Centreville Layton students grow their own classroom

A student’s voice rings out from the streambed at Centreville Layton School’s native outdoor teaching space: “I found a dragonfly larva!”

The student, a sixth-grader named Garrett, is surrounded by classmates examining a tiny aquatic insect on a large wet stone.

“That’s the third one today! Can somebody record it?” he asks, prompting several friends to reach for their field notebooks.

At Centreville Layton, science class is coming alive for students.

Thanks to a new partnership with Mt. Cuba Center, students at Centreville Layton head outside every day to the stream and newly planted forest on the school property. There they learn to observe the environment with a scientific eye as they monitor, measure and study their surroundings.

“Learning in our outdoor teaching space gives kids a good idea of where they stand in the world, and teaches them the importance of habitat diversity,” explains Sam Armstrong, a science teacher at Centreville Layton.

The renovation of the outdoor teaching space is Armstrong’s brainchild.

Experiential learning is a valuable tool for today’s students. It wraps many educational methods into one experience. For instance, students can become proficient in data collection and graphing as they monitor insect populations. Take those teaching techniques outdoors and the students get the context and experience to understand basic science principles.

For years, Armstrong looked out on an overgrown area at the back of the school’s property and envisioned a place where students could really dig in and study the local habitat. The ground was a tangle of vines and exotic plants, the stream banks were eroding and the pond was silted and choked with algae.

Making the area safe and suitable for students would require major clearing and replanting, and Armstrong knew the project was too big for him alone.

Last spring Armstrong contacted Nathan Shampine, Mt. Cuba Center’s natural lands manager, for advice on how to revert the land back to its native state, thus improving stream water quality and better supporting plant and animal species.

“Nate was the right person to turn to,” Armstrong says. “He was on board from the start and brought great ideas, enthusiasm and resources to the project.”

As managers of Mt. Cuba Center’s 530 acres of natural habitat, Shampine and his staff are continually working to remove exotic species and replant with native ones. The job at Centreville Layton, therefore, was right up their alley.

Armstrong and Shampine developed a plan that included the school’s students and science teachers, and Mt. Cuba Center’s natural lands staff.

Shampine designed the site to include a wide range of plant diversity and seasonal interest throughout the year so it would support many different plants and animals for the students to observe. Armstrong worked to raise money for the project, while students learned how to identify native and exotic species and how to map the area.

Shampine and his staff came to the school in the summer with heavy equipment to clear the land of invasive species and chop down exotic cherry trees that dotted the hillside.

In September, teachers and students worked with Shampine’s staff to install 715 plants, lay pathways and build deer cages. The team even took advantage of the felled cherry trees, which were chipped to mulch the pathways.

The result is the completion of the first phase of the land’s transformation. Subsequent phases will address other habitat areas, including turning the current pond into a freshwater wetland. Now that the teaching space is operational, Armstrong reports that teachers from other disciplines are beginning to get involved.

“I hope that the habitat will become a place for all types of learning to take place. I’ve started working with the social studies, art and literature teachers to encourage them to use the outdoor space to make curriculum connections for their students,” he adds. “Nature is a great teacher.”

Shampine agrees.

“Not only did we create impact environmentally, but more importantly we impacted how kids think about the outdoors. Through projects like these we can create future environmentalists and that’s core to Mt. Cuba Center’s mission,” he explains.

Educational offerings at Mt. Cuba Center focus on ecological gardening practices that sustain natural habitats and support native flora and fauna.

“Sam’s enthusiasm for learning and his ideas for the project align so well with our goals,” Shampine continues. “We saw a chance to create ambassadors for native gardening and to extend Mt. Cuba Center’s influence beyond our boundaries.”

For the students, the results are both concrete and intangible.

For example, Garrett and his fellow sixth-graders have learned about the importance of native and non-native plants, how to measure water quality and stream health and how to construct wire deer cages. But there are also life lessons, which, although they can’t be graded, are equally valuable.

“Working together in a group has its own set of challenges, but it’s really fun,” Garrett says.

For Armstrong, the entire experience is a win.

“I want this teaching space to provide great learning opportunities for years in the future. My hope is that experiences here will help the students grow, not only academically, but personally, so that they understand the need to conserve our natural resources.”

Nature's Landscapes is a monthly column by Mt. Cuba Center that focuses on the native plants of the Piedmont region, which lies between the Atlantic coastal plain and the Appalachians, stretching from New York to Alabama. Today's column is written by Leslie Hubbard, public engagement coordinator at Mt. Cuba Center.