BATH
RSU 1 students, teachers, administrators and Chewonki instructors and staff members gathered together to celebrate the success of FLOW — Fundamental Learning on Water — over finger food and lively conversation on Tuesday night at Bath City Hall.
The educational outdoor program was launched last fall, and allows RSU 1 eighth graders to experience a fiveday, four-night camping and saltwater canoe trip that is coupled with a focused academic curriculum. This year, students studied water conservation and participated in activities like paddling, map and compass navigation, and tidal studies.
The cost of programming is currently split among the school district, Chewonki and private sectors, making the cost per student affordable so all participants can experience the program without any financial barriers.
This marks the first year of FLOW and RSU 1’s collaboration with Chewonki, but both organizations already have plans to grow and further the program for the future.
“I hope that what we’ve done with FLOW is really only the start of a next step, and my hope is that over many years, we’re able to help marshal more and more resources to the schools and the students and teachers at RSU 1,” said Willard Morgan, the president of Chewonki.
Lawrence Kovacs, a Gifted and Talented teacher at RSU 1, came up with the idea for FLOW and reached out to Chewonki, setting his thoughts into motion.
Kovacs, previously an outdoor instructor, had witnessed the positive effects of students’ interaction with nature and felt it was an important component of education that should be pursued in the school district.
“This gives kids a chance to get outside their comfort zone — either to try something new or be a leader,” he said.
Not only did the FLOW trip help students embrace new experiences, but the diverse student groups also helped break social circles, according to Bath Middle School student Jenny Wilbraham.
“I thought, I know everyone in this school, I know everyone who is going to be on this trip and I’m not going to meet any new people,” she said. “But I saw people for who they actually were.”
Lisa Packard, the director of outdoor classroom programs at Chewonki, also mentioned that this was one of the positive changes she saw in students at the end of the program.
“One of the key pieces of our mission statement is to inspire transformative change, and I think through this, probably more so than any other encampment programs we’ve done, we saw a lot of change in students,” she said.
Patrick Manuel, the superintendent of schools at RSU 1, was also pleased with the program and hoped it would continue to grow.
“It was a very big success for our first year,” he said. “After hearing from our teachers, students and parents, it was well worth it, and I’m proud that we’re a district that has a program like this for all learning curriculums.”
Chewonki and the RSU 1 are continuing to work together to develop the curriculum and make “a great program even better,” according to Packard.
Kovacs said the improvements to next year’s program and curriculum will include a focus on intensive writing.
These writing sessions will include field journals and responses to general prompts, which students will revise and turn into a piece of narrative writing.
Kovacs said they hope to take these narratives and publish an anthology, so that the next celebration of FLOW will essentially be a book release party.
“At the planning sessions, we all felt like this model has potential for excellent longevity, producing a concrete product from the trip and leaving behind a legacy, an anthology to look back on,” he said. “As it becomes part of the landscape of RSU 1, it will be a really cool marker.”
dkim@timesrecord.com
Getting into the FLOW of things
THE EDUCATIONAL outdoor program was launched last fall, and allows RSU 1 eighth graders to experience a five-day, four-night camping and saltwater canoe trip that is coupled with a focused academic curriculum. This year, students studied water conservation and participated in activities like paddling, map and compass navigation, and tidal studies.
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