WORK ON UNIQUE OUTDOOR CLASSROOM STARTS

Youngsters wielding shovels and rakes and wheelbarrows transformed a pile of gravel and sand into the beginnings of a small desert plot at Nell Holcomb School Saturday.

The rock and cactus garden is part of Nell Holcomb's outdoor classroom, which, when completed, will include at least 20 different learning stations, an amphitheater and a nature trail.

Nell Holcomb Superintendent David Fuemmeler said the outdoor classroom offers students a chance to put skills they learn in the classroom to work. It is also a project the Nell Holcomb School is particularly suited to undertake.

From an educational standpoint, Fuemmeler said, the outdoor classroom concept makes sense. "When students are doing something hands-on, it makes learning a little more relevant.

"We have about a 15-acre plot here," Fuemmeler said. "We have room to develop those activities."

A master plan for the outdoor classroom project maps all the activities. It will take years to complete. Fuemmeler said he hopes community groups like the 4-H will become involved.

Planning for the outdoor project began in 1990. The school has received two grants totalling $3,800 from the Cape Girardeau County Soil and Water Conservation District through the state Department of Natural Resources.

Much of that money has been spent on supplies needed outdoors like binoculars, shovels, rakes and microscopes.

Mike Frazier, science teacher at Nell Holcomb was an instigator in developing an outdoor classroom. He said: "Our goal for these students is to get them outside. We are privileged here at Nell Holcomb to be able to offer this kind of experience.

"There is a real push in science education for hands-on activities. It reinforces the basic concepts we teach in textbooks and classrooms," Frazier said. "When students can actually do it, they remember."

This spring some plants already growing in the field will be identified and marked.

Frazier said the main trail through the classroom will also be plotted this spring and summer.

"That way people will be able to see where we are planning to develop things over the next six or seven years."

Students will plant particular plants to attract butterflies for future study. A weather observation station is planned.

A small creek runs along the edge of the school property. Students can study water, bank erosion, fish and wildlife.

"We're planning a plot where we would plant a tree each year so students could see the aging process," Fuemmeler said. "We could even bring in an old log so the students could look at decomposition and the weathering process."

Activities are not limited to science, Fuemmeler said. Writing classes can write down what's happening outside, math students can graph and chart and calculate data collected outside, art students and sketch what they see, and music students can develop listening skills.

Saturday's 4-H project was one of the first activities undertaken. Members of the Young American 4-H Club are creating the rock and cactus plot as a service project, said Karen Fornkahl, who works with the 4-H club and is a member of the Nell Holcomb Board of Education.

"We needed something the children could do," Fornkahl said. "We knew Nell Holcomb had the outdoor classroom project under way and decided this was something we could do."

The club received a $332 Building Our American Communities grant from the Missouri Department of Agriculture. The money was used to purchase gravel and sand.

"We will plant native plants, yuccas, prickly pear cactus. We hope it will provide a habitat for reptiles, and it can be used as a geology station for kids," Fornkahl said.

The club also built bird houses and feeders to be donated to the school.

Daniel Taylor, Nell Holcomb school board president, said the project is a good way to get the community involved in the school.

"When the school and community work together, the projects always seem to be better," he said.