Fort Lewis College launched its “Educators on the Water” program this summer as a way to help teachers develop experiential and place-based learning curriculum.
The “Educators on the Water” program takes local educators on a five-day float trip down the San Juan River. On this year’s June expedition, teachers from Southwest Colorado and northwest New Mexico maneuvered the 27-mile stretch from Bluff, Utah, to Mexican Hat, Utah, on a fleet of rafts and paddle boards.
Funded through the Durango Industrial Development Foundation Workforce Development grant and in partnership with FLC’s School of Education, the pilot program was offered at a significant discount and allowed participants to earn graduate credit for the course, according the college.
FLC received 250,000 in funding when the DIDF disbanded in February for workforce development.
While the trip may sound like a way for teachers to hang out and blow off some steam before the start of the school year, the program teaches educators how to use outdoor experiences in their traditional curriculum.
A science teacher can use the river as a way to educate students about the physics of streamflow, said FLC Senior Lecturer of Adventure Education Eli Shostak. There was also a cultural aspect to the trip where the educators studied Native American rock art along the river.
Shostak said that could be an opportunity to have students write about the cultural significance of the artwork in English class.
Experiential and place-based learning have become a growing trend in the state. Place-based learning is an instructional approach that uses the local community and the environment as a starting point to teach concepts across the curriculum.
Experiential learning has been heralded as a way to keep students engaged and in attendance in Colorado while also helping with learning retention – especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic relegated many students to their computer and phones to learn. Screen time had already been a pre-pandemic problem but Shostak said it was exacerbated by students being forced to learn in that setting.
“Especially post-COVID, students are super restless in the classroom, having to just sit there and listen,” said Bruce Saxman, another FLC Senior lecturer of Adventure Education. “Any active, experiential learning can really reinforce what they’re learning at their desks. But teaching outside the classroom can be tough, and this experience showed how to handle curveballs like bad weather while still meeting educational objectives.”
Shostak said experiential learning addresses different learning styles in a holistic manner.
Lorien Chambers Schuldt, chair and associate professor of Teacher Education at FLC, said the workforce developing program enhances educators' teaching skills and provides them with much-needed respite from a regular classroom.
Educators also learned about the importance of risk-management and mindfulness on the trip. The educators would participate in a morning meditation followed by a journal session where they would write down their thoughts after meditating.
“The journal assignment after a meditation explored how mindfulness can help us not only manage risk better but also tune into what’s going on in these outdoor spaces,” Shostak said.
Chambers Schuldt said the college is always looking for unique ways to create professional learning opportunities.
“Anything that is concrete and feels relevant to learners is likely to be something that is more meaningful, and therefore, it's something that they're interested in learning,” she said of the teachers’ experience.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
