8th graders spent last Friday morning on an action-packed Winter Expedition featuring Alaskan storytelling, winter shelter building,

and one-match fires. Not your typical school day, right?

 

For the students at Vergennes Union Middle School (VUMS), it might

just be. That’s because VUMS is an Expeditionary Learning school: a member of an educational initiative based on Outward Bound’s founder Kurt Hahn’s educational philosophy and used in classrooms to inspire authentic, inquiry-based learning that happens in the community throught field work with local experts. Though Expeditionary Learning is not an outdoor challenge or program like Outward Bound, both programs are linked by the belief that students can excel in educational challenges that allow for their growth as learners and individuals. Expeditionary Learning is partnered with 150 schools around the country, including VUMS.

 

Team Millennium, one of four middle school teams at VUMS, is focusing on winter for its expeditionary learning. On January 5th, the team journeyed out to the Willowell Land, where students from Vergennes Union High School’s Walden Project taught them how to build winter shelters, light one-match fires, and keep themselves warm and dry during a winter trek.

“The day was a huge success,” said Team Millennium’s Science teacher Chris Oxley. “The stories from the day drove home for me how relevant it is for kids to do something as benign as crossing a stream. Who would have thought that something so simple could become such a memory?”

 

Team Millennium’s trip to the Willowell land in Monkton is one of many place-based education initiatives taking place there this year, as part of the Willowell Foundation’s mission to make its property available for area teachers interested in place-based learning.

 

“We were thrilled to support Team Millennium’s Expedition this past Friday,” said Emily Watson-Blagden, Willowell Foundation AmeriCorps VISTA member and Walden Project staff-person. “It’s so important to connect students’ learning with the world around them, and in Vermont that means the winter world for much of the year.”

 

From now until mid-February, Team Millennium’s 7th and 8th grade students will learn about and engage in many outdoor activities, including winter shelter building, orienteering, ice-fishing, trapping, tracking, winter camping, and snow shoeing. They will visit the Willowell Land again in February.

 

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