Teaching Stream Restoration to Alternative Middle School Students

Students at an alternative middle school program in northwest Washington helped restore a natural creek environment while gaining skills in a variety of disciplines including physical, biological, and social sciences, math and economics, and event planning. Studies occurred both in and outside of traditional classroom settings.

The goal of the Voyager School was to supplement the current science curriculum with some outdoor activities and environmental education.

The Voyager students and their teacher designed and constructed their own riparian habitat restoration project from start to finish. The students received a yearlong hands-on education, both in the field and in the classroom, in ecology, botany, hydrology, entomology, geometry, project planning, estimating, budgeting, and social sciences. The project gave the students a view of the real world through daily activities and a chance to gain some out-of-the-ordinary experiences.

A curriculum is being developed from the practices of the program. The goal is to make salmon habitat restoration, and the diversity of disciplines that it encompasses, available to other classrooms.