Gallery

A Perspective Story as an Owl

Perspective Stories ask students to image themselves as any organism found at IslandWood. Owls are a frequent visitor to campus and are a popular topic with students. This student chose to take on this nocturnal perspective and even included an annotated drawing of an owl hunting.

Collaboration

During a meet and greet, 3 teams representing 3 schools, met for the first time and in small groups discussed what collaboration meant to them. That discussion resulted in this list, and was entirely student generated. Collaboration is a major theme at IslandWood, and comes into play constantly for students. Having this shared discussion with new friends helped to build bridges as common sentiments were expressed. Living and Learning in Community in Action!

Team Lightning completes their Path Map

On their final day at IslandWood, students of Team Lightning complete their Path Map. This element encircles their Community Agreement at the center of the paper. Students complete the Path Map by drawing connections between stewardship and the activities and places they visited while at IslandWood.

Notices and Wonders

One of the first activities I ask of students is for them to make observations. This takes the form of "I notice, I wonder and It reminds me of..." By engaging in a new environment with a variety of senses, this can help orient students to a new environment as well as begin to build connections with this new place. This becomes part of the building blocks for developing stewardship towards the environment and community.

Student Investigation Journal Pages

On the Left page, Investigation data sheet by a student focused on What is the relationship between IslandWood and bugs? Locations searched were trees, water and logs; the average number of bugs found were 3, 6 and 4 respectively. When asked what tools the student would want for a subsequent investigation, they suggested magnifying glass and shovel or trowel. On the Right page, Questions written by a student during a visit to the Marsh. Utilizing the Question Formulation Technique students were prompted to develop a full page of questions without pausing to answer or contemplate them.

Bird Investigation Journal Pages

A student's journal pages on their investigation for evidence of birds around the Marsh. The original focus was to search for bird tracks, after not finding any tracks the students decided to expand their search to include more types of evidence such as nests, hearing songs/calls as well as bird scat.

Canopy Tower Ascent

Here I am leading a student group up the 119 foot tall canopy tower. I like to slowly lead groups up the 191 steps for a few reasons. First is to access their comfort level, ensuring that students are feeling safe as well as helping to minimize the natural movement that our feet cause in the tower. Second is to remind students to notice how the trees are changing as we climb through the different layers of the canopy. This structure provides opportunities to discuss climate, photosynthesis, watersheds as well as provide physical orientation to our location on Bainbridge Island.

Worms and the Rain

Day one at IslandWood for these students was extremely wet. This created an opportunity to see and talk about worms! This photo was taken within the first 30 minutes of meeting these students, and our first trail proved to have a bounty of worms to learn from. The student about to hold the worm in this photo became a strong advocate for worms, consistently picking them up from the trail away from our feet. Student-led stewardship in action!

A Pond as described by Students

Students verbally described components of a pond and I transcribed their descriptions on the whiteboard. Every organism and abiotic factor was from the students. Impressively, all of these factors were described before the team had visited the pond at IslandWood; so everything they provided was entirely generated from prior knowledge. I utilized this to assess their knowledge of a pond ecosystem before we visited for an investigation.

Photosynthesis via Comic Strip

This was a collaborative arts project from an Arts Integration course. I worked with 3 fellow environmental education graduate students tasked with explaining Photosynthesis by our choice of Visual Arts Medium. We chose to make a comic strip, hoping to increase the accessibility of the complex phenomenon of photosynthesis.

Van Hoosear Wildflower Preserve

Van Hoosear Wildflower Preserve is located in Sonoma, California. This beautiful private property is carefully managed to preserve native species. As my culminating AmeriCorps Independent Service Project, I investigated the occurrence of the invasive plant Parentucellia viscosa, or yellow gland weed. I organized a volunteer workday for removing this non-native plant, it was a huge success, we removed 50 lbs. in a few hours! Many thanks to the volunteers who donated their time for stewardship of their community!

another beautiful California coastline