Program Combines Academics with Real World Project

Expeditionary Learning (EL) is a comprehensive K-12 educational design that combines rigorous academic content and real world projects -- learning expeditions -- with active teaching and community service. It focuses on teaching in an engaging way.
 
Tori Hirner, a third grade teacher at Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy, said her students are on a learning expedition focused on health and fitness. Every subject she teaches, from reading to math to science to social studies, is focused toward this topic, and it has motivated her students to learn. 

Hirner said she is amazed at how she has been able to work her curriculum around this topic. For example, one of their standard science units focuses on the plant and animal life cycle. So to center it around health, the students also learned about what food animals give us and the health aspects of animals, their life cycles, and their habitats. They visited a dairy farm and talked about the nutritional value of dairy products.

"This has created a whole new world for us," Hirner said. "It is very fun. The kids thrive. They are motivated. They go home and tell their parents about everything they've learned and they start using that knowledge in every day life."

For example, Hirner said parents told her that their children are checking nutrition labels and looking at ingredients on food they buy at the grocery store.

Another aspect of the EL model involves students creating a product. For their health section of the expedition, the students created a sandwich that will become a part of a local restaurant's menu.

"All of the research we have been doing has been fueled by this idea of making a healthy sandwich," Hirner said.

The project also promotes building relationships within the community, which is something Hirner said her school has always worked toward.

The fitness part of the students' expedition will include, among other things, learning about the simple machines that make exercise equipment work. They will study pulleys and wheels, and their end product will be an exercise video.

A week of intensive training before the start of school prepared the school's staff to jump into the EL process, and supplemental inservices have been provided throughout the year as well. A majority of EL professional development takes place at the school site, although there are some national summits, seminars, and courses offered to staff as well.

A teacher for seven years, Hirner said the EL design has completely changed the classroom for her, in a good way.

"For me it does involve more prep work and research, but it also makes me more excited," she said. "As a teacher when you stay in the same grade level each year, you have the same basic curriculum. So this changes things for me. And it has made an amazing difference for the kids."