Woodland students on the move

Winter can be long, especially for energetic students. When opportunities to go outside are diminished, so are opportunities to move. Eighth-grade social studies teacher Audrey Wilkinson found a creative way to get her students moving and learning.

Wilkinson set up sources of information all along a hallway about what explorers Lewis and Clark did on their famous Corps of Discovery journey. Then she armed her students with clipboards and sent them out of the confines of her classroom to learn.

"We walked around in the hallway looking at different stations about what Lewis and Clark did on their expedition," Macy Lindley explained.

There were 10 different papers, each focusing on a different part of the trip. Students read the papers and wrote down notes summarizing what they learned. They also put a star on a map noting where all the explorers traveled.

"Each station was a different topic about Lewis and Clark and where they traveled. You'd read the paper and write down what they did there." Lindley added.

Landree Rainwater pauses to smile for the camera.Courtesy of Tobi Layton

The students supplemented this learning with a movie about one member of the expedition they found particularly interesting, Sacajawea, a young Native American girl who served as an interpreter.

"We learned that she was kidnapped when she was 12," Ella Cook said.

"She was sold to someone in Canada," Nolan Dowd added.

"She got pregnant at, like, age 17," Cook said. "She had a baby in February, and then she went and helped Lewis and Clark."

Getting an opportunity to stretch their legs while discovering information was appealing to the students, who were enthusiastic about Wilkinson's unconventional methods of learning.

Eighth-graders travel the halls, learning about Lewis and Clark's famous journey.Courtesy of Tobi Layton

"She makes it really fun to learn!" Cook exclaimed.

Eighth-graders appreciated their own "Corps of Discovery" in the halls.

TOBI LAYTON is a family and consumer sciences teacher and FCCLA sponsor at Woodland High School.