By Lauren Dolan, 5th Grade Teacher at BWES
Students and teachers in grades 2 through 5 at BWES worked together with Mrs. Babcock from the Wild and Scenic Westfield River group to engage in an in-depth study of local watersheds during an exciting new watershed unit. Throughout the three-week unit, students participated in six learning stations — twice per week — throughout the afternoon. Students were organized into cross-grade groups and rotated through stations: Maps and Mapmaking, Stream Table, Weather and Erosion, Exploring Yokum Brook, the Water Cycle, and Watershed Vocabulary.
In Maps and Mapmaking, students learned how to read maps and how to use a compass. In Weather and Erosion, students participated in hands-on activities, such as sanding down rocks and using sediment to observe erosion in action. In the Water Cycle, students learned that the water they drink today could be up to one billion years old, thanks to Earth’s efficient water cycle. During the Exploring Yokum Brook station, students went down to the stream to observe the local river ecosystems firsthand.
These activities made the learning educational and fun, allowing students to learn by doing. Many students found this approach more effective than reading from a textbook. Elliot, a 3rd-grader, shared that he learned “Falling trees make shelter and stabilize banks and rivers.” This unit connected science standards for grades 2 through 5 while exploring our own school backyard.
The Watershed unit was a positive experience for the students. Vivian, a 5th-grader, said, “I liked how the stream table was interactive, and each week built on the other. The first week we learned about the basic parts, and by the final week we were adding vegetation and animals and seeing what happens to the watershed when vegetation grows and animals arrive.” Amelia said that she enjoyed “how the school community came together and had different grades in all of the groups. Interacting with each other and helping the younger students made the learning more effective because I could explain to them if they did not understand.” All of the six stations fit together. Aliyah, also a 5th-grader, said, “We learned words in the Vocabulary station that were being used in other stations to give us a deeper understanding.”
Overall, the hands-on activities gave students an engaging way to learn about nature. As Principal West noted, this new approach to science was designed to “make learning fun and connect the school community.”
