Charleston Collegiate adds outdoor classroom
This fall, Charleston Collegiate School added an outdoor classroom to its curriculum. The Charleston Collegiate Outdoor Education Center helps students discover the natural world discussed in their science classes.
The school maintains the outdoor classroom and nature trail in the pine woods on undeveloped property on campus. A dock was built to allow students access to a blackwater swamp to obtain research samples. Students from the Lower School and the Upper School use the outdoor classroom for various activities.
Collegiate is using the new outdoor classroom in conjunction with an environment-oriented curriculum from Project Learning Tree, which promotes and installs outdoor classrooms nationwide. The philosophy is to incorporate the hands-on experience of the physical characteristics of science. The curriculum includes low ropes courses and team-building activities.
"I feel Project Learning Tree is a great avenue to get students excited about nature and into the outdoor classroom," said Jodie Haynie, the Lower School teacher in charge of Project Learning Tree at Collegiate. The outdoor classroom allows experimentation and observation to occur in the natural world instead of a re-creation of the natural world within an indoor classroom, she said.
CCS classrooms get Smartboards
Technological upgrades have been made to the CCS campus this school year. The campus is completely wireless.
Middle and Upper School students are encouraged to bring laptops to school. This new feature creates a mock-college environment on campus, so students have a chance to become comfortable with using laptops regularly in an academic setting.
Technology now can be more personalized because older students have a chance to use their personal computers. Lower School students have a chance to join in the buzz by using mini laptops donated by a Lower School parent.
Another addition to the campus' technological sphere is Promethean Boards, or Smartboards, which are being used in a number of Collegiate classrooms. These educational tools allow teachers to use technological devices to communicate with their students.
"Active Expressions are used, which are student response keypads to select answers to work displayed on the boards and to take quizzes," said Esta Farmer, head of the Lower School.
Useful programs demonstrating prefix wheels, global studies and interactive spelling can be used on the Promethean Board.
Media classes stream online
The Middle School media and film classes at Charleston Collegiate have begun streaming their films online.
Both media and film classes have been popular electives for middle school students with the growth of amateur digital film creation and editing. Now, students will have a chance to share their creations with the Charleston Collegiate community.
Their projects are available for viewing on the ustream.tv Web site at www.ustream.tv/channel/wccs-morning-news. Although the work of Middle School and Upper School film classes has been shown during CCS Fine Arts Week in previous years, there has never been an opportunity for public viewing.
Middle school film and media classes are the basic versions of the Upper School film class and club that have been available for about the past decade, said middle school film teacher Will O'Donnell. It has been used as a means for younger students to become involved in the popular amateur filmmaking culture so important to Charleston Collegiate, and it also lets students prepare for their Upper School film classes, he said.
"The significance of the film program is to give CCS students an advanced education in every aspect of film production," O'Donnell said.
"I start the students in the basics of editing in my middle school media class and then turn them over to Mr. (Randy) Neale, who refines their film appreciation and sharpens their editing and post-production skills."
Got feedback? Reach our young journalists through their editors at hmcleod@postandcourier.com or jkleine@postandcourier.com or comment at www.postandcourier.com/yourlowcountry.
