In collaboration with the Downeast Coastal Conservancy (DCC), the students and staff at Edmunds Consolidated School (ECS) have developed their first outdoor classroom. Consisting of a trail that winds through an upload conifer forest and travels 500 feet along the Dennys River, the project provides both terrestrial and aquatic learning opportunities to the school's students.
      The idea behind the project was seeded over 20 years ago when DCC first acquired the 10 acre Dennys River Mill Pond parcel, says Colin Brown, DCC's executive director. "The main goal of the property's management plan was to use the area for educational purposes, and we saw ECS as the perfect partner."
      To help accomplish the task, Brown applied for $5,000 in grant funding, supplied by L.L. Bean and administered by the Maine Land Trust Network. DCC won the grant, which funded staff time to help build a trail, acquire lumber for bog bridging, make picnic tables and put up educational signage. "We were thrilled to have been selected as a recipient of the funding and were able to get to work right away with the students."
      In September of last year, ECS teacher Molly Calder took the students in grades 5 through 8 out along the property to scout it out and see where the trail should run. Once the students marked the planned trail with orange flags, Brown and Ryan Mola, DCC's stewardship director, came to cut down the trees while the students cleared branches and raked the trail's surface. "The kids have been excellent to work with," Brown says, praising their eagerness and excitement. "Ryan and I explained safety techniques and really let them lead the way."
      In December, students in the fifth and sixth grades, with DCC's guidance, built a bridge over a ditch to make accessing the trail easier, and students in the seventh and eighth grades built bog bridges over wet and uneven ground.
      "It was great to have the students involved in the design of the trail, as well as the construction," Brown says, "because it seems to have really given them a sense of ownership and pride in the project."
      With the initial trail complete, the outdoor classroom - located just 250 yards away from the school - is visited at least once a week by students, Calder says. "So far, students have done nature journaling, focusing on our five senses to introduce figurative language, and writing poetry. Another time we went and identified tracks in the snow and were able to see a story play out for us of squirrels, snow hares and foxes."
      Since starting the trail project, Calder has won a second grant to put together ready to go backpacks for her students. Each contains a sit pad, magnifying glass, journal, clipboard and orange vest.
      "Outdoor lessons deliver connections and opportunities that a classroom simply cannot," Brown says, emphasizing the importance of being in the natural environment rather than indoors or on a screen. "Whether it's biology, ecology, math, art, language arts, even music - there are always hands on lessons that can be taught outside."
      Student and staff response to the project has been extremely positive - enough so that a second outdoor education classroom has already been started under the guidance of teacher Chris VanOrmer, Calder says. "We want to incorporate as many learning stations as possible in each trail, with as many learning opportunities as possible."
      The development of both outdoor classrooms is being steered by the students involved, Calder says. In the spring, the fifth and sixth grade students will be integrating a ropes course into the first classroom, while seventh and eighth grade students will fine-tune the second classroom's offerings. Plans to acquire cross-country skis and snowshoes are in the works.
      In addition to the learning opportunities the new outdoor classrooms afford, working with conservation groups has its own value, Brown says. "It shows students the importance of land conservation and how conserved lands can directly benefit local communities."