Lessons From The Snow Discovery School Students Use A Trip Into The Wild To Learn About Many Subjects

At Discovery School, learning to snowshoe isn’t just about walking on snow. It’s about science, math, history, writing and a slew of other subjects teachers managed to wring from the experience.

Students from several grades of the private, South Hill school took advantage of fresh snow last week to trek through Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge on metal and nylon snowshoes. Bundled up against the midday chill, fourth-graders, parents and teacher Stephanie Simpson prepared for their adventure.

Like everyone else, Simpson fumbled into the shoes.

“I’m a skier,” she said. “I’ve never really used these things before.”

The kids took to their shoes quickly, not in the least hampered as they ran back and forth lobbing snowballs at each other. Some found a line of icicles, which they quickly harvested.

When the students had settled down with their surrogate Popsicles, Americorp volunteer Glen Kaplan explained the basics of snowshoeing. Stepping backwards, for instance. It’s not that simple. The shoes are attached only at the toe, which makes walking forward relatively easy, but backward a flailing chore.

The trick, Kaplan explained, is to lift the shoes high as you step back.

And why would you need to walk backwards?

“When we spot animal tracks, we are going to back up,” he said. That way, the tracks are preserved so everyone can see them.

After everyone had practiced, they set out and almost immediately stumbled onto a path of distinct little footprints. Dutifully, everyone backed up.

A raccoon had been sniffing around the rangers’ compound the night before.

“See how the front paws are shorter than the back ones?” Kaplan asked.

The tracks became a zoology lesson. Raccoons are night animals, Kaplan explained, and will take advantage of whatever food they can find. He calls them the “opportunists of nature.” The Virginia Algonquian called them “aroocan,” which means “ghost mask in the night,” and is where the word raccoon originated.

And so it went. Each set of tracks became a study of that animal - coyotes, elk, deer and even a cat.

The wildlife refuge reserves most of its land for animals. Through a special partnership, Discovery School students visit monthly to help restore habitat in the public area. In turn, Americorp volunteers teach them about nature.

Last month, for example, students planted trees and studied the refuge’s dark, slow-moving streams.

“What we really get out of it is that we are able to infuse a sense of ownership and concern for wildlife on the students,” said assistant refuge manager Kathleen Fulmer.

Back in the classroom, Simpson and fifth-grade teacher Mark Smith turned the experience into a smorgasbord of lessons.

The students crafted poems, wrote a report and journaled about the trip. Some of their writing will make it into The Moose, a class newsletter. Also, they learned about the Chippewa, the tribe Simpson said invented the snowshoe.

Friday, the students tried their hand at making snowshoes.

They started with some basic observations - the shoes fling snow, come off easy and make it hard to run. They knew, too, that they would need a frame, base and bindings.

Then, the students scavenged old construction materials and other odds and ends from homes and school - ingredients for their snowshoe recipe.

The classroom was a cacophony of cracking, stamping, sawing and drilling.

Michelle Coburn and Taylor Zielske, both 9, worked together. Their shoe design incorporated a rubber-hose frame, cardboard base, sturdy foot straps and lots of duct tape. The finishing touch was a natty strip of nylon mesh.

“It keeps the snow off,” Coburn explained. “It’s good if you have really, really nice shoes.”

The result appeared to be a fairly respectable snowshoe.

Other students were equally creative. One developed a sturdylooking shoe out of PVC pipe, while another used a milk carton foot housing on a square, reinforced cardboard base.

Simpson squeezed in some math during the construction, too, by getting the students to measure angles and fractions.

“They are actually using it rather than just reading about it or hearing about it,” Simpson said.

“It makes learning more meaningful, and more fun.”