What is IslandWood? by Pat Guild O'Rourke

What is IslandWood?

Many of the writers for this edition of the New Horizons Journal work at IslandWood, a non-traditional environmental education center located on 255 acres on Bainbridge Island just across the water from Seattle, Washington. We come from many different backgrounds: traditional K-12 teaching, outdoor education work, art therapy and outreach, the natural sciences, university faculties, technology education, the ministry and museum outreach. A commitment to integrated, experiential education and a passion for stewardship and life-long learning brings us together.

IslandWood: A School in the Woods

Overview

IslandWood's primary goal is to help children and adults develop a commitment to life-long learning and environmental and community stewardship. (We define stewardship as action that arises from caring and informed relationships in one's natural and cultural communities.) Using the cultural and natural environment as a context, our programs integrate scientific inquiry, technology, and the arts. Students participate in experiential and inquiry-based fieldwork that appeals to many different learning styles and interests. Operating from sustainably designed facilities, we also serve as a model for energy conservation and community stewardship.

Educational Goals

IslandWood has several educational goals:
· To Support local area school and teacher efforts to improve student learning;
· Help students understand the interconnectedness of all things and their roles within their own communities;
· Create a wondrous place where students take part in inquiry-based projects and outdoor field experiences that engage different learning styles and interests, encouraging life-long learning;
· Empower students to become responsible community citizens by building an understanding of how their actions can make a difference in the world;
· Provide an overnight education experience for students and teachers who would not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in a residential education program; and
· Offer a model for resource conservation and community stewardship by operating from a sustainably designed campus.

Students arriving at IslandWood

During the school year, our primary focus is to provide a School Overnight Program for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students in the Puget Sound region, particularly students who would not ordinarily have an opportunity to come to an overnight program.
· Each week of the school year, approximately 100 students and their teachers live on campus for four days and three nights.
· Students spend a majority of their time participating in outdoor field study projects. They take advantage of state-of-the-art facilities such as multiple learning studios, a fenced garden classroom and greenhouse, "The Living Machine" a waste water treatment facility, a nine element teams/challenge course, and remote field structures including a 92' long suspension bridge, a bird blind at the marsh, a floating classroom on a 4 acre pond, and a tree house 70' above the bog. They visit the estuary and learn about the lumber mill that was located there in the last century. As the largest mill in the world, Port Blakely Harbor was home to Native Peoples, Japanese, and Scandinavians. Students visit the local cemetery to further their understanding of the culture of the area. They learn about the Japanese internment during World War II, which first began on our island.
· During meals and free time, students engage in activities that promote a sense of community through family-style dining, evening programs, and recreational activities.

To deepen and extend the overnight program, our School Partnerships Program supports students and teachers prior to and following their residency on the IslandWood campus.
· IslandWood full-time educators and graduate students visit classrooms in advance to prepare students and teachers for their residency and to link their home classroom curriculum with the IslandWood learning experience.
· Following a school's visit, our School Partnership staff works with students to bring concepts they learned at IslandWood to their home classrooms and help each class identify and design a community project that connects their overnight experience to their own neighborhood.

Professional Development for Teachers

Teachers attending the School Overnight Program with their classes are invited to attend a "Connecting Our Classrooms" workshop in which they are introduced to the IslandWood site and curriculum. Once at the center with their students, teachers have the opportunity to attend two half-day professional development workshops. These workshops are designed to support their professional growth by modeling how we integrate science, technology, and the arts in the curriculum and to develop special skills in these areas.

Tuition, Fundraising, and Scholarships

IslandWood has a commitment to serve students who would not generally have an opportunity for a residential outdoor experience. Working closely with school personnel and the IslandWood Board of Directors, we award scholarships to schools with high percentages of students eligible for free and reduced lunch. Last year we awarded over $160,000 in scholarships to approximately half of the schools that attended our 4-day program.

The Graduate Program

With a belief in the principle that a more sustainable future demands knowledgeable, committed, and reflective educators a graduate program is a vital part of IslandWood's mission. The purpose of the Graduate Program is to train current and future educators to create learning environments that offer every child the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of both cultural and natural communities.

Full-time IslandWood faculty staff members teach 34 graduate credit hours on the Bainbridge campus culminating in a Certificate of Environmental Education from the University of Washington. These graduate credits can also be applied toward graduate study at the University of Washington and other academic institutions. Graduate students work closely with IslandWood faculty to gain practical knowledge as they alternate between academic study and teaching responsibilities in the School Overnight program and partner schools. Graduate students are housed in cabins on the IslandWood campus and a Commons House provides a kitchen, living area, study, and laundry facilities for use by all graduate students. Teachers, community members, non-profit, and environmental professionals seeking to enhance their skills as educators may join the graduate program courses as commuting professionals.

Integrated Curriculum

Our curriculum uses the natural and cultural context at our site and in the students' lives to guided inquiry-based experiences and reflection that encourage students to construct their own understandings. Throughout our integrated curriculum we intentionally accommodate students' various learning styles. We also help students apply their learning through partnerships and service learning projects in their home communities.

Implications and Applications

IslandWood was designed by building on the experiences of many Environmental Education Programs and professionals across the United States. It has the advantage of taking the best practices and applying them in a newly built state-of-the-art facility. We are indeed very fortunate! But ultimately we know that the experience of each individual learner is dependent on the human contact established during the learning experience – the ability to motivate a learner to SEE, FEEL, THINK, CARE, and DO, is what we are all about. We hope that this journal will be a further way for people to network with each other and share their stories. We welcome you to visit IslandWood – in person or on-line at www.islandwood.org

About the author

Pat Guild O'Rourke, Ed.D. is Director of Education of IslandWood. Pat has a 35-year career in education, as a teacher, principal and university faculty member. Her research focuses on learning styles, and she has published 2 books and numerous articles designed to help educators and parents honor diverse ways of learning and teaching. She served in Peace Corps, taught at a university in East Africa, and developed multicultural curriculum materials. For the past 25 years she has worked in teacher education, most recently directing certification programs for Western Washington University. Education: Ed.D. in International Education, M.Ed. in Teacher Education, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; BA, Queens College, NYC. You can email Pat at patgo@islandwood.org

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