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Experience is the Best Teacher
The Cathance River Education Alliance's Outdoor Classroom

Ellen Bennett

Outdoor classroom

For life-long learners, the best way to learn, to remember, and to incorporate the learning into your life, is through engagement and experience - experiential learning. We all know what that feels like, and it is wonderful.  The Cathance River Education Alliance (CREA) has, for twenty years, used the Cathance River Nature Preserve as its outdoor classroom. Hundreds of public-school students from Topsham, Brunswick, Harpswell, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and beyond - as well as their teachers - spend countless hours working with CREA's educators learning through experience about the world around them.  And hundreds of adults have participated in guided hikes across nearly five miles of trails around the 235 acres, or have ventured out on snow-shoes for a solo lesson. Nature has so much to teach us.

The vision of two men called John

How did this outdoor classroom come to be in the center of Topsham? Twenty years ago, a man with a vision for development, John Wasileski, met a man with a vision for and a deep commitment to conservation, John Rensenbrink. The two Johns met in the nursery school room of Topsham's Presbyterian Church and, sitting on laughingly small chairs, hammered out a compromise: the planned community of Highland Green would establish a buffer of one thousand feet between development and the banks of the Cathance River and reduce the size of the planned golf course from 18 holes to 9. Studies revealed that prospective residents were far more attracted to the call of the wild outside their back door than they were by the call of a golf cart. 

The two Johns wanted to do more than simply conserve the land - they wanted the land to be used for education. The result is CREA's unique outdoor classroom, made possible with the assistance of the Brunswick Topsham Land Trust, which holds the conservation easement on the Preserve. The care and maintenance of the "classroom", a/k/a The Preserve, is coordinated among three entities:  CREA, the Land Trust, and Seacoast Management, the developer.  

Students of all ages

Across the 235 acres, students of all ages will find woodland, a rushing river that has carved small canyons in the surrounding rock, opening up into calm pools, as well as evidence of long-abandoned feldspar "mines" -  man-made hollows crudely excavated that show remnants of the pulleys that helped hoist the rock to the paths above. The classroom also includes a "heath" or bog - an open wetland filled with grasses, small shrubs, mosses and ferns - beautiful in every season.  

Another element of this classroom is CREA's Ecology Center. In 2006, John Wasileski brought to the preserve, piece by piece, a barn that had occupied a place on family property in New York state. Reconstructed and made into an off-the-grid, energy efficient dwelling, this building serves as the center of the majority of the lessons in which students are engaged, as well as a teaching tool itself.

Visits to the Preserve often begin and end at the Center. In the large open teaching space, elementary school students examine samples of flora and fauna, sustainably harvested from the preserve. After a guided nature walk, naturalists share their knowledge with eager groups of learners who may also explore the library. During CREA's summer day camp, the Ecology Center is the base for a wealth of science and nature-based activities-indoors and outdoors. And on Sunday afternoons, the Center is staffed by volunteers for those who have enjoyed a hike and want to enjoy the resources of a small library, rock and mineral collection, and impressive display of well-preserved creatures that inhabit the area - owl, ferret, fox and more.  

 An array of educational experiences

Here is a sampling of the array of educational experiences CREA offers at the Ecology Center:

Add to these the monthly Fourth Tuesday talks at the Topsham Public Library, all of which are open to the public and free of charge, and the opportunities to learn are endless.

The joy of nature-based play and exploration

Where is CREA having its greatest impact? Through the Brunswick and MSAD 75 schools, where our educators have partnered with teachers and students for many years. Over two or three consecutive years, elementary students experience the magic of hands-on, nature-based learning on the Preserve, with follow-up in their classroom. High-school students conduct original research with the guidance of volunteer mentors. Young budding environmental scientists may find their research results lead to an article published in a scientific journal. And just look at the CREA website or Facebook page to see youngsters in CREA's summer camp, experiencing the joy of nature-based play and exploration with their peers.

Learning is a two-way street

Learning is a two-way street; teachers learn as much from their students as their students do from them. Teachers in our partner schools have been so impressed by their students' engagement and learning that they have invited our educators to conduct a professional development workshop for 75 current classroom teachers and administrators. Over the course of a day, CREA educators showed how to use the world outside the classroom door first to explore, and then to learn and process the concepts and vocabulary needed to understand the natural world.

The stories of teachers and students and community members taking life-long lessons from CREA's outdoor classroom are innumerable. CREA's mission is to foster the wise use of the Cathance River Nature Preserve; to deepen ecological awareness through nature-based learning among students, educators, and the public; and to promote environmental stewardship. Or, more simply, to connect people with nature for the benefit of both.

If you have not experienced CREA's outdoor classroom, do! Visit the CREA website for more information.

 

Ellen Bennett is a resident of Topsham, a member of the CREA board of directors, and an active participant in the MSC Singers. 

Submitted by Ellen Bennett, Midcoast Senior College

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