I originally partnered with the SEMIS Coalition many years ago while working with The Greening of Detroit supporting tree plantings and outdoor classrooms in Detroit schools. My love for the outdoors and my hope to inspire that love in my community began as a child exploring the creek near my home, my favorite place to be. Although the “place” of place-based education is not neccessarily required to include the outdoors, we certainly find the more teachers include exploration and observations in the outdoors, the deeper the connections and learning that expand students’ understanding of their place. The SEMIS outdoor learning intiative has allowed us to work creatively with several Coalition schools to design, build and maintain outdoor learning spaces that work best for the individual school community. The SEMIS Coalition is fortunate to work with two amazing schools in Dearborn and help support their outdoor learning initiatives, Salina Intermediate and Henry Ford Elementary.
Salina Intermediate is led by Principal Ahmed, who has the vision to provide a safe and vibrant learning community that is deeply connected and responsive to the larger community that surrounds the school. Teachers across disciplines including math, science, ELA and Social Studies at Salina Intermediate use the outdoors for learning throughout the year, but they also expand this knowledge and experiences through field trips across Michigan. Over the years, teachers and students at Salina have expanded their outdoor classroom to include raised beds for a vegetable garden, pollinator gardens, a rain garden and a pavilion and several picnic tables. Science teacher, Hanan Hussein and Math teacher, Khadigah Alasry, went to Salina Intermediate as children and are dedicated to offering every opportunity for Salina students to lead and learn, including presenting at the SEMIS Coalition Community Forum. Ammerah Saidi is an ELA teacher who leads the Garden Club and this year renamed the club Outdoor Wilderness Leaders (OWL). This group of student leaders maintains the gardens on campus, but also focuses on a different environmental theme each month to teach to other students. OWL members also have opportunities for outdoor recreation experiences they might not have access to including camping, skiing, bicycling and ice skating, and skiing.
Photo description: Salina Intermediate students feed birds in Kensington Metropark
Kathleen McCormick, the STEAM teacher at Henry Ford Elementary, is dedicated to taking her students outside as often as possible. During the 1st semester this year, all of the classes spent several hours learning outside. Kathleen teaches all of the 700 K-5th grade students about once per week, but she has been working hard to encourage other teachers to use the outdoor space within their class time as well. Starting this year, Kathleen and 4th grade teacher, Rachel Commett, are working to connect required curiculum themes across the grades to outdoor learning with the goal of making it easier for other teachers to participate. Students are also doing an excellent job maintaining the many outdoor learning spaces on campus, including the rain garden just installed this past spring.
Henry Ford Elementary is participating in a new program with SEMIS this year funded by the Bosch Community Fund to support a team of teachers and administrators to collaboratively investigate and identify asset-based approaches to scaling sustained place-based education at the school, including outdoor learning. Administrators Miriam Farhat, Inas Beydoun and Jill Chocol are enthusiastically participating and we cannot wait to see where this effort will take the Henry Ford Elementary Community next!
Photo descriptions:
Above: Henry Ford students observe milkweed plants in their outdoor classroom at school.
Top of page: Henry Ford students measure the space for the rain garden.
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