at Central Middle School used the city of Kokomo as their classroom for a recent project, visiting the Elwood Haynes Museum, Jackson-Morrow Park, the city wastewater treatment plant and other sites.

The end result of their study will be a classroom the students will donate back to the city, housed in the Kirkendall Interpretive Center at Jackson-Morrow Park.

Teachers Pat O’Brien and Vickie Linehan developed the project after attending a teachers’ workshop hosted by the Hoosier Environmental Council, which gives funds to teachers for projects that take students out of the traditional classroom and into their communities.

In planning the project, the teachers visited each site they wanted to include, and heard from people that there were lots of activities in Kokomo for adults, but few educational activities available for upper elementary and middle school students.

“Lightbulbs went on,” Linehan said, and they agreed their students would create materials for an interactive classroom for students, such as topographical maps, board games, posters and a travel brochure highlighting things of interest to young people in Kokomo. They’re also going to produce a video to place in the classroom, which they hope to equip with a television and video player.

“Our goal is for our kids to come up with activities for students their age and then give it back to the park for other students,” she said.

They learned math standards by taking measurements of the circumference of the Sycamore Stump, Old Ben and the Vermont bridge, using 6-inch rulers, and English standards are covered by writing the travel brochures, which they hope to place at the visitors’ bureau. Also, students took water quality samples at Highland Park. Linehan said they cannot take samples where Wildcat Creek runs behind the school because the water is too deep and there’s no good entry point there.

O’Brien said many of the students knew that Kokomo is called the “City of Firsts,” but they did not know why. As part of their history lesson, they learned where that name came from and about many of the firsts credited to Kokomo residents.

Students worked on the project in the afternoons after ISTEP testing in the mornings.

She said the grant money she and Linehan received is being used to outfit the classroom, to build shelves and drawers and add a sink and other amenities. She said other Central teachers, including industrial technology teacher Chad Spugnardi, have become involved. Spugnardi is going to plumb the sink and help build shelves, she said. English teachers Leslie Lewis and Joy Devlin worked on the travel brochure in their classes. O’Brien said this shows students what they learn in one class can be applied in another.

“It’s a whole eighth-grade team project.”

Linehan said the students’ projects have hit on state standards for eighth-graders. For example, in her science class, students made topographic maps of Kokomo. In studying the geology of the area, she said, they learned that there used to be sea scorpions in Kokomo, which they found exciting because Central’s mascot is a scorpion.

“It hits any eighth-grade standard. We’re hitting them all across the board.”

Danielle Rush may be reached at (765) 454-8585 or via e-mail at danielle.rush@kokomotribune.com

     

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