This refrain from an old spiritual could be the theme for innovative middle school programs
that are toppling the traditional boundaries separating classroom from home, schoolhouse from
community. When education ventures beyond the school building, book learning becomes brook
learning. And workplace learning. And neighborhood learning. It's the ultimate in hands-on: letting
students take their hands—and minds—into the community to work on real projects with real
consequences for the quality of their lives.
Here's a look at a few such programs and projects:
SLAM DUNK. An Oregon
middle school found a way to tie learning to a passion of many middle schoolers: professional
basketball. When the Oregon Arena Project began breaking ground a few years ago for the $260
million sports complex in Portland, teachers and students at Calapooia Middle School in Albany
used the project as a live learning laboratory. With support from the Portland Trail Blazers, the Oregon
Department of Education, and other state and local organizations, Calapooia developed curriculum
packets loaded with all kinds of activities related to the building project. Using the packets, kids
at more than 250 Oregon schools learned about blueprints, tower cranes, building codes, construction
garbage, and lots of other construction details. Activities included:
Calculating the minimum number of toilets, sinks, and drinking fountains the building should have
to meet state building codes based on building occupancy
Investigating the special safety measures designed by arena architects and
engineers to prevent earthquake damage to the building
Investigating the composition and stability of sediment under the building and predicting the
effects of various strengths of earthquakes
Determining the percentage of home games versus road games of the National Basketball Association's
Trail Blazer team
Calculating how many dump truck loads were needed to haul away the dirt excavated for the arena
Determining how many loads it would take for a tower crane to lift 45 tons of steel
To help Calapooia kids develop the packets, the Trail Blazers provided construction blueprints,
heavy equipment models, team statistics, recycling plans, traffic management plans, and other materials.
Teacher Diane Smith, who spearheaded the project, says real-life connections bring
learning alive for students. "Being able to associate schoolwork with an NBA team like the Portland Trail Blazers
was an obvious bonus," Smith said at the project's inception in late 1993. "We hope to give students
a taste of what different careers are like and the wide variety of career options open to them."
For more information, call Diane Smith at West Albany High School, (541) 967-4545.
RED WRIGGLERS. Garbage-eating
worms. Solar-powered ovens. These are just two of many earth-friendly topics that middle school
students in the Bend-La Pine School District cover in an environmental program that links learning
with lifestyles.
The Central Oregon district's sixth-graders learn how to make responsible choices about garbage,
water, energy, and consumption in their own lives. A structured action program, Journey for the Planet,
developed by Global Action Plan of Woodstock, New York, guides students toward
lifestyle changes that preserve resources and reduce pollution. A workbook directs
students on a journey toward preservation and protection of the Earth.
"To me, the journeys proved that one little person can make a huge difference," says Carly
Hood, a student at Pilot Butte Middle School.
Besides directing students toward personal change, the program pulls in people from the
wider community. For example:
AmeriCorps members lead in-class experiments, such as analyzing oxygen content in local water sources.
The owner of a local recycling company visits classrooms with his "red wrigglers"—a bin of
garbage-eating worms that compost food scraps and paper. After students touch the worms and ask
questions, an AmeriCorps member helps them build their own worm bin from recycled cookie
containers. Students watch the worms over time as they reproduce and turn garbage into usable
compost.
A university extension agent brings a solar cooker to class, and explains how
other fuels deplete resources.
Asserts Carly Hood: "We want to save the world so that the next generation can share what
we shared."
For more information, contact Linda "Bo" Hanson, a science teacher at Bend High
School, (541) 383-6324 or (541) 383-6290.
GENDER BENDERS When
girls reach adolescence, their self-esteem often plunges and their aspirations falter, according to recent
studies by the American Association of University Women and others. What's more, they typically see
few female role models in the fields of math, science, and engineering—fields that offer high salaries
and prestige in an increasingly technology-based economy.
To encourage adolescent girls to set their sights high and to consider careers in math and
science, the Saturday Academy at the Oregon Graduate Institute for Science and Technology is hooking
girls up with mentors and role models. College women specializing in math or science and professional
women working in related fields are lending their support and experience through Advocates for Women in
Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (AWSEM), designed and funded by the National Science
Foundation.
In partnership with Portland businesses and universities, the project lets girls from four
Portland-area middle schools and three high schools see science and math in action. For example,
one role model, Monique Johnson, a graduate student in biochemistry and molecular biology, recently
took several groups of girls through the laboratory at the Graduate Institute.
"Students can actually see that what they study in class is part of a real job," Johnson
says. "During the presentation I did for the kids, I talked about cloning genes. A girl said, 'You
actually do that?' She was incredulous that she could meet someone who actually does
that.
"We had them do a few different lab procedures. We had them wear the coat and the goggles
and the gloves. At first they were kind of afraid, and then they just thought it was cool."
For more information, call (503) 690-1261.
--Lee Sherman Caudell REALITY CHECK. Spreading the word about
innovative, community-based middle school programs is the mission of a new federally funded project.
Called Reality Check, it seeks to put staff from successful programs in touch with those who want to
start similar efforts.
The reason? "Linking middle school kids with community resources is a very effective
way of improving academic skills," says Dr. Larry McClure, project administrator and director of
the Education and Work Program at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. A growing
number of Northwest middle schools are implementing job shadowing, service learning, mentoring,
Internet resources, and other methods of linking schools with the broader community to achieve
various learning objectives.
Reality Check provides a flexible, direct means of sharing promising practices to improve teaching
and learning and encourage systemic change. At the core of Reality Check is a Peer Assistance Network,
now under construction. Peer consultants are put in direct touch with other middle schools and
communities. Over a period of months, teachers, administrators, and community volunteers will work with
requesting sites either in person, at either site, or by phone, mail, e-mail, or teleconference.
"It's putting the people who do it with the people who want to do it," McClure says. "We're
just an intermediary." Twenty consultants have been identified representing a spectrum of teaching
and learning approaches. In the second year of the project, the number of consultants will increase
to 50.
Similarly, School/Work Action Teams (SWAT), rather than individuals, will be used to
address school or districtwide middle school/community connections. Reality Check will identify
exemplary middle schools from urban, rural, and suburban areas to match with sites that want
to embark on a consulting relationship lasting a year or more. Consulting teams can include school personnel
as well as people from the community or other agencies. NWREL staff will also join SWAT teams
when needed. Reality Check will pay for some travel and communications costs, but the requesting
site or district will usually be expected to cover most expenses.
During the first year, Reality Check is focusing on the state of Washington. In the
second year, the program will expand to the five-state Pacific Northwest region. Plans call for
partnerships with the National Middle School Association and school-to-work organizations as
well as national dissemination of the model.
In addition to facilitating the consulting process, Reality Check will provide quarterly research
updates for program administrators and policymakers on community partnerships and curriculum
integration; maintain an item bank of assessment tools for applied learning; and provide a
materials and media resource center containing print materials, videotapes,
and software available for onsite review and loan. A newsletter available on the Reality Check
home page (http://www.nwrel.org/edwork/reality/) shares promising practices.
You can nominate your school for the Reality Check database by contacting Larry
McClure, Reality Check, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 101 SW Main,
Suite 500, Portland, OR 97204, phone: 503-275-9597, fax: 503-275-0443 or 800-547-6339
ext. 597 (8:30-5 p.m. PST), e-mail: mcclurel@nwrel.org.
"And the walls came tumbling down."