MARBURY — For a group of Charles County fourth- and seventh-graders, science class last month came with paddles, life jackets and guides who make a living outdoors.
Students from Indian Head Elementary School and Glymont Middle School canoed Mattawoman Creek at Smallwood State Park in Marbury as part of a field trip meant to spark interest in green careers, Charles County Public Schools said Wednesday. Glymont students went over two days earlier in the week, and Indian Head students went Oct. 25, according to the school system.
The outing came to CCPS through Military Families Outdoors, Blue Star Families and its Maryland chapter, and Wilderness Inquiry, a Minnesota nonprofit that runs Canoemobile, a fleet of large canoes that works as a floating classroom.
Guides as role models
The point was as much the people as the place. Wilderness Inquiry guides talked with students about how they chose outdoor jobs. “We just want to open the eyes of the kids to green careers,” said Ian Buter, the school system’s content specialist for science.
Glymont student Hannah Barba-McClane said the guides told students they found their jobs because they love being outdoors. While canoeing, she said, she thought she could do that instead of being inside all day. She gave the trip a 10 out of 10.
On the water and on land
The day was split in two. On the creek, students paddled while learning about the waterway and what lives in and around it. On land, staff from the Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center ran a casting game in which students practiced fishing with brightly colored plastic bass and learned about local wildlife.
Carly Rhodes, day and youth programs manager for Wilderness Inquiry, said hands-on, place-based learning gives students experiences a textbook cannot, from testing a river’s water quality to seeing wildlife up close. She said the goal is for families to see local waterways and parks as places they can return to, so one day on the water becomes the start of a longer relationship with the outdoors.
Buter said the trip ties classroom lessons to real-world experience and shows students that science can take them somewhere and be fun.
Smallwood sits where Mattawoman Creek meets the Potomac River, and the creek is one of the region’s best-known bass waters. A state study released this fall looked at how anglers fish the Potomac near Smallwood.
The program also included a free Military Families Outdoors Community Day at the park Oct. 24 for military families. CCPS, which serves 27,904 students in 38 schools, posted video of the trip on its YouTube channel.
