It’s early August, but you wouldn’t know it by the buzz of student activity at CiTi BOCES. In one classroom, students are studying shoreline erosion along Lake Ontario using painted pebbles. Next door, students have built water filters to trap microplastics, and just down the hall, students are creating videos to highlight lake wildlife.
Meet the new Guardians of Lake Ontario, a group of 70 Oswego County fourth- and fifth-graders who are attending the Guardians of Lake Ontario Sanctuary Camp, a week-long, hands-on summer camp at CiTi BOCES in Mexico, New York.
Funded by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the camp is designed to raise awareness about this national marine sanctuary.
But the camp also serves as an authentic learning lab, where students get to choose from nine different camp themes, each of which is rooted in real-world issues and features a high degree of project-based learning and problem-solving.
Each unit was designed by local educators, whose own curiosities were awakened during three days of professional development hosted by CiTi BOCES. The goal of the training was to help educators incorporate more authentic learning experiences into their classrooms, in preparation for the transition to New York’s new Portrait of a Graduate framework.
During an Inspiration Day at Sterling Nature Center, K-12 educators from across the region heard from a dozen different speakers who addressed everything from the lake’s Native American history to its distinct meteorology.
“We learned about the shipwrecks, which really caught my attention because I had no idea that there were hundreds of shipwrecks at the bottom of Lake Ontario, and I’ve lived in Central New York my entire life,” said fifth-grade teacher Caroline Wilkinson, a member of the Mexico Academy Central School Faculty Association. “Instantly I was hooked, and I thought, ‘I think I can hook the kids, too.’”
Wilkinson introduced her students to the lake’s maritime history and used VR headsets to explore the sunken ships. Then they took what they’d learned to theorize about the causes of the so-called “Mystery Ship,” a fully intact 19th century schooner that was discovered on the lake bottom last year, Wilkinson said.
After Inspiration Day, Beth Holden, a math and ELA teacher and member of Mexico Academy CSFA, decided to focus on microplastics. During a field trip, Holden and her students took water samples and examined them with magnifying glasses. Using brine shrimp, she demonstrated how microplastics disperse throughout the food web. Then, she held a town hall, where students posed as business owners, lake visitors, and wildlife to debate the future of plastic.
Educators say authentic learning experiences are a powerful tool. “Students are learning more than I would have planned for them, because they are excited and engaged,” said math teacher Amy Engle, Mexico Academy CSFA, who led the unit on shoreline erosion.
Marissa Ackerman and Kristen Clapp, whose unit on lake ecosystems featured nature hikes, species identification, and journaling, say they already have plans to bring these activities back to their own classrooms this fall, and they hope that the shift to the more interdisciplinary Portrait of a Graduate will leave more room for science, and perhaps more importantly, student choice.
Clapp, a fifth-grade teacher and member of the Oswego Classroom Teachers Association, lamented the lack of time devoted to science. “If we had more time and resources to bring in cool artifacts, trips, and experiences, I think it would be very beneficial for our students.”
Ackerman, of Hannibal FA, agreed. “Science is so important and there’s just not enough time allotted for it,” she said. “I think it could really lead to some successful things if adults had more choice in our day, and we could give extra choice to kids.”