志愿者让理课堂更加生动有趣.docVIP

志愿者让理科课堂更加生动有趣 When it comes to making science fun, Lisa Purcell is a pro. Mimicking an owl or a foraging squirrel is all in a days work for the director of the Four Winds Nature Institute. On this particular morning, she’s training volunteers from three Vermont towns, Shrewsbury, Chittenden and Mendon to teach an elementary school workshop on owls. Purcell and several colleagues founded the Four Winds Nature Institute in 2006. Their school workshops are modeled after a similar program created back in the 1970s by the Vermont Institute of Natural Science. Community-based science education Purcell worked for VINS for years as a science educator. But, she says, as VINS focused more of its energy on building its new headquarters, Purcell and others spun off Four Winds to ensure that the community-based science education program remained strong. Thats especially critical at a time when American teachers are under increasing pressure to fit more standardized instruction into their school day. Science educators say that, too often, the hands-on study of natural sciences can get short-changed. Creative approach Four Winds currently has 1,500 volunteers working in four northeastern states. Shrewsbury resident Connie Youngstrom is one of them. ?We’ve had visits to the stream in the back of our school. Kids always get soaking wet but they love it. Their eyes light up when they get into the stream and turn over rocks to find little crustaceans and little critters under the stones.” The program’s curriculum is designed to comply with the state of Vermont’s science standards. Four Winds charges schools $3,200 to participate. That pays for eight volunteer training sessions and the accompanying teaching materials. Staffers work hard to make the material relevant. ?We know that we want kids to be learning hands on and make discoveries in their own backyard. We’d love it to be something that they’ve walked by for years without noticing it, says Purcell. An