The Outdoor Learning Project, a committee of the Rotary Club of Falmouth Cape Cod, highlights one teacher or staff each month featuring their outdoor learning lesson. Staff members are encouraged to self-submit their lessons for recognition and receive a $100 cash card as a thank you for featuring their outdoor lesson.
For the month of September, we are highlighting Kate Skehill, a veteran 3rd grade teacher with 19 years of experience at East Falmouth Elementary School.
The interdisciplinary lesson: “The Power of Flowers: Trait Variation, Inheritance, and Artificial Selection” covered standards in Math, Science, Social Studies, Cooperative Learning, Listening, Speaking and Productive Debate. The lesson took place in the gorgeous courtyard at the school. They explored answering the question: “Why are some apples red and some green?” through their senses and observation. The students also explored how are the apples color, texture, and taste similar and different through taste testing and observations under the microscopes. Students collected data and graphed student preferences among Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, Golden Delicious, and Red Delicious. The students had lots of fun learning, exploring, tasting, and debating!
When asked what Ms. Skehill enjoyed most about this outdoor lesson, she told us that, “I love watching the excitement of students when learning to use scientific tools! They are so engaged! Working on social skills like forming opinions, justifying their thinking, LISTENING to opinions that differ from their own, and taking turns all while learning the subject matter and having FUN just can't be beat!” The students also loved the lesson! “They know they are real scientists and feel it when using the microscopes. Also, third graders love anything to do with food. They had such great questions about how apples have changed in the last hundred years!”
Congratulations to Ms. Skehill!
Learn more about the Falmouth Outdoor Learning Project at: https://www.falmouthoutdoorlearningproject.com/
